“Wound-Shaped Words” – Mental Healing through Radical Creativity (NeMLA)
Philadelphia, PA
Organization: NeMLA
Event: NeMLA
Written and visual representations have been known to spark change in our ever-changing world, both outside and within ourselves. But how can these vessels inspire a true evolution that honors our cultural and global diversity in all its dimensions?
One way is by going underneath the beautiful lyrics and descriptive images and harvesting the soul of meaning planted by the work’s creator, for as Sean Thomas Dougherty once said, “Why bother (telling your story)? Because right now there is someone out there with a wound in the exact shape of your words.”
Mental health is a complex infection terrorizing so many (Brown; Driscoll & Wells; Muller; Peach; Wren-Lewis & Alexandrova). Because of this, more work needs to be done on the ways to combat this concern. Poetry, creative writing, and creative nonfiction have been used to reframe and sift through real-life anguish to pull out those pieces that are most important to hold up to the light for a reader. With that said, this work harbors a dark side, where this reality writers want to expose can actually hinder creative endeavors.
This session looks for work that explores the bridges and barriers between creativity and mental health. We ask that participants explore the realm of reality and the imaginative, analyze how one can either uplift or inhibit the other or perhaps do both. In what ways does reality need the imagination to survive and thrive and vice versa? How can our lived experiences and traumas stifle the creative mind or help fertilize a revolution of mental awareness and growth? The chairs welcome essays, critical analysis, short stories, poems, hybrid works, and excerpts from longer pieces.
Please upload all abstracts to the NeMLA convention portal by September 30th. Accepted abstract submitters will be notified after that deadline.
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login
Natasha Tinsley