New Class Begins September 16, 2010

Elee Kraljii Gardiner and assistant Anne Hopkinson hope to see you in the fall for the seventh course beginning Thursday, September 16, 2010 from 2-4pm at the Carnegie Centre in Vancouver. It runs until Dec 9 and will be marked by visits with writers Cathleen With, author of “Having Faith in the Polar Girls Prison,” and “Skids,”  Fiona Tinwei Lam, author of the poetry books, “Enter the Chrysanthemum,” and “Intimate Distances,” and Angela and George McWhirter, Vancouver’s first poet laureate, a translator and author of more than 17 books.

We will be in session:

Sep 16

Sep 23

Sep 30

Oct 7

Oct 14 — Fiona Tinwei Lam on revision

Oct 28

NO CLASS Oct 21

Nov 4 – Angela and George McWhirter

NO CLASS Nov 11

Nov 18

Nov 25 – tentative – Cathleen With

Dec 2

Dec 9 – Last Day of Class

The StoryBox Chapbook

designed by participant Bakir Junaideen

The Thursdays Writing Collective has created a fourth anthology titled, “StoryBox.” We are launching it with an evening of readings on Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 8pm at the Brickhouse at 730 Main St (at Prior) in Vancouver. Admission is free or by donation.

In  StoryBox participants evoke the objects and concepts they consider imperative for life in some way: a lottery ticket, eye glasses or music sheets. The writers also transcend the notion and write about their concerns, ranging from veganism to disabilities. Each piece is a personal exploration yet synchronicity and coincidence reside in the pages. We thank  UrbanInk and the City of Vancouver’s Great Beginnings Initiative for funding, and  SFU’s Writer’s Studio and the Carnegie Centre for support.

June 13th is StoryBox Sunday

The Vancouver Storytelling Festival takes place June 12-13, 2010 in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 578 Carrall St. On Sunday June 13, members of the Thursdays Writing Collective and other participants in the StoryBox Project will perform.

The bamboo grove in the public park adjacent to the Garden will be woven with red yarn. Referring to the through-line narrative of a story (often called a red thread) and also an homage to indigenous weaving techniques, this visually compelling listening space will be filled with the StoryBox storytellers. A new element of this year’s Festival is the documentation process. First Nations elders with experience in documentation will mentor youth who are interested in photographic and film technologies as well as indigenous witnessing practices and protocols. Stories told during the festival will then be given a tangible form and thus remain an accessible legacy for years to come.

Tickets Friday & Saturday evenings: $18/person or $15/person for Garden or VSOS members Saturday Daytime: $15/person flat rate The Longest Days (Storytelling Workshop with Allison Cox): $25/person A Chinatown Wander with living legend Larry Wong: tours leave 11am, 2:30pm, 4pm: $10/person Sunday Daytime: Free Weekend pass for children: $5/person (15 yrs and younger)

In Person 578 Carrall Street (at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden)

By Phone 604-662-3207 (x 0).

At the heart of the City’s Great Beginnings Initiative is the desire to explore its roots and listen to the stories of each of its founding neighbourhoods. The StoryBox is a partnership between the VSOS and urban ink, a non-profit organization that develops and produces aboriginal and culturally diverse works of theatre, writing and film.

The StoryBox Project

This spring we are participating in the StoryBox Project, which unites writing groups throughout the Lower Mainland of Vancouver. Each group creates a themed box of some sort, which we fill with physical objects related to the theme and pieces of creative writing related to the objects.

The Thursdays Writing Collective chose to work with a carpenter’s toolbox our apprentice Anne Hopkinson found in an abandoned house. We decided to create a “toolbox for living,” and contribute small objects or representations of objects that speak to what we each consider necessary for life.

If the item is large, such as a piano, we could include a toy piano or picture of one. Then we will tuck the piece of writing sparked by the notion of piano- whatever that may be- into the box with it.

Participants are invited to two salons – for participants only – at Storyeum at 151 Cordova (across from the W Building, not the Water St entrance!), the first on Friday, May 7, 5:30-9pm, (snacks provided) and the second, longer one on Saturday, May 8, 9:30-4pm, (lunch provided). These salons are our opportunity to present the box to the other groups and hear about their creations. The idea is that these exchanges will spark further ideas about narrative and theme.

