On January 29th, members of our Global Writers’ Group came together to showcase their work. And we wanted to invite you to listen in if you missed it!
The recording cut in a little late, so here is the beginning transcript of Lisa’s welcome:
Welcome to the Freedom Road Global Writers’ Group annual showcase! For those of you who are joining us for the first time, the Global Writers Group was a dream I had that began in April of 2020, just as the world shut down. In a time of great uncertainty on a global scale, a group of writers from a variety of backgrounds, professions, and locations came together each Saturday morning daring to believe we could write a new world into existence. Daring to believe that each of our stories has incredible power. Daring to believe that we could transmit healing by sharing our journeys. Some of the people here tonight were there that very first day. Others have joined in along the way as we begin our fifth year of writing together.
Tonight you will hear excerpts from memoirs and novels, along with stories, essays, and poems chosen around the theme of hope. We chose this theme because hope has so much power, and also because hope doesn’t always look like what we think. This theme was inspired by poet Jarod K. Anderson that reads:
We seldom admit the seductive comfort of hopelessness. It saves us from ambiguity. It has an answer for every question: 'There is just no point.' Hope, on the other hand, is messy. If it might all work out, then we have things to do. We must weather the possibility of happiness."
So thank you for joining us tonight as we celebrate resilience and finding hope even in situations where it initially seems impossible.
Global Writer’s Group
Since April of 2020 as the world closed down, the Global Writer’s Group has been meeting via zoom every Saturday, with time off only for Christmas and New Years. Early in our time together, Lisa Sharon Harper charged the group with the task of “writing a new world into existence” and over time we have truly seen this in action. We have taken on the task of changing the world, and of course what changed first was ourselves. We as a group have become better writers over this time, but also better people, finding true community in the sacred sharing of ourselves with each other and the world.
We accept members on a rolling basis: it’s never too late to join the community. Prepare to find your life changed for the better as you sharpen your writing skills and prepare to bring your words to the world.
Collectively, we have published six books, have several writers who’ve recently become agented and/or are under contract for upcoming books, and many, many journal articles over the past three years with several more books in the works.
The Narrative Gap, as coined by Lisa Sharon Harper, is the distance between the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, including how we got here and what it will take to make things right. In our world today, competing narratives vie for our loyalty, dividing society and the church, therefore making justice impossible. Our mission is help communities shrink the narrative gap, by identifying core issues and building community capacity so they might work toward common solutions for a just world. Here on the Freedom Road Substack, we can converse together on ways to shrink that narrative gap and help ensure everyones’ stories are told.
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