At breakfast a few of us recounted the night before at the theatre in the Alhambra gardens.  We went to see a play about Gabriel Garcia Lorca called Poeta en Nueva York.  It was especially interesting since some of us are poets and writers from New York. The play was artistic and contained less words and poetry than we expected. Yet, I appreciated the collaboration between the projected film and the Flamenco dance that seemed to be an interpretation of Lorca’s story.

After breakfast, Rita led a thought-provoking workshop on narrative development. We discussed elements of narrative, and how to explore and defy them. We read Maya Sonenberg, whose work doesn’t follow a traditional plot line but seems to wrap in concentric circles and get closer to a middle understanding.  Someone compared it to a centrifugal force where the plot spins around a center, then in the moment stops and falls. We dissected the narrative of a few stories, including one of my favorites: “The Kidney Shaped Stone” by Haruki Murakami.

Yoga was focused on the second chakra, which is related to the water element, creativity, flow, and sexuality.  We practiced yoga asanas to open the hips, pigeon pose, half moon, and baddhakonasana (goddess pose). Class ended with the visualization of water to help relax, followed by meditation and the option for participants to write a few words in their journal. It was a prolific day — we all chose to stay close to the hotel and get lots of writing done.

Today we meet for breakfast at Jardins Alberto — the “j” is pronounced as an “h.”  We are beginning to use Spanish, like “Medas un caffe con leche.” which means “A coffee with milk, please.”

After a leisurely breakfast, we met for Norma’s class on voice.  Everyone read a section of writing and recorded their voice readings. I read from Clarice Lispector’s novel A Breath of Life and other people read from their own writing. Norma went over the different elements of voice and layed out a series of questions we could use to engage in self reflection about the underlying question of the class: “What gives shape to your voice?”

Our assignment was to incorporate any of the elements of voice into our reading, like cadence, tone, or volume. For inspiration, we listened to Tennyson, Yeats, Allen Ginsberg, Gertrude Stein, Elizabeth Bishop, Langston Hughes, Saul Williams, Jade Sylvan, Saeed Jones and some of Norma’s own work, like a collaborative poem and video entitled “Moth Light.” The unique voices of poets and writers seemed to make their words come alive.

 
Close to our hotel there is a relatively unknown spot that a local, Javier, told me about. There, a structure with columns and covered with weaved grapevines peers out to the hills in the distance. I taught yoga there at 6 p.m. It felt cool and breezy underneath, although any earlier would have been too hot.  Our first class was based on the first chakra, which represents grounding and security. It is the place I usually start with new students. I focus on working the legs and feet, in addition to physically building a foundation from the ground up.  After a warming physical practice, I gave the option to meditate or write or any combination of the two to help “hit the reset button” and clear the mind for writing.

It was an engaging yet leisurely day. Victor taught us the phrase “En Grana’ no pasa na’,” which means something like “Everything’s good in Granada.” That seems to be the case.

Granada, day 1

We were warmly welcomed in Granada by the hot sun, it’s dry heat and the colorful character of the city. Today is our first day together and for many of us it was our first time in Spain. After checking into our rooms in the late afternoon, we met for orientation. At 6pm, we sat around a large table in the lobby of our hotel and introduced ourselves. It already seems like such a great group!

One of our CWW faculty members, Victor, lived in Granada for two years and made for a fun and excellent tour guide. He studied Flamenco guitar here and made us feel familiar with the city’s best venues for Flamenco shows, tapas joints, and its little idiosyncrasies.

We went to Babel, where we were seduced by the free tapas and friendly atmosphere. Granada is the only place in Spain that offers free tapas with a drink. We were in paradise! Our favorite drinks were sangria and “tinto de verano,” a rose-colored drink known as the tint of summer. Rita Banerjee led a class called “Literary Taboo,” where you can’t use the word written on your card in your writing. Others try guess your word after you read. Some words were: vampire, mulberry bush, rain, and femme fatale.

What a nice first day!  We went back up the hill to our hotel and passed through the beautiful gardens of the Alhambra on the way.  Our hotel room windows look out on olive groves.  There is still so much left to explore in Granada.

Today was our last day in Paris, and we made sure to make it a great last day. Our final workshop was held in the morning, with David Shields giving his last workshop on Collaboration. Shields, whose bibliography includes numerous books on the subject of collaboration or involve collaboration with other authors and individuals, discussed how collaboration works and the value of it.

He informed the participants on how it allows the writer to make art from what they think and see. The workshop also had a writing portion where the participants were free to collaborate on a piece. Some of them worked together to write a piece, while others “collaborated” with different items, such as street signs or emails.

To end the retreat, our staff and participants gathered at La Closerie des Lilas for one last meal. The restaurant, which has been the dining place of famous writers like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, offered our participants a chance to eat and create in one of Paris’ most famous restaurants. During dinner, the participants and staff shared their writing goals from here on out, discussing what they hoped to create once they returned to their homes and any publishing goals they had for the future. We also played one of our favorite writing games, Mis/Translations. Each person brought a poem written in a foreign language and read it aloud for the others in the original language. Everyone else would write down what they thought they heard in English, creating some nonsensical and hilarious poems. The writer would then share what the poem actually meant if translated, leading to some wonderful contrasts.

La Closerie des Lilas

La Closerie at night

The Menu

Thanks to everyone who went on our retreat and had one last dinner with us.

With that, our week in Paris came to a close. It went by quick, but we were all happy to have taken the opportunity to see the city and use it to help with our writing. We’d like to thank all the participants who came along the trip willing to learn and to work on their writing with us. We wish you all the best of luck in your writing endeavors. We’d also like to thank our guest lecturer David Shields for joining us and sharing his work and film with us.