Then we’ll swap boxes temporarily with another group and bring their creation back to our class to write “off” their objects and pieces. After that, fifteen participants from the entire StoryBox Project will self-select to push their stories further in more rigorous workshops with the goal of reading or performing their work at the Vancouver Storytelling Festival in June.

We are lucky to be working with storyteller Naomi Steinberg as our facilitator. The project is directed by the wonderful people at UrbanInk and is part of the City of Vancouver’s Great Beginnings Initiative. Thanks to these organizations and people for igniting creativity!

Read Well, Write Well

Here’s a list of what we are reading, individually, this April in the Thursdays Writing Collective.

The God of Missed Connections, Elizabeth Bachinsky

Common Non-Sense, Andy Rooney

Let the Crazy Child Write, Clive Matson

Snow Job, William Deverell

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene (and Philip too)

Instructions for Panasonic Microwave Oven

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Angel Bible, Doreen Virtue

Malinche, Laura Esquivel

Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson

Photoshop For Photographers

Rommel- Gunner Who? World War 2 Memoirs, Spike Mulligan

The Heart of Islam, Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane

Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood

Radiance, Shaena Lambert

McPoems, Billeh Nickerson

When Fox is a Thousand, Larissa Lai

Cancer Ward, Alexander Solzhenitsyn

A Restricted Country, Joan Nestle

Teaching to Trangress, Bell Hooks

Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg

No More Excuses, Dr. Wayne Dyer

The Gulag Archipelago, Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Thursdays Collective on the Radio

Elee Kraljii Gardiner and Thursdays Writing Collective member James Eichel will be on Vancouver Coop Radio 102.7 CFRO on Monday, April 5, 2010 at 4pm-5pm.

Join us for the first half of the “Eastside Story” show with Sandra Pronteau as we discuss the Collective and “Through an Open Door,” the anthology Kraljii Gardiner is compiling with John Asfour. (Click on “Call for Submissions” on this homepage for details)

Spring Course March 18-June 3rd

The Thursdays Writing Collective has begun classes. Please drop in and join us any Thursday from 2-4pm at the Carnegie Community Centre in Vancouver. Bring paper and a pen and a willingness to write. This spring we are participating in the StoryBox Project, working towards collaborating with other Lower Mainland groups in generating stories. Thanks to Urban Ink for including us in this great idea. More news to come!

Thursdays Reading at Candahar Art Bar, Feb 21, Sunday, 2-4pm

The Thursdays Writing Collective  participated in the Cultural Olympiad at the art installation “The Candahar,” on Sunday, Feb 21, 2-4pm, at Playwrights Theatre Centre on Granville Island.

For two weeks, The Candahar was a locus for social interaction and the host site for an ambitious series of events — musical programs, theatrical presentations, performances and dialogues, both scripted and unscripted — curated by Winnipeg artist Paul Butler and Vancouver author Michael Turner (Hard Core Logo).

The name “Candahar” refers to the original location of the now defunct Blackthorn Bar in Belfast pub. Irish artist Theo Sims recreated the bar in Granville Island’s Playwright Theatre. Part sculpture, part theatrical stage, The Candahar was an artwork that also functioned as a bar, open to the public and staffed, in collaboration with two Belfast bartenders who were unscripted performers. The project fused the authentic with fantasy, spectacle with stage, and acted as a catalyst for conversation, debate and dialogue — and a pint here or there.

Spring Course Begins March 18, 2010

The next twelve week Thursdays creative writing course begins on Thursday, March 18, 2-4pm at the Carnegie Community Centre in Vancouver.

Everyone is welcome to drop in and write with us.

This spring we are looking forward to in-class visits with poet Fiona Lam (Enter the Chrysanthemum, Intimate Distances) and novelist/short story writer Cathleen With (Having Faith in the Polar Girls Prison, Skids).

Wrap Up

The launch of the newest chapbook on December 3, 2009 was a warm, spirited event. Despite the absence of three contributors, Anne Young, James Eichel and John Alan Douglas, the reading was proof of the range and scope of Thursdays. Colleagues of the absent writers read their work with care and accepted applause on their behalves. Beth Buchanan handed out bindi stickers and the contributors presented editor Elee Kraljii Gardiner with an original piece of art work signed with well wishes. For an inside look at the event, check the “photo” page. More pictures going up every day!