Bad Indians Writing Club

Happy new year y'all!

This year my blog is going through a collection of stories documented by William Jones in 1906, thinking about how these stories speak to our contemporary world. That often means imagining the story taking place now, or emphasizing somebody who may seem to be a minor character, asking questions about what came before or what might be happening next. It means thinking as much about what and who isn't in the story as is in it. And that's what I am hoping to do with Bad Indians Writing Club. That each of us would revisit old stories from our own histories, everything from traditional stories to nursery rhymes to familiar parables, and reimagine them with these questions in mind. What if Goldilocks was the first of her generation to enter university instead of a small house? What if the good Samaritan was Palestinian? What if humpty dumpty got cancelled on social media.

If you noticed in the last email, the date for this changed from the 15th to the 16th. That's because I double booked myself and have another commitment on the 15th. I did warn you that we wouldn't always be on the 15th.

This link will work for all the meetings, even if it isn't on the 16th of the month.

The plan is to go around the circle and introduce ourselves according to our community, thinking particularly about how our community has shaped us and how we may hope that our writing can shape our community. Native people shouldn't be the only ones identifying themselves by their communities, everyone should do it, even if your community isn't one that you are thrilled about being part of. Trust me when I say that we aren't always thrilled to be part of our communities either.

We'll chat for a bit and then turn our cameras off for 45 minutes of writing, thenwe turn our cameras back on and read what we've got.

That's the scary part. But let me assure you that first drafts are always bad. Often embarassingly so! We'll read our stories and people will have a chance to ask questions, make suggestions. That's also why we're going to spend a little bit of time at the beginning getting to know each other. Makes this part a little easier. You can pass if you're nervous, but we'll come back to you because this only works if everybody participates.

There's no pressure to come every time, each month will stand on its own and there will be different writing prompts throughout the year. I do ask that you come on time so that you don't miss the introductions at the beginning. Let me know if you can make it!

see you Thursday!

THURSDAY

the 16th

at 6pm EST