The Center for Performing Arts Medicine has partnered with the Houston nonprofit, Inprint to respond to the unique ways the arts can be deployed to support a journey towards healing. We know that the arts can be a meaningful way to express oneself and reflect upon our personal experiences. Creative writing is one way to use the arts during this time. When we use the phrase ‘creative writing’ it can seem like a distant concept. Let’s try understanding creative writing a way in which we write in a way different than how we use writing in our normal day to day lives (emails, grocery lists, etc.). Creative writing can simply mean expressing ourselves through writing.
Join CPAM and Inprint and participate in a prompt from a teaching artist.
Prompt 1:
Creative writing offers an outlet for expression and a way to create order in your mind. This prompt is inspired by Emily Dickinson’s poem “It’s All I Have to Bring Today”.
The prompt encourages you to respond to “My ______ is a _______” for example my Strength is a Lighthouse of my Compassion is an Ocean. We invite you to take 5 minutes today and join us in this prompt.
A video of the prompt can be found by looking up Center for Performing Arts Medicine on YouTube or by visiting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yej3G5OxNkY&t=4s
Prompt 2
Our second prompt for you to consider today is broken into 3 sections. We encourage you to spend a few moments working on each section. You can either follow the written directions below or visit the video of the prompt here.
Section 1: Write down 10 memories. They can be recent or far back in your past. List the 10 memories that pop into your mind.
Section 2- Look over the list and pick 3 or 4 that stick out to you. Star these memories.
Section 3- Engage those memories into a conversation together. Maybe it is the smell of grandma’s cookies baking with a particularly memorable day at the beach and a recent evening where you had a pizza party on the floor of your living room. How can these distinct memories interact? Feel free to use the back if you need more space.