C.A.R.E.: Writing for Wellness
What I Offer
Prism & Prose presents C.A.R.E. (Creation, Affirmation, Reclamation, and Exhalation): Writing for Wellness — an in-person or virtual multisensory writing experience designed for women of color. Led by Dr. Simone Drake — author, community educator, and artist — these experiences offer guided instruction in life writing, memoir, and the personal essay through a Black woman-centered lens. Participants retreat into a space to Create freely, be Affirmed sincerely, Reclaim what they need, and Exhale what they need to release.
Why It Matters
Black women and women of color are underpaid, under-resourced, and underrepresented — yet remarkably resilient. That resilience is exhausting. These gatherings create a rare space where participants can focus exclusively on themselves: finding calm, affirmation, and self-definition through the transformative power of writing.
"If we do not create our own spaces, certainly no one else will create one for us."
— Simone Drake, PhD, MSL
Program Formats at a Glance
SIGNATURE WORKSHOPS
-
Grounded in Space
This one-day, three-hour workshop focuses on life writing. We begin with an embodied experience in nature as a lesson for thinking about how visual sight, aural sound, and kinesthetic touch affects and informs our creative process and our philosophical sense of being. We then proceed with crafting a story from a singular memory, writing about the sights, sounds, smells, and tactile experiences related to that memory. This workshop is offered year-round.
-
The Photograph: A Sensory Experience
This two-day, three-hour workshop focuses on memoir and uses a creative multisensory process called synesthesia. Participants will be asked to bring a digital or printed personal photograph that will be used as the focus of the writing activities.
-
The Personal Essay: Writing Towards Wellness When Life Isn't a Crystal Stair
This workshop series is designed for participants who want an extended experience to more deeply explore their ideas and approach writing as a craft. It is framed by African American women writers, using quotes and passages from their writing as a muse for participants' own creative nonfiction writing. This workshop focuses on the personal essay as a creative and intellectually stimulating space for thinking about how participants are living their lives and moving through space and time. We will think carefully about language, often focusing on a specific term and defining it in the context of our unique lives. We meet once per week for three hours for a total of six weeks. Embracing an embodied approach to writing, this series focuses on grounding, elevation, and reflection.
-
Memoir & Life Writing: I Have Stories to Tell
This workshop series is designed to be offered as paired two-day workshops. It is interdisciplinary in design and focused on memoir and life writing. Unlike the other workshops that focus primarily on writing as cathartic, these paired sessions attend to the writing process: learning about and practicing developing one's voice, style, ideation, and the revision process. The paired workshops are intended for those who want to approach writing as both a restorative practice and a skill they wish to develop or hone. As such, instruction includes short culturally grounded texts. Each session meets for three hours.
The Grace of Becoming
