From the Farmhouse Table: February 2021
Radical Reciprocity
Happy Black Futures Month! At Hedgebrook, the team continues diving into the brilliance of our thought leaders, writers, and social educators by exploring Claudia Rankine’s Citizen together. We invite you to lean into the learning and join the celebration of Black lives by picking up a new favorite text of your own.
As a “polar vortex” swirls across our country, we prepare for snow days even here in the typically moderate-climate Pacific Northwest. It feels as though the universe is conspiring to make us slow down, offer ourselves some grace, and rest - a lesson I am constantly learning and encouraging my team to embrace. It can be difficult when there are so many exciting opportunities to explore!
We launched this year with the fabulous unicorn and extraordinary instructor, Minal Hajratwala, leading a new cohort of writers in a virtual Radical Craft Retreat. Minal partnered with us to deliver radical hospitality, self-care, and critical inspiration to writers who had been nursing a book project for at least 5 years...from the comfort of their own homes. One participant explained,
“I was blessed years ago to attend Hedgebrook in person and it was a seminal experience for me. I wasn't expecting this virtual retreat to be as impactful but it was truly significant. I feel confident I can finish my novel on my own now as a result of the tools provided in this retreat. I'm so glad I signed up for it and made the time to make writing a priority in my life again. Thank you. “
Our global Hedgebrook community continues to grow, giving deeper meaning to the foundation of Radical Reciprocity. While we build stellar virtual offerings of Radical Craft Retreats, Live Webinars and self-directed Online Classes with our alumnae instructors, we’ll continue to increase accessibility with scholarships for women of color, and a pay-what-you-can model, for select offerings. Keep an eye out for the local and regional open Writer-in-Residence application cycle this year, as well as more information about our realigned adjudication process. Meanwhile, we’re launching new and exciting ways to engage our alumnae luminaries as we prepare the land and cottages for a cautious reopening later this Spring. This month, we are honored to be partnering with Natasha Marin’s Black Imagination as a Site of Power. We’ll continue amplifying the voices of Black women with our first-ever Cottage Chat, featuring future alum and community activist Magogodi oaMphela Makhene and illustrious Songwriting Fellow, Valerie June. We hope you’ll save the date to join us for the live-streamed event on February 25th - and we’ll make sure it’s available across multiple platforms.
As we try to comprehend the monumental communal loss we’re experiencing with the pandemic, I encourage you to turn, as I do, to those that bring comfort to the work of grief. Inspired by the many alumnae who incorporate healing rituals and routines into their creative and instructive work, we are developing a Grief + Healing Series that we hope resonates with all of you. Each quarter, one of our alum will offer a series of 4 short videos, inviting you into healing and resilience practices and leading you to a writing or journaling prompt.
The very first installment of the Grief + Healing series this month will be led by me. As a teacher, I promise my students that I won’t ask them to do something I wouldn’t - in that spirit, we’ll begin with one of my favorite healing rituals - storytelling! Keep reading for more details on that and all of our offerings for this Winter quarter - and don’t forget to save the date to join us for Equivox this March!
-Amber Flame, Program Director