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Dear TLA Community:
We hope you and your loved ones are doing well in this complicated and challenging time. We know many of you - the writers, poets, storytellers, spoken word artists, musicians, activists and more who make up the TLA Network - continue to find ways in the current crisis to use your voices to help raise awareness, offer perspective and understanding, and help guide our communities toward healing and hope. We appreciate the work that you do in the world.
We are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for us as a Network, and as a leadership team. With a strong lineup of upcoming classes, exciting fall programming in the works, and an incredible Power of Words conference to look forward to in the fall of 2021, we are determined to come out from the other side of this challenging time in better shape than when we started.
We wish to thank longtime volunteer and mentor Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg for all the work she has done to help build this organization over close to two decades. As founder of the TLA Network, Caryn played a pivotal role in developing every aspect of the organization, and has mentored and welcomed countless new TLA-ers into our ranks. We wish Caryn the very best as she moves on to launch new initiatives. See her letter to the TLAN community below.
We continue to be dedicated to growing the transformative language arts - empowering each of us to find and use our biggest voices.
To the power of words,
Liz Burke-Cravens
Council Chair
&
Hanne Weedon
Managing Director
An Open Letter to our Beloved TLA community:
From our work-from-home desks and tables, we are thinking of all of you in our transformative language arts family. You're at the heart of everything we do, and we are so thankful for our connections with you, and for your ongoing support.
We recognize that the transformative language arts can provide both a place of refuge and calm in these stressful times, as well as a means for people to speak out about and fight against injustice, and we take the role of creating space for the TLA community very seriously.
Our rapidly-changing reality has required an incredible rethink about what it means to be together, while apart. How do we care—for our loved ones, our colleagues, and even our families—from a distance? How do we, at the TLA Network, best serve you, our community, during the difficult days that lie ahead?
We deeply believe in the power of words, and in particular, the power of yourwords, to make a difference, and to have an impact. Your voice matters, and the ways that you use your voice in this time - whatever form that might take - makes a difference as we work towards creating a world that works well for everyone - a world characterized by justice, equity, and fairness for all.
This unprecedented time of social distancing can be a solitary one, but it doesn’t need to be. Please reach out to us and we will do everything possible to respond with consideration and care.
We view the safety and wellbeing of our students, teachers and business partners as the highest priority as we respond to an evolving COVID-19 world. We are in the process of reviewing our in-person conference, classes, and trainings, and will keep in close contact with you as our plans evolve. Look for more information in the coming days about our fall gathering, the Power of Words, scheduled for October in Santa Fe, and featuring U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo as keynote.
The Transformative Language Arts Network is devoted to creating new and meaningful ways of being together, even while apart. Let’s continue to take care of each other during this turbulent time, and long after! We wish for you what we wish for our own families: that through this trying time we find ourselves stronger and closer, and that we remember to fight for what is right, while being gracious with ourselves and those around us.
Stay well, stay close and stay connected,
Liz Burke-Cravens
Council Chair
&
Hanne Weedon
Managing Director
Welcome to the TLA Network!We bring together and lift up individuals and organizations that promote forms of the spoken, written, and sung word as a tool for personal and communal transformation. We offer:
2021 Power ofWords Conference
Transformation, Liberation, & Celebration Through the Spoken, Written, & Sung Word Join us Oct. 28 - 31 Immerse yourself in workshops, celebrations, open mics, and fierce beauty among 50 presenters -- storytellers, writers, performers, activists, educators, healers, and more.
We are thrilled to be featuring Joy Harjo, the U.S. Poet Laureate, as our keynote presenter. In 2020, Joy Harjo was appointed to serve for a second term as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold the position. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Harjo is an internationally known award-winning poet, writer, performer, and saxophone player of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. Grammy award winning saxophonist Paul Winter says, “Joy Harjo is a poet of music just as she is a poet of words.” She is the author of nine books of poetry and a memoir. We will be putting out the call for workshop and performance submissions in early 2021. Register here! Join the TLA Network today to save on the conference now and on classes and other offerings later. | Upcoming Classes
Available Self-Paced Classes |
