YOGA OF WRITING: 
the ritual of putting pen to paper 
​SATURDAYS, 2-5PM   | $55 EARLY REG | $65 WEEK OF   
​Nina Schnall, Artistic Dir.

Yoga is not only physical postures, but a practice to help us transform our lives.  In our Yoga of Writing series, we explore writing as a practice of liberation and transformation.   Receive guidance to access your authentic voice, tell your story, and discover ways  to bring your writing and yourself more fully alive.   

 03.14 mary tuchscherer  BREAKING THE SILENCE
05.16 christopher delorenzo COVID GRIEF (livestream)
08.01 nina schnall  HOW TO LOVE OUR BODIES
​10.17 helen klonaris WRITING WHITENESS

REGISTRATION

 05.16 | christopher delorenzo
COVID  GRIEF (livestream workshop)

A global pandemic has upended our lives. Whether we’ve been sick ourselves, lost someone we love or just our sense of normalcy, we may feel the world has irreparably changed. Emotions can range from fear to anger, outrage or despondency, but if we can name what we feel, we can move mindfully and meaningfully into the uncertainty. Through timed writing exercises and voluntarily  sharing of our written words, this workshop offers us the chance to write through our thoughts and feelings catalyzed by Covid-19, to mourn what has been lost, and to reimagine our future.

Christopher DeLorenzo teaches writing at USF and has led writing workshops and retreats since 1999, ​He is the author of the book Kitchen Inheritance, and has published poetry and essays in numerous literary journals.  

08.01 nina schnall
HOW TO
​LOVE OUR BODIES

"To lose confidence ​in one's body is
to lose confidence in oneself."    
​​~ Simone De Beauvoir

Do you want to feel happy in your body? Does this mean that you have to change something about the way you look?  We live in a world that often values women more for how they appear than who they are. As women, we may internalize beauty standards and find ourselves feeling less than the ideal. Negative self-image can dramatically impact our self esteem. In this workshop, we will use mindful movement and writing prompts to examine the negative messages we internalize, and cultivate instead a healthy, even joyful, relationship with our bodies.

Nina Schnall M.A., M.F.A., has a Masters in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Masters in Fine Arts from the California Institute of Integral Studies. A recovering native New Yorker, Nina resides in Oakland where she writes and is learning how to connect body and mind. She facilitates embodied writing workshops and helps people find their voice and their stories. She is the current artistic director for the Yoga of Writing series at Mountain Yoga.

10.17 helen klonaris
WRITING WHITENESS

​It takes practice to imagine a different world.
One in which racism doesn’t exist. Truth be told, it takes practice
to imagine the world we do live in. Particularly if we are white folks,
it takes practice to use our imaginations in the
service of seeing and dismantling our often
invisible relationship to whiteness as power and privilege.

In Writing Whiteness we will co-create a safe and supportive container in which to practice imagining in the service of transforming whiteness. We will use creative writing as a dynamic process to explore the shape and structure of whiteness, beginning within the landscapes of our everyday lives. By sifting through childhood memories, conversations, and our daily interactions in community, we will examine where whiteness lives in our world, in our bodies, and in our unconscious. We will uncover what stories it tells to perpetuate itself. and explore our power to interrupt those stories.  We will learn to tell new stories, imagining new possibilities and paradigms for living and loving in these times.

Helen Klonaris is a Caribbean essayist and fiction writer whose books include Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices, and If I Had the Wings, her debut collection of short stories, which was a finalist for the 2018 Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.  She is a contributor to the publication  The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the LIfe of the Mind.  Helen teaches comparative mythology and religion at the Academy of Art University and she is an energy medicine practitioner with over a decade of training in the healing arts. She has a private practice in Kensington, California. MORE

“Only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth, 
'and that is not speaking.” ~Naomi Wolf

03. 14 | mary tuchscherer        
BREAKING THE SILENCE  sold out 

 Is there a voice inside you longing to be heard? Do you want to express your truth in a personal, social or political message?  Learning to write your truth is a courageous act whether you are a seasoned writer or just beginning. For this workshop, all that’s required is an open heart, a compassionate spirit and a desire to express yourself.  Leave feeling liberated from barriers that keep you silent and isolated. 

Mary Tuchscherer  is a writing and self-expression coach who helps people
liberate their words and speak their truth. She is the editor and producer of
two published anthologies of women’s stories, and an Amherst Writers Artists
​facilitator and trainer and creator of VoiceFlame, which seeks to educate  and
empower girls in Malawi thru writing.   MORE...