Tue, 28 Apr 2015 18:16:38 +0000
As an artist, both visual and literary, I’m fascinated with how artists are dealing with the current chaos. Ecological disturbances, global violence, the digital revolution that has opened us up to the entire world in an unprecedented way — how is this affecting artists?
After the downing of a plane over Ukraine, I dreamed of people falling from the sky and painted them. What is our role as artists with the chaos of global climate change? How does increasing global violence wend its way into our soul, dance with our physical selves, and leave our hands, through the medium of poetic prose or the medium of color and lines? What is our responsibility as artists in drawing up these issues for exploration?
On May 2nd, this Saturday, at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell, MA as part of ArtWeek Boston, I will be exploring these questions during a presentation and reading from my literary novel, Earth, and during a free writing workshop. The reading and workshop are open to everyone. Please join us.
Just as artists are channeling a new normal, and creating from it, so too the publishing industry is now faced with a New World Order. How is the traditional publishing world handling it? Are they? Is there a split between the old formal world of publishing and the new open and international world of cyber-connectedness? Does this new paradigm we’re all experiencing call for more outside-the-mainstream voices, not just the tried and true publishing mavens of yesteryear? Where do new writers fit in the old world order? Do they?
I will be exploring these issues at the Saturday event, as well as helping others who want to write learn how to access their authentic voice, with power and integrity, to speak both their truth and universal truth about the world we’re living in today. I believe many artists are experiencing a call to step up to the plate, to use their artistic and literary voices to speak to what’s happening in the world, and in addressing it, to bring more meaning to our chaotic existence.
Logistics for the Earth Literary Event at Western Avenue Studios
What:
Earth Reading and free writing workshop
Where:
Western Avenue Studios, Lowell, MA
When:
1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Reading from Earth, followed by a Q&A, followed by a book signing
4 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Workshop: How to Start Your Book: The Elemental Journey Begins, a FREE workshop that will guide beginning writers in starting their memoir or novel. Want to write a book, but don’t know where to start. Take this workshop!
Cost:
FREE
Bio:
In Earth, the first of the four-book Elemental Journey Series that will follow Pearl across continents and into adulthood, Caroline Allen introduces a form of storytelling that is unflinching in its honesty, filled with compassion and underscored with originality.
Caroline Allen worked in newsrooms in Tokyo, London, and Seattle, and as a travel writer through Asia. She is now a novelist and visual artist who lives in Oregon. She is the founder of Art of Storytelling, a coaching service for writers. This is her first novel.