Today our participants engaged in our second lecture with author David Shields. Shields presented a lecture on the subject of literary collage. Practiced in some of Shields’ books like Reality Hunger: A Manifesto and How Literature Saved My Life, literary collage is a method of writing where one writes fragments of text that seem unrelated, but carry similar themes and show the thought process of the writer.

Shields also read pieces by authors Marie Suter and Dinty Moore to show examples of how literary collage can be done and the many different ways an author can create collage.

The lecture also included a short writing portion. The participants were encouraged to take some time to try and write their own collage. It could be in any genre or format, and it could be about anything. While some of the writers found it difficult at first, everyone still managed to produce a unique and interesting example of literary collage.

That evening, some of our participants and staff members made their way to Au Chat Noir for Spoken Word Paris.

The event was an open mic held in the bar’s underground space. The crowd, mostly consisting of American ex-pats, performed a variety of performance pieces, from poetry reading to stand-up comedy to singing.

Special guests Zarina Zabrisky and Simon Rogghe each performed a piece with musical accompaniment, while performer Fat Mandy read a poem about Black Lives Matter before singing the American National Anthem with her fist in her mouth.

Some of our members also performed their work. CWW Director Diana Norma Szokolyai read three of her poems, one of which she read the Hungarian version of while CWW Yoga Instructor Elissa Lewis read the English translation.

CWW Intern Alex Carrigan also read a poem of his titled “All My Love to the Monster Currently Devouring Me,” much to the amusement of the audience.

The reading was a good chance for our participants and staff to meet other artists and to share their work with others.

CWW Staff Members and Friends at Au Chat Noir before the event (Left to right: Elissa Lewis, Rita Banerjee, Antonia Klimenko, Simon Rogghe, Zarina Zabrisky, and Diana Norma Szokolyai)

CWW Staff following a fun night at Spoken Word. (From Left to Right: Alex Carrigan, Rita Banerjee, Victor Pachas, Elissa Lewis, and Diana Norma Szokolyai)

Today we held had two different workshop classes. The first was Diana Norma Szokolyai’s workshop “What’s at Stake?” This workshop asked the writers to look at what is at stake in a piece of writing. This involves asking what a character wants, what they’re willing to do to get what they want, and what challenges they face. Doing this allows the writer to show the reader the central driving force of the piece. After that, we held our second writing workshop of the retreat. Following the Liz Lerman method from our last writing workshop, the participants critiqued a few new pieces of writing. The pieces critiqued showed a variety of writing styles, from poems about chickens to stories about people living in New York City. That evening, the participants gathered for a screening of David Shields’ movie I Think You’re Totally Wrong, an adaptation of a book he wrote with Caleb Powell. Directed by former student James Franco, the film starts as an adaptation of the novel before spinning off into its own unique form. The film was followed by a Q&A with Shields, where the participants were able to ask him questions about the film, from questions about his performance in the film to asking about the production.

For Sunday’s class, our participants engaged in the first of our retreat’s writing workshops. Led by CWW directors Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai, our participants shared samples of their writing with the class. The participants came to the meeting having read six short pieces sent out the previous evening and with notes for critique.

The workshop was based around the Liz Lerman method of writing workshops. In this method, the critiques are done in three stages. The first is to discuss what is at stake in the piece. The second is to offer any notes and positive feedback. The third is where the constructive critique is offered, as well as where the author can answer any questions.

Our writers will hopefully take this feedback and apply it to their work, whether it is a revision on the piece critiqued or for any of their other writing. The Tour de France may have concluded today, but this workshop offered the beginning of some new creative work.

Today we took a break from our writing and yoga workshops. The CWW arranged an excursion to the Chateau de Versailles. Our staff and participants headed outside Paris to the former home of Louis XIV to view the palatial gardens. While wandering around the expansive grounds, our team saw some sculptures by world famous artist Anish Kapoor. Tonight was a special Musical Garden show, where all the fountains and gardens were lit up and timed with classical music to create illuminating and creative shows. The evening ended with a fireworks show, bringing an explosive end to a wonderful day.

Gardens of Versailles

A sculpture by Anish Kapoor

Versailles

Versailles

Fire timed to the music

Cauldron of dry ice

Versailles

A large sculpture by Anish Kapoor

Statue at Versailles

Musical fountain with lights

Fountain show with lights and fog

CWW Staff Diana Norma Szokolyai and Victor Pachas

CWW Staff member Diana Norma Szokolyai

Some of our staff and participants at Versailles

 The first day of our summer yoga and writing retreat began with an excellent workshop from our guest lecturer, David Shields. Shields presented a lecture on the art of brevity. This was to help our participants practice writing less words than they normally would, but still managing to be effective with what they did write. After reading some examples from authors like Amy Hempel and Jerome Stern, the participants took some time to try and write their own brief pieces before sharing them with the group.      
Later that evening, our participants gathered at Shakespeare and Company, one of the oldest and most famous bookstores in Paris. There, Shields read excerpts from his most recent book, I Think You’re Totally Wrong, a novel he co-wrote with his friend and former student, Caleb Powell. Reading for Powell was Charles Recourse’, Shields’ French translator. The two were introduced by CWW director Rita Banerjee, and answered audience questions following the reading. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcKF8TsRgtg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWY2JLLX9uU The event concluded with some complementary wine from the Shakespeare and Company staff and an author signing by Shields.