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• Seeding change: Creating When Life is Hard // with Tracie Nichols

  • When
    02 February 2025
  •  
    3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    online
  • Spaces left
    0

  Registration is closed

  

  This class is full. Thank you to everyone for your interest!

  You know those times when life grabs you and shakes you like a snow globe then stretches you batwing thin across too many and too much?

  This practice is for those times. 

  As word-loving creators, we turn to language to help us make sense of both our inner and outer worlds. But what happens when life is hard and crafting a poem or other piece feels like a blank page too far? That’s where this practice reaches out a gentle tendril and won’t let you fall. 

  I started this practice because I was overwhelmed by the demands of managing both my neurodivergence and menopause while learning a new job, and in the background was a constant hum of grief for a struggling family member. My attention was tattered. Noticing only happened in fragments. My writing was constrained to torn corners of time. —Tracie Nichols

  Seeding Change invites us to:

  • connect to creativity in times of overwhelm.
  • create without needing to generate new writing.
  • think about making poems in a different way—more collage or mosaic than essay or novel.

  While it's oriented toward generating poems, it can be used to assemble the seeds for flash fiction, creative nonfiction, short stories, plays, monologues, songs—any form of word artistry.

  This two-hour Zoom class is generative.

  You will emerge with a collection of your own poem seeds—perhaps even a nascent poem or story—and your own version of this process to use when life is hard.

  Who Should Take This Class

  • Writers and poets (aspiring or established) with limited time and, more importantly, limited headspace, who need to engage with language in the brief moments life allows. 
    
  • Anyone who needs reminding that, no matter how stretched-thin they are, their word artistry is still with them—still there to support and nourish them.

  Format
  

  This class will be presented Sunday, February 2, 2025 from 3-5 PM ET/ 2-4 PM CT/ 1-3 PM MT/ 12-2 PM PT / 8-10 PM UTC as a one-time, two-hour Zoom session. The day after class a recording, as well as notes and resources from the class, will be emailed to class members. 

  About the Facilitator

  Tracie Nichols is a poet, facilitator, and the current Managing Director of The Transformative Language Arts Network. Over the past 20 years, inspired by her graduate work in Transformative Learning and Change, she has designed and facilitated hundreds of virtual and in-person learning experiences for people seeking personal transformation and growth. Tracie spent ten intense, wonderfully complex, successful years as a business and life coach, finally closing her coaching practice two years ago and turning her creative energies to writing (mostly) poetry. Her poetry has appeared in Rogue Agent, Text Power Telling, and kerning. You can connect with her at TracieNichols.com or on Substack. 

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• Sustainable Marketing Strategy for Writers, Changemakers, and other Magical TLArtists // with Tracie Nichols

  • Start
    12 February 2025
  • End
    04 March 2025
  • Location
    Online

  Register

  
  

  I’ll bet your work and art is quietly (or not so quietly) life-changing. 

  I’ll also bet not enough people know about it—or you—right? 

  Sustainable Marketing Strategy for Writers, Changemakers, and other Magical TLArtists will help you (re)define marketing and promotion (as well as terms and concepts like business growth, strategy, and community building) as practices that can be both sustainable and successful while also being aligned with your values, creative and business goals, and available expendable energy. (In other words, how many spoons can you devote to this?)

  At the end of our three weeks together, you will: 

  —Know what you want your marketing to do for you/your business

  —Have the foundation of a sustainable marketing strategy grounded in

  • language and methods of communication meaningful to both you and your community
  • knowing the best pace for your available time and energy
  • researching the best places/platforms for the ways you most effectively and genuinely communicate

  —Be part of a network of other creatives working to build sustainable marketing practices

  —Be supported by a collection of resources and tools

  In short—this is a professional development course designed to make strategies for growing your community and business sane and sustainable. 

  Week By Week 

  Week 1: Evicting your inner late-night infomercial huckster, (or how your assumptions about marketing are probably not helping you grow your business) 

  This week we will:

  • look at the ways ubiquitous, relentless, mainstream marketing consciously and unconsciously shapes what we think marketing is, the language we use to define it and ourselves, and what it must look or sound like. 
  • redefine and/or reclaim “marketing” and “promotion” as actions you take to help your community understand what you do and how it helps them so they can make a conscious, informed choice to work with you, (buy from you, join your thing).

  Week 2: You & your community—intersecting ecosystems. Creating a sustainable marketing strategy starts with knowing yourself and your community.

  Our activities this week will:

  • delve into who you are as a TLArtist; your values, your native communication style, the personality and neurologic traits that underpin how you think, create, and take action. 
  • explore who are the people in your community, how can you connect with them, what are the ways they will be looking for help?
  • clarify/define the kind of conversation and/or reciprocal relationship you and your community want to be having.

