WGFORUM July 2025
See below for a recording of the July presentation “How Poetic Speaking Changes Your Brain”
Upcoming Events: First Wednesday of each month 6:30-8pm
If you are not on our email list to receive special announcements, send it to markrobertwaldman3@gmail.com .
August 6th, 2025: Writing Our Way through Disaster, hosted by Russell Stockard (poet & Professor Emeritus at California Lutheran University) SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS
September 3rd, 2025: Food, Writing, & the Creative Café, hosted by Nancy Spiller (award-winning author, painter, & teacher)
October 1st, 2025: TBA
November 5th, 2025: Poetry as Transformation, hosted by Nathan Hassall (Malibu Poet Laureate, editor, & teacher)
If you would like to host one of our “Writers in the Gallery” events, offering a presentation and/or experiential exercise that transcends the typical writing workshops, send a proposal to markwaldman3@gmail.com .
Writing Our Way Through Disaster
Wednesday August 6th, 6:30-8pm
Host: Russell Stockard
Those who have attended poetry events in Ventura County will recognize the poetic gifts of Russell Stockard, the guest host of our August gathering. Russell is a professor at California Lutheran University, specializing in cultural and media studies, disaster studies, diaspora studies, environmental communication, and Latin American & Caribbean studies. He has done broadcast journalism in Costa Rica for “Radio for Peace International”, hosted an interview show on KCLU (an affiliate of National Public Radio), and has published numerous articles and book chapters, including “The Networked Poetry of Time, Space and Connections”.
In a time of increasingly frequent disasters, chaos, and turmoil, Russell will guide us through a series of innovative exercises showing us how to use writing to understand and cope with such disturbing events.
WHERE: Studio Channel Islands Art Center
2222 Ventura Boulevard, Camarillo, CA 93010
TIME: 6:30 – 8pm
“Writers in the Gallery” meets on the first Wednesday of each month (from 6:30pm to 8pm) with different hosts conducting experiential workshops to inspire writers (and nonwriters) of all genres – fiction, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, storytelling, etc. – to improve the quality of their work. And check out the new literary and essay contributions at www.WritersintheGallery.com.
How Poetic Speaking Changes Your Brain
At our July 2nd “Writers in the Gallery” gathering, I presented the latest discoveries showing that we are all born with a brain that is built to communicate melodically, and if you don’t include prosody when you speak – varying the tone and rate and intensity of your voice, emphasizing specific words and syllables, strategically using pauses and silence, etc. – the listener’s brain will not discern the meaning and emotional quality that you wish to convey.
Prosody is essential to integrate the different language centers located in each hemisphere, and poetic speaking and writing (fiction or nonfiction) can rapidly reduce anxiety, depression, and even post-traumatic stress. Here is a list of the key components that we should practice, and to find ways to integrate these spoken qualities into our writing.
Although we do not have a means to record our live writing workshops, I created the following Zoom video that includes all of the slides in the presentation, along with a series of guided exercises that are similar to the ones that attendees practiced with each other. Here is the link which you may share with others:
Below are the instructions that the participants were given, and I encourage you to playfully experiment with them with friends, family, and colleagues. In our live event, one of the attendees was a 9-year-old boy who “stole the show” by demonstrating how much value he gained from the evening’s activities.
Poetic Prosody Speaking Exercises – Writers in the Gallery 7-2-25
EXERCISE #1: Pick any of the following to vocally experiment with, or create your own sentences, or read something you’ve previously written, following these suggestions. Later, spend several minutes (ideally with a partner) with each of the above qualities until it feels more natural to bring into everyday speech. Then keep these themes in mind as you write. into your writing.
“Writers in the Gallery” meets on the first Wednesday of each month (from 6:30pm to 8pm) with different hosts conducting experiential workshops to inspire writers (and nonwriters!) of all genres – fiction, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, screenwriting, storytelling, etc. – to improve the quality of their work.
EXERCISES #2: Bring as many of the above qualities into any of the following excerpts, or with your own writing. Be playful, be silly, be dramatic, and bring body movements into your reading. Most importantly, have fun!
- “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”
- “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, and provide for the common defense … do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
- “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” (from 1984 by Orwell)
- “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair …”
Most of the above quotes, along with many famous speeches and paragraphs in literature, can be arranged like a poem. Try doing the same thing with a prose paragraph you have written. It makes it easier to edit and establish a better flow. Use imitation or satire to capture the rhythm and flow of a favorite writer or poem. For example:
We, the Writers of the Gallery
in order to form a more perfect Sentence,
establish Empathy,
and ensure poetic Tranquility ….
NOTE: Although we have no poetry/prose/essay contributions this month, I highly recommend the contributions and writer’s exercises featured in previous issues.
“Writers in the Gallery” meets on the first Wednesday of each month (from 6:30pm to 8pm) with different hosts conducting experiential workshops to inspire writers (and nonwriters!) of all genres – fiction, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, screenwriting, storytelling, etc. – to improve the quality of their work.
Bring pen and paper, and a small treat to share. RSVP: markwaldman3@gmail.com , or just show up and bring a friend! No writing experience is necessary!
WHERE: Studio Channel Islands Art Center
2222 Ventura Boulevard, Camarillo, CA 93010
TIME: 6:30 – 8 PM PDT