New online workshop series: “Taking Our Stories Viral”

Posted on April 2, 2020 by Stacey Horath

The times, they are a changing.

What we’re all going through now is unprecedented. For better or for worse, these current events will eventually be taught in history classes. Let’s be a part of that. Let’s become active participants in these difficult times, and use all of this free time we have to take our stories viral. Taking Our Stories Viral is a program to help us cope, express ourselves, and of course give us something to do during these trying times. Let’s come together using art, writing, and/or a beautiful combination of the two to help make a time capsule of this historic moment as it’s happening.

This program is a collaborative effort of SBU Libraries, the Center for Prevention and Outreach, Finish in Four, and the Office of Academic Success.

Workshop Details

Take Our Stories Viral encourages students, staff, and faculty to use this time and create a living time capsule for yourself and others of these unique times. This interactive digital drop-in group will be led by a CAPS therapist to show our art, discuss our works, and brainstorm ideas to help each other. Beginning April 9, Thursdays 7pm-8pm, please join us for an all-inclusive time to talk to others, share our works with each other, and maybe even inspire one another.

Date and Time

Workshops are held weekly on Thursdays beginning April 9
Workshops will be held at 7pm-8pm
More information about workshop dates and times is available on the list of Upcoming Library Events

Presenter

Adami Gordon

How to Participate

Please join us in a Zoom meeting.

VISUAL ART

Artists have used a visual medium for centuries to both express what words fail to do, but also capture the essence of a certain period of time. Museums are filled with art that gives us a look into an important era long gone. So let’s join their famous ranks! What do we need? Anything available. Have paint? Colored pencils? Markers? Sketch paper? Clay? Perfect! Stuck at home with nothing but a school note book and pen/pencil? Perfect! Tech savvy enough to do this on a computer or tablet? Perfect! Anything is welcome, anything is perfect. So, use it. Paint, draw, create however you can. Make the work abstract, literal, metaphorical, or even hopeful. It can be however you want to represent what’s going on right now. Go nuts with it.

WRITTEN WORD

Sick of writing for school yet? Hopefully not. While some of us may use different mediums to cope with or discuss what is currently going on, many of us are fantastic writers. Journalists, poets, students who just love writing in general. Let’s put our experiences down on some paper (or a Word document). Maybe this is just a journal of your daily experiences in a COVID19 world. Maybe it’s a collection of the many thoughts that fill up the increasing amount of time you have on your hands. Maybe it’s a story with a conclusion that you’ve decided. Maybe it’s a poem, maybe it’s anything that speaks to you. Write it down! Few words, a few pages, a few volumes; write what needs to come out. We have the time, let’s use it.

VISUAL ART AND WRITTEN WORD

Before COVID19, we lived in a world dominated by huge comic book movies. Before those movies rocked our lives, we had to read comic books. We still have comic books, and web comics, and other mediums that mix visuals and writing to create fantastical, cathartic, and inspiring storytelling. These can be beautiful ways to communicate our internal and external experiences to others and even shape the course of this with our imaginations.