Writing workshop invites women to express themselves

LAKEVILLE — This May, a new opportunity for women to express themselves arises with the start of “Writing from Your Heart,†a writing workshop orchestrated by Sharon Charde. The workshop will be held at the Community Mental Health Associates’ Northwest Center for Family Services on Main Street in Lakeville, starting Tuesday, May 19.

Charde has been working with women in a number of capacities for most of her adult life. She has taught at a girl’s high school, volunteered at Touchstone (a residential treatment program for troubled girls in Litchfield) and at The Hotchkiss School. In addition, she has led writing workshops at Touchstone, Hotchkiss and in her own home, where she hosts writing retreats for women every Sunday.

She has also been a therapist with a private practice here in the area, and she was a family counselor at the Northwest Center years ago, when it was still called the Mental Health Center.

Charde’s new writing program is offered by the Northwest Center. Robert Muro, the center’s new director, said he is “delighted to be part of making this opportunity available to the community by this collaboration†with Charde.

This program will be the most publicly accessible of Charde’s recent ventures. Charde is offering her first 10-week session starting May 19, ending July 21, and it is open to women of all ages. Charde hopes to have back-to-back 10-week sessions. The group will meet once a week, Tuesdays from 5 to 7 p.m., with a maximum of 10 participants. The 10-week session costs $250.

In her years of experience, Charde has come to favor a certain style of writing workshop. It is characterized by writing from a prompt, often just a single word, or a poem, a picture or an object.  The writing is done without planning, deliberating or discussion. Writing is immediately followed by reading and listening; everyone shares, everyone listens, no one comments, asks questions or analyses. Charde stresses that this is not a workshop geared toward critical writing skills and emphasizes instead the skill of writing freely.

Despite her past as a family therapist and her training as a counselor, Charde’s writing workshops are not therapy sessions. Charde describes them as time to reflect. She strives to create a safe, judgment-free environment conducive to what she calls, “writing from the heart.â€

The group is open to writers and non-writers alike; there are no requirements of writing experience. In Charde’s hands, writing from a prompt becomes an act of freedom and self-discovery. Her focus is to get everyone simply to write, without self-analysis or agenda. The goal is to allow women the time and space to relax and reflect without judgment, without the pressure of a given form, a grade or right and wrong answers.

More than 20 years ago, Charde found herself at a junction in her life that called for change. It started with a writer’s workshop one New Year’s day and flourished into a new lifestyle, one in which writing was elemental.

After reading Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones,†Charde sought the author out and through her was introduced to the practices she has since shared with so many women in a number of communities. Goldberg brought the idea of uninhibited writing paired with deep, silent listening to Charde, who calls it one of the greatest gifts she has ever received.  

Charde has been sharing this gift with others for the last 17 years, and now, through CMHA’s Northwest Center, the experience is more accessible than ever. For information, contact her at sharoncharde.com or sharchar@sbcglobal.net. The CMHA Northwest Center is at 315 Main St.,  860-435-2529.

Latest News

Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

Keep ReadingShow less
Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

Keep ReadingShow less