☰
TESTIMONIAL WRITING WORKSHOP SERIES
Our stories are our
power
power
power
power
Our testimonial writing workshops at Center for Story & Witness (formerly The Voices and Faces Project) were developed to help those who have lived through or witnessed gender-based violence and other social injustices use their voices, faces, and stories to call the public to greater compassion and, equally importantly, social action. We ground each writing workshop in a simple belief: that we are here to be heard.
During each immersive, two-day testimonial writing workshop, a cohort of emerging and established survivors, witnesses, writers, and activists come together to read and discuss culture-changing literature from across history and various social justice movements … to take part in a series of innovative, real-time writing exercises … and to share creative work in moderated, trauma-informed workshop sessions.
Media neutral and genre inclusive, with a focus on memoir, fiction, poetry, non-fiction, essay writing, and digital media, our workshop was created to support survivors and witnesses who seek to use their testimonial voice as a vehicle for personal or political transformation.
Custom curated and created: How we meet our writers where they are
Guided by our trauma-informed workshop facilitator and instructor, program participants benefit from workshop-method discussion of work generated over the course of the weekend as the group examines one another’s storytelling and writing techniques.
Participants learn as much from discussing other writers’ work as from having their own work reflected back to them. We encourage the creativity of our participants, leading them to find new sources of personal and political power within themselves. Each workshop reading packet and lesson plan are customized for the workshop cohort in the room.
And, while we are ambitious for our writers and witnesses, looking to provide them with a foundation for going public with their stories in written or oral form, we are also mindful that this work can be difficult. For this reason, there is a strong focus on wellness within our workshop spaces. And our programming has been shown to contribute to participants’ post-traumatic growth.
The power of the stories emerging from our Center for Story & Witness testimonial writing program is twofold. They call the public to an honest accounting of the violence and oppression occuring in our midst, and they also attest to the strength that survivors of injustice find in a safe, creatively challenging community. We’re not just training writers. We’re creating community.
Available testimonial writing workshops
The Stories We Tell, an immersive, two-day, trauma-informed testimonial writing workshop, was created to support survivors seeking to use their oftentimes painful, personal narratives to call for political change. During each Stories We Tell workshop a cohort of between 13-15 emerging and established writers and/or activists come together to read and discuss culture-changing literature and representation… take part in a series of innovative, real time writing exercises… and share creative work in moderated feedback sessions. Facilitated by Anne K. Ream, the author of Lived Through This, a memoir of her global journey spent listening to survivors of gender-based violence, and taught by R. Clifton Spargo, a novelist and Yale University creative writing instructor, this workshop isn’t just training writers. It’s changing lives.
Breaking Free is an immersive, two-day testimonial writing program created for such persons. 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 communities. Created through a Center for Story & Witness partnership with 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 helps 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. 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 encouraged to apply.
Writing a New Refugee Story, a testimonial writing workshop for refugees, was created to change that, supporting a new generation of refugees speaking truth to power. Piloted in partnership with our allies at RefuSHE in Nairobi, Kenya, this immersive two-day workshop brings together a cohort of up to 20 persons to discuss world-changing testimonial literature from across history and various social justice movements… explore new ways of telling their stories, with an emphasis on poetry, memoir, African folktale, and spoken word … and talk candidly about the changes they hope to create in their communities, and the world. During a cultural moment when so many of our leaders talk endlessly — and unsympathetically — about what it means to be a refugee, participants in this program can come together to think in new ways about how narrative can change minds, hearts and laws related to refugee rights.
Essential Stories, a testimonial writing workshop for essential and low wage workers, was created to center the narratives of those who are at the heart of our economy, yet are so often treated as disposable. Developed through a dialogue between Monica Ramirez, founder of Justice for Migrant Women, and Anne K. Ream, co-founder of Center for Story & Witness, as part of their collaboration on the Rural Women’s Collective initiative, Essential Stories is a testimonial writing workshop that supports low income and gig economy workers seeking to write or speak about what it means to live and work in an inequitable, unjust society. With a focus on uplifting the Black, Brown, rural, and migrant workers who drive our economy but are also marginalized by it, this workshop is ideal for those seeking to use their personal narratives to call for violence-free workplaces, a living wage, or a more effective healthcare system.
Testimony & Transformation, our writing workshop for returning citizens, was created to do just that. Led by human rights journalist and Man Up founder Jimmie Briggs, and novelist and Yale University creative writing instructor R. Clifton Spargo, this immersive, two-day testimonial writing workshop provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on their experiences of incarceration and shape those experiences into stories of witness. Participants will also consider the ways that “toxic masculinity” shapes social assumptions about men and women, while thinking in new ways about the intersectionality of poverty, homelessness, police brutality, interpersonal and gender-based violence, and mass incarceration. With a curated reading packet and a series of innovative, real-time writing prompts, Testimony & Transformation supports those thinking in new ways about how their personal narratives can deepen public understanding of the causes and consequences of mass incarceration. This workshop is offered on two tracks, for youth (under eighteen) and adults (over 18).
Bring a workshop to your community
Take part in a scheduled workshop or training
Meet our testimonial writing workshop co-creators
Anne K. Ream
Co-Founder, Workshop Facilitator
A writer, music critic, hot yoga devotee, and lifelong lover of dogs, Anne K. Ream has spent the past 20 years creating social spaces where the voices of gender-based violence survivors are heard.
R. Clifton Spargo
Co-Founder, Workshop Instructor
A novelist, short story writer, music and cultural critic, and rock ’n’ roll enthusiast, Clifton Spargo is an expert in testimony and ethics and a dedicated teacher of creative writing.
