Location: Online via Zoom video call.
Workshop Length: 90 minutes. Participants are welcome to stay and ask questions for an additional 15 minutes.
Capacity: 15
Ages: 18+
Cost: FREE or By Donation. Sign-up required.
The world around us has changed a lot the past few years, and keeps on changing at a rapid pace. In the midst of all this change, it can be difficult to slow down, locate ourselves and honour the micro-shifts and less visible transitions happening in our own lives–our roles, responsibilities, identities, ways of being, and more. This workshop is an opportunity to do just that: to witness and release some of what’s circling your mind, slow down, and reflect on who you are. Whether you’re looking for a designated time to write and explore your creativity, or you’re hoping to move through a creative block, or you just want to try writing as a practice, I'd love for you to join me, Preeti Kaur Dhaliwal, at this free writing workshop.
In this online session, you can expect to enter a facilitated space where you are invited to write with the support of prompts, techniques and strategies to dive deeper into your ideas and your voice. There will be opportunities to share your work, but never any obligations. No writing experience is required! If you're looking to exercise your creativity, great! If you don’t identify as a creative person, this is still the right place for you! We will co-create the space in which we write and experiment with different ways to find your flow.
Activities will focus on writing but may also include brief mindfulness activities. As a facilitator, I strive to centre your agency (i.e. you are never required to follow the prompt, perform the exercise or share your work, but will always be invited to listen to your body and make a decision that’s best for you). Please come with a pen and paper, device to type on, or tools to draw with if you don’t feel like writing.
Preeti Dhaliwal Bio
Preeti Kaur Dhaliwal (she/her) is a critical race feminist, writer, (former) lawyer, and facilitator who grew up on the traditional territories of the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen, Qayqayt, Tsawwassen and Musqueam First Nations (also known as Surrey and North Delta, British Columbia). With over 15 years of facilitation and teaching experience, Preeti is committed to arts-based methodologies as a source of personal and collective empowerment, transformation and community-building. She has taught creative writing at Guelph-Humber College, led arts-based workshops across Canada and the US in various institutions (including universities, law faculties, women's spaces and youth centers), and firmly believes that stories change the world by altering our ways of seeing, feeling and being with one another and the planet.
Before leaving her legal career to pursue a Master of Laws, Preeti articled at a boutique litigation firm in Tkaronto and clerked at the Federal Court of Canada. In her LLM, she used theatre, creative writing and performance art to investigate how law lives in the body, with a focus on race. She then pursued an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph where she completed the first draft of a hybrid novel. She is a two-time writer in residence at Voices of Our Nation (VONA), a two-time recipient of Canada Council for the Arts grants, and has received over two dozen awards for academic excellence and community work (most recently the DF Forster Medal). Her creative writing has appeared in PRISM international, Looseleaf Magazine, The Fiddlehead, The New Quarterly, We Were Not Alone: A Community Building Art Works Anthology, Held Magazine, alt theatre and other publications.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/write.with.preeti/ or @jadooberry
Website: https://linktr.ee/Jadooberry