Simply Memoir

Today I attended a powerful workshop called "Writing Identities" led by Lori Tharps, author of Kinky Gazpacho. Designed for aspiring memoir writers, Lori explained the transformative nature of writing our own stories, why we seek to learn stories like our own, and how we go about starting the journey.

We begin with this: a memoir is not necessarily self-indulgent. Especially for those of us who have few stories which reflect our lives or appreciate the uniqueness of every story, memoir-writing tells truths in a culture that does not (story)tell nor accept truth. Memoirs possess the power to help heal, to expose, to challenge, to share. Contrary to "conventional wisdom" memoirs do not tell your complete life-story like an autobiography. Instead, they are thematic excerpts of any story that you wish to tell. Did you know that Maya Angelou has published seven memoirs?

During the workshop we completed a couple fun writing exercises. My favorite exercise was the "Six Word Memoir." I wrote: perpetually displaced youth builds spiritual crescendo.

What's yours?

Equipped with writing strategies and affirmation I will begin my first memoir tomorrow. I admit that this attempt is much more promising than this summer when I picked up a "how-to" book by an older white author. I simply didn't connect. Today's workshop was filled almost entirely with women of color with compelling and complicated histories.

During my introduction, I shared that over the years I'd become an activist-documentarian, and I believed it was finally time to document my own reality. After all, a thoughtful and talented friend reminds us: we cannot continue to make sense of the world without continuing to make sense of ourselves.

Read, write, share!