For millions of people, faith is a source of guidance, comfort and support. But what happens when our religious institutions fail us, or we have been sexually harmed by leaders within our religious or spiritual communities? For those who are shamed just for being who they are, faith is often a loaded word.
Breaking Free, Center for Story & Witness’s newest immersive, two-day testimonial writing program, was created for persons who have been impacted by religious trauma and purity culture. Our end goal? To support emerging and established writers and activists seeking to give voice to what they have lived through or witnessed in their religious or spiritual communities.
Created through a partnership with Break Free Together and Linda Kay Klein, author of Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free, Breaking Free is a first-of-its-kind writing program that seeks to help participants examine the deep intersections among religious trauma, sexual trauma, and gender-based trauma — which are often unacknowledged within religious spaces, and ignored in secular spaces.
Who can most benefit from Breaking Free? Those of all religious backgrounds are encouraged to apply; this is a program that recognizes that religious trauma and shame have impacted persons of many faith traditions. Some of our applicants may still align with religion, faith, or spirituality; others may want nothing to do with such traditions. All are welcome here. Persons of all sexual and gender identities, races and ethnicities are also encouraged to apply. This will be a truly inclusive space.
Participants will read and discuss world-changing testimonial writing from across social justice movements, in multiple genres, while taking part in a series of innovative, real-time writing exercises. During this workshop we will explore poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, spoken word, playwriting, and speechwriting, and encourage work in all these areas. We will also examine the thru-lines of religious trauma and sexual and gender-based violence, considering ways to write or speak our truths in order to create a more accountable culture.
This is a workshop that is creatively ambitious, and trauma-informed. Participants in all of our testimonial writing programs are welcomed into a safe and creatively compelling community, one in which respectful dialogue is encouraged and powerful writing is nurtured.
Contact Us to bring Breaking Free to your community.
