The Big Read Continues: Hurricanes, Writing Workshops, and Art Exhibits

Everyone is on board for The Big Read.  Just take a look at what's happening on January 23rd!

I admit to a little bias about our contribution to The Big Read Project. Learn a bit about the "Spanish Repulse Hurricane," the Great Sea Island Storm, and 20th century hurricanes and tropical storms that caused death and destruction here in Beaufort County.(First come; first seated - no registration. Doors to the 2nd floor open at Noon-ish).

However, I know that hurricanes, death, and destruction do not appeal to everyone  - which is why I bring this wonderful opportunity to your attention:  

The inimitable Joggling Board Press publisher and editor Susan Kammeraad-Campbell is back to weave her magic - to help unleash the writer in you!  We know that storytelling is an integral part of what it means to be human. Our stories help us make sense of our world. They tell us who we were, who we are and who we can be. As Ursula K. Le Guin has attested: “There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”

You may recall that Kammeraad-Campbell did several memoir writing workshops for the BDC a few years ago in connection with the publication of the national award-winning memoir, The Other Mother by Teresa Bruce. Kammeraad-Campbell drew on techniques she designed while guiding Bruce to access memories and render them through her senses in her workshops. Bruce describes her experience working with Susan in this Charleston City Paper article.  

Post-workshop survey responses were resoundingly enthusiastic:

• “Writer’s workshops in a public library setting are a necessary and non-judgmental arena to develop;” 
• “The workshop made me want to write more and to approach writing as a craft;” 
•  “This workshop changed my perception on the diversity and validity of other’s viewpoints;” 
• “This workshop empowered me ‘to be me’;” and, several one word critiques: 
• “Cathartic;”
•  “Therapeutic,” and 
• “Inviting.” 

Perhaps most telling, one participant said: “The public library is an inclusive setting where judgment is held at bay. The interaction with the other writers made me feel validated.” If you have any writing aspirations at all, you would be crazy (yes, I wrote "crazy!") not to take advantage of this opportunity to learn at the feet (well, table) of a master editor.

If you can't make the January 23rd session at St. Helena Branch at 1 pm, then be sure to catch the final installment at Beaufort Branch on Saturday, January 30th. No registration necessary. No writing experience necessary. Heck, she even supplies the pens and paper!

And don't forget to enjoy the artwork of Cassandra Gillens on display at St. Helena Branch Library through February 27 during regular library hours. Her work decorates our Library system newsletter, too.

We've have a list of all The Big Read programs and activities at http://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/the-big-read so you can pick and choose among a variety of options available to help you understand and appreciate one of more aspects of Their Eyes Were Watching God by  Zora Neale Hurston.