What participants say about our award-winning testimonial writing workshops
For survivors of gender-based violence, The Stories We Tell testimonial writing workshop creates a space where the unspoken becomes spoken, and the parts of ourselves and our stories, long hidden, take form. Receiving a scholarship into this program was transformative for me.
HANNAH SWARD
Gender-justice Activist and Author of the memoir Strip
The dignity and sensitivity with which Clifton and Anne run their testimonial writing workshops is truly unique. Being given a space like this to reflect on something that’s harmful and make meaning around it can be transformative for refugee girls, and for each of us.
ALISA ROADCUP
Executive Director, Chicago Refugee Coalition
As a formerly incarcerated man I went into this workshop thinking ‘what do these people have to teach me?’ But these teachers were serious about the craft of storytelling and empathetic listening. Their responses to our writing were jewels. If you want to use your story to advocate for change, this workshop can change you and free you.
RENALDO HUDSON
Education Director, Illinois Prison Project
Frequently asked questions
First developed for the gender justice community, we offer testimonial writing workshops for refugees and immigrants; those impacted by economic injustice and income inequality; and those impacted by racial injustice (including those impacted by the criminal justice system). Each workshop we offer is targeted to one of these communities.
Center for Story & Witness welcomes applicants from all walks of life, including diverse racial, economic, and educational backgrounds. Our workshop participants include established writers, artists, and activists, and emerging testimonial voices from communities across North America, Africa, and Asia. Our end goal is to cultivate a community of writers who have lived through or witnessed a range of social injustices.
Survivors of – and witnesses to – social injustice in its many forms are encourage to apply. While the majority of our workshop participants have directly experienced the injustices they seek to write about, we also welcome other witnesses and “secondary survivors,” including family members, direct service providers, human rights workers, and journalists reporting in the field. At Center for Story & Witness, we believe that every story of witness has power and purpose, so we work to create an inclusive, trauma-informed space in which a range of perspectives are honored. Individuals from underserved communities and people of color or with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.
Each workshop features readings from different social justice movements and writing prompts custom-created with the skills and histories of the program participants in mind. The lesson plan and reading packet is developed in dialogue with our host organization and grassroots partners, making every aspect of our program truly tailored to audience.
Creating a safe, intimate, trauma-informed workshop space is critical to the success of the Center for Story & Witness testimonial writing program. The average workshop size is 14 to 16 participants (excluding the workshop facilitator, instructor, and safe person).
There is always a trained counselor or safe person on hand to support the cohort, should that support be necessary, and mindful meditation or breathing exercises close or open our workshops.
Yes. Participants in our adult workshops must be 18 years or older. Those in our youth workshops are 15-18 years old.
Center for Story & Witness is fully committed to inclusivity in all its programs. In practical terms, this means that we partner with our local host group to exceed the requirements mandated under the Americans with Disabilities Act. In previous workshops this has meant providing sign language interpretation for our full, two-day writing workshop, and reconfiguring space to accommodate participants in wheelchairs. Our workshop coordinator, Janet Goldblatt Holmes, is the point person who makes sure that the needs of all participants– including those with disabilities – are met. To find out more about our inclusionary policy and process, email janet@voicesandfaces.org
Though writing about the injustices we’ve lived through or witnessed can be therapeutic – and a long-term impact study we conducted established that healing outcomes are associated with taking part in our workshops – this is not a writing therapy program. It is a trauma-informed training for those seeking to use their voices, faces, and testimonies to change minds, hearts, and public policy.
The workshop is a highly interactive and cooperative endeavor. Over the course of the weekend, all participants have the opportunity to talk about assigned readings as well as other participants’ work. Each participant also benefits from having something she, he, or they have written during the weekend workshopped by the entire group. Workshop instructors give great care and attention to each piece presented, but the work is typically done in groups, not in one-on-one sessions.
Alums of our testimonial writing workshops have gone on to publish fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction with major presses; to publish op-eds and essays at major media outlets; and to lobby for change in statehouses across the nation, before
the United States Congress, and at the United Nations. Having said that, some of our most moving outcomes are the stories we hear from alums who have, for the first time, spoken about their experience to their families or in a small group. Put another way: witness, for us, is a broadly inclusive concept.
Accepted applicants are provided full, two-day scholarships to the testimonial writing program. Lunch and snacks are provided each day.
Individuals are responsible for any travel or overnight accommodation costs.
We do ask that all applicants submit a writing sample and personal statement, so that we can glimpse some of your background and get an idea of the story you’re hoping to tell. The work can be unpublished, and, in the case of published pieces, there is no preference given based on prestige of publication. Sometimes a terrific journal entry can be enough to demonstrate your aims and hopes and potential as a storyteller. Center for Story & Witness is very much committed to developing new voices, so we actively seek those who have not yet found the means or opportunity to bring their story into the public square.
See the eligibility question, above. During the application process, we ask for a personal statement, a writing sample, and an overview of why participation in our program is important to you. In assessing applications, we consider each of these elements. Educational history is not a determinant. Some of our most powerful participants have not had college or even high school degrees. Applications are reviewed by program co-creators Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo.
Yes. Each workshop exercise and break-out session builds on the previous session. For this reason, being fully present over the course of our two-day program is critical. It is also key to creating a workshop environment that is collegial, communal, and safe, where we truly come to know and understand our fellow participants.
To preserve the intimacy and confidentiality of the workshop space and to build community over the course of the weekend, we only allow workshop participants – and our workshop instructor, facilitator, and safe person – in the room. The only exceptions to this rule are disability accommodations.
Participants retain sole ownership of their writing.
Yes. Please email janet@voicesandfaces.org to discuss the possibility of creating a custom workshop for your community.
Get involved with Center for Story & Witness
Make a tax deductible donation
Sign up for our newsletter
Support our work in other ways
