Writing as Medicine and Visions from Our Voices

Donna Jenson Bio: With a history of building three grass roots women’s centers in the NY City region Jenson founded Time To Tell (TTT) with a mission to spark stories from lives affected by incest and sexual abuse to be told and heard. Since 2008 she has been leading writing and mindfulness workshops for survivors to find their voice and use it. The TTT Beneath the Soil project is a collaborative e-Zine featuring artworks from Queer survivors of sexual abuse and violence. TTT Shared Stories project publishes curated stories from survivors. Her book, Healing My Life from Incest to Joy, is a narrative of the choices she made and experiences she had that helped her heal from her childhood trauma. She wrote and performs her one-woman play, What She Knows: One Woman’s Way Through Incest to Joy at conferences and community organizations. In 2021 she produced a 35-minute documentary, Telling Is Healing, which contains excerpts from her book and play in a live performance. In 2022 she produced the Time To Tell Collages of Survival Exhibit. She also offers leadership development counseling to survivors.

January 13, 2024

Join in person at Aplomb Gallery or via zoom for a healing writing circle led by Donna Jenson from 2-3:30 PM and an opening reception for a pop up collage exhibit depicting survivor writing from 4-5 PM. RSVP to attend one or both. Free and open to the public, suggested donation of $15.

A WRITING CIRCLE:

Writing as Medicine, Led by Donna Jenson

2pm -3:30 in person or Zoom

Buried under our traumas there runs a deep wellspring of creativity and joy waiting to be tapped into within a circle of survivors writing together. The circle format is designed for fostering both personal exploration and the creation of community with an amalgamation of two primary activities:

Writing and reading our writing to each other. Mindfulness practices such as focused breathing and gentle yoga stretches.

We follow a set of group guidelines that holds our space and spirits safely together. Writing prompts are offered and participants write within the safe container of the group. We then honor each other’s voices by actively listening to each writer reading what they have just written. This act of listening, to one’s own words as well as each other’s, confirms and affirms that what each narrator has to say is worthy of our undivided attention. And when the narrator gets to hear what has stayed with us from a piece of their writing, they are given the profound message that their voice has been received, heard, and honored.

VISIONS FROM OUR VOICES:

A Collage Exhibit Depicting Survivor Writing

4-5 PM reception with refreshments served while viewing a collection of 12” x 12” collages from the TTT Writing Circles

The collages are inspired by the narratives and imagery shared within the TTT ongoing writing circles, a profound initiative that unites survivors of incest and sexual abuse. Collages of Survival takes the viewers on an emotional journey, offering a window into the profound healing power of storytelling and art. The exhibit's carefully curated space invites visitors to immerse themselves in the narratives, emotions, and symbolic representations embedded within each collage which are created by the TTT tech Moderators: Beth Seigling, Karo Ska and Maggie Donovan.