Friday 13th July 2012  6:00 PM

The Gaulin Project presents:
"Re-Storying Whiteness"
Writing Workshop
Friday, July 13: 6pm-9pm
Saturdays, July 14 and 21: 10am-1pm

A Writing Workshop for Bahamians of European Descent Who Want to Heal Our Ancestral Legacies

Workshop facilitated
by Helen Klonaris

To restory: to witness to an old story that no longer serves us, and transform it into a story that does

"What would happen if, as white Bahamians concerned with healing racism, we came together to witness to the stories of whiteness that live inside our bodies, and in our unconscious? What would happen if we did this in the presence of the sacred; however we imagine the sacred to be?

"As a writer, I am deeply aware of the power of the unconscious to influence the conscious mind, its stories, and our subsequent actions in the world. As a white Bahamian writer of Greek descent, I am conscious of the stories I have inherited, particularly those stories about the power and privilege of white people in relation to my sisters and brothers of color. As a long time activist rooted in liberation theology, I labored to change minds. But, I recognized talking ourselves into change is limited. Change has to happen in our unconscious minds before it can erupt into our conscious minds and ripple across our everyday lives. The art of storytelling is a powerful creative process through which deep change can take place. Through story, and the act of imagining, we open a portal to the unconscious. Through dialogue with the unconscious we can begin to transform the distortions of whiteness within us, and in our lives.

"I invite you to join me in a writing workshop where we will explore our particular experiences of whiteness as part of the Columbian legacy in the Caribbean. We will meet three times, for 3-hour sessions over the course of three weeks. We will look at the social, political, and spiritual meanings of whiteness through our personal stories. We will make sacred space together, placing our stories (figuratively and literally) on the altar, all the better to alter them, restory them and ourselves. We?ll descend into the realm of the unconscious and see what is living (and lurking) there. We?ll emerge, empowered by dream and symbol, personal ancestral myths and legends, to tell new stories with the power to heal the old. No prior writing experience is necessary." ? Helen Klonaris

? Cost: $100
? Where: Downtown Nassau (Details to be announced!)
? When: Friday, July 13: 6pm-9pm / Saturdays, July 14 and 21: 10am-1pm

Helen Klonaris is a writer, performer, and teacher who lives between Oakland, California and Nassau, Bahamas. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Wesleyan University, and a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and Consciousness from New College of California. She combines her passion for the sacred, social justice and the literary arts to create transformative experiences within community. Helen is the founder and director of The Gaulin Project, a narrative storytelling programme that believes in imagination as a source of power, and stories as a place of radical transformation and possibility. Her debut collection of short stories "The Lovers" is due out in 2013, published by Calyx Press.

To register, write to thegaulinproject@gmail.com

Click HERE to read article on this project in The Guardian newspaper.