FROM WHERE WE ARE:
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES THROUGH CREATIVE WRITING
From Where We Are is an ongoing participatory arts education and participatory public presentation project designed to bridge individuals and communities throughout Vermont striving for inclusion and justice. In collaboration with Writers for Recovery, we are facilitating creative writing workshops at both the Marble Valley Correctional Facility in Rutland and at the Bennington Turning Point Recovery Center. Early in 2025, we'll be hosting a reading in Bennington with Turning Point participants presenting writings from our Marble Valley group. (Stay tuned for day/time/place to be announced in January, 2025.)
ABOUT AGENTS OF CHANGE
Founded in 2020, Agents of Change is an ongoing program of expanding our restorative justice methods to encompass community engagement through the arts. We offer free, ongoing public art projects designed to invite engagement and humanities discourse within underserved and marginalized communities. Our aim is to provide those who have not had the opportunity and/or possessed the desire or temperament required to engage in a liberal arts education, opportunities to experience its life-giving qualities, by connecting to literature, film, theater, philosophy, psychology, the visual arts, and more, connecting participants through facilitated creative expression.
RECENT PROJECTS
"WHAT HAPPENED HERE"
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10th at 7:00 PM, EST
Register here for this free virtual event:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rdeGsrzorGtVvgTNlU2E01i8fsOH8XVhw
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please join us for this showing of a work in progress: a Theater of Witness investigation of events that took place at St. Joseph's Orphanage in Burlington Vermont. "What Happened Here" will explore the impact of traumatic experiences on survivors as well as the ramifications and outcomes of subsequent events in the realms of law and restorative justice. The presentation will be followed by an opportunity to meet survivors, and a discussion. Your feedback will be important to us as we continue to explore the following questions: How do survivors deal with the ongoing impact of the atrocities they endured? How do we process such experiences, as survivors and as witnesses? Is this possible? The presentation will be followed by a discussion with the audience. Your feedback will be important to us as we continue to explore the following questions in our work: How do survivors deal with the ongoing impact of the atrocities they endured. How do we process such experiences, as survivors and as witnesses? Is this possible?
If you'd like to learn more, we highly recommend Christine Kenneally's Ghosts of the Orphanage:
https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Orphanage-Mysterious-Conspiracy-Silence/dp/154175851X