Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/04/16-03/06/16
3:00 PM

Category(ies)

• weekend workshop

Middle Mojo: A Special Weekend of Creativity With Musician and Writer Joan Anderman. For applicants forty to sixty years old.

March 4-6, 2016

There’s a creative person inside of you. Perhaps you haven’t met her yet. Maybe he’s in hiding, feeling neglected or self-conscious. It could be that you think all the time about exploring your creativity, but between work and the gym and fixing dinner and shuttling the kids, there just isn’t time. In fact, there’s not time to waste. This workshop is for people who are ready to dive in right now, not tomorrow, not next year, and discover or reignite their creative passion. It doesn’t matter what you love. Writing. Music. Painting. Dancing. Poetry. Photography. We’ll focus on writing, a gateway to all other creativity.

Middle Mojo isn’t about becoming a master or gaining recognition or making money. It’s about the joy that comes from doing something you love. It’s about the myriad ways creative expression makes life richer and more meaningful. We’ll explore the obstacles to connecting with our creative selves – from institutionalized ageism to the fear of making a fool of yourself. We’ll investigate ways to become reacquainted with the fanciful, curious, adventurous, playful parts of ourselves, parts that have been silenced by the strictures and demands of adulthood. Carl Jung wrote about the midlife passage as a journey toward wholeness, toward one’s true self. To that end he posed a simple question: “What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits.”

Joan Anderman, a prize-winning journalist and the former pop music critic for the Boston Globe, spent more than two decades writing about other people’s music. When she turned fifty, she decided to make her own, and the results have been extraordinary. A diary of Joan’s journey to become a songwriter, as well as an archive of her interviews with artists about the impact of aging on their creative lives, can be found at middlemojo.com. She also writes a related column, The Creative Mid-Life, for the New York Times, and her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Seattle Weekly. You can listen to her band at fielddaymusic.bandcamp.com.

The weekend workshop will include a variety of activities, including:

*Individual writing exercises based on prompts designed to ignite your creative spirit.

* Extensive group discussion about the pleasures and perils of midlife, overcoming the obstacles to creative expression, and simple ways to live a more artful life.

* Experiential exercises– among them free writing, storytelling, and collaborative games – that will help you cultivate an open mind, spark your imagination and ignite your creative spirit.

* A guided visualization session designed to help you identify areas of interest and creative pursuits that are right for you.

* Hikes on private trails through the redwoods.

* Three delicious meals a day, with eggs from the Wellstone hens, milk from the resident goats, and greens and vegetables from the large organic gardens.

Full “Middle Mojo” Workshop Weekend Schedule

We’re offering the workshop at a special price of $400 for the weekend, including accommodations and meals. Contact Steve at steve@wellstoneredwoods.org with any questions.

 

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