  Week 3: Market like a tree. Be rooted. Offer oxygen—Your sustainable marketing strategies. This week we will plant the seeds of a marketing strategy:

  • aligned with how you communicate, your goals, your working rhythm and expendable energy.
  • that feels genuine and inviting to your community.
  • that is both a short and a long-term strategy—meaning actions you can take right away and actions you can build up to over time.

  Who Should Take This Class

  You should join us if you're a TLArtist* interested in building your community and/or your practice without burning out, becoming overwhelmed, or feeling inauthentic, pushy, or like you’re imposing on anyone. This applies to both solo practitioners and people who are responsible for community building for an organization.

  NOTE: While this approach to marketing is especially helpful for introverts, ambiverts, Highly Sensitive People (HSP) and/or people with ADHD, anyone who feels alienated by traditional marketing methods will definitely find inspiration here. 

  *Who are TLArts practitioners? Teachers, counselors, writers, storytellers, performers, songwriters, poets, community leaders and activists, and other artists using language for individual or community transformation.

  We offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.
  

  Format

  Course materials will be delivered through a hybrid of weekly Zoom sessions and written resources sent via email.

  The majority of the work will happen in the weekly two-hour Zoom meetings, held on three consecutive Saturdays from 11 AM-1 PM ET (10 AM -12 PM CT | 9-11 AM MT | 8-10 AM PT | 4-6 PM UTC): Feb.15, Feb. 22 and March 1, 2025. Sessions will be recorded and made available to students only. 

  This class utilizes personal reflection, group discussion, and writing exercises to explore and redefine marketing so it becomes a useful and sustainable business strategy for creatives like TLArtists. You should plan to spend about three hours per week on the class engaging in the Zoom meetings and outside writing exercises and research. 
  

  About the Facilitator

  Tracie Nichols is a poet, facilitator, and the current Managing Director of The Transformative Language Arts Network. Over the past 20 years, inspired by her graduate work in Transformative Learning and Change, she has designed and facilitated hundreds of virtual and in-person learning experiences for people seeking personal transformation and growth. Tracie spent ten intense, wonderfully complex, and successful years as a business and life coach, finally closing her coaching practice two years ago and turning her creative energies to writing (mostly) poetry. Her poetry has appeared in Rogue Agent Text Power Telling and kerning. You can connect with her on her website or her Substack Breathing Space.
  

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• Writing, Love, and Courage in Tender Times // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

  • When
    15 February 2025
  •  
    2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
  • Location
    online
  • Spaces left
    24

  Register

  

  Join a warm and lively writing circle (over Zoom) to write into the love that helps you access your courage and vision in challenging times.

   This workshop is being offered as a fundraiser—all proceeds will be donated to TLAN.

  Writing can be a practice of opening your heart to other humans, the natural world, and your own good soul. Such a return to the source of our own heart and our collective pool of lovingkindness can light up our path, especially in dark times. Join a warm and lively writing circle (over Zoom) to write into and about love as a source of courage and resilience.

  Just the act of making something out of words is a way of loving the time and place where you are. Writing together is a loving practice that can help us open up and come to know your own hearts more.

  In this loving workshop, we’ll gather together to find greater inspiration, guidance, and tenderness through reading and considering how poetry can speak to myriad forms of love. Drawing from the poetry of such writers as Joy Harjo, Derek Wolcott, e.e cummings, Muriel Rukeyser, Willa Cather, Rita Dove, Walt Whitman, Robert Bly, Jane Kenyon, Harold Littlebird, David Whyte, Rumi, we’ll find new inspiration, plus an overflowing bouquet of writing prompts we can explore after our time together.

  
  

  After each class I recognize the peaceful place the class creates in me. My response to listening to others and hearing your responses to our work fills me with contentment, joy, and satisfaction. —Patricia Durkin
  

  
  

  Participants will leave with a greater sense of how the poetic power of language can help us access more our good selves as well as how writing together and on our own can be an essential practice of loving-kindness and creativity.
  

  Who Should Attend?
  

  This workshop is a valentine to anyone who writes, wants to start writing, or is ready to return to writing. All the prompts are aimed to meet you where you are with lots of options for engaging in ways to help you better see and celebrate your own definitions of what love can be in your life, family or community, and our world.

  
  

  I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and working with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg for the past decade, and have rarely encountered a more insightful, compassionate, or integrous teacher and coach. —Mark Matousek, award-winning teacher, author, and mentor
  

  
  

  Format
  

  This class will be presented Saturday, February 15, 2024 from 3-5 PM ET/ 2-4 PM CT/ 1-3 PM MT/ 12-2 PM PT / 8-10 PM UTC as a one-time, two-hour Zoom session. The day after class a recording, as well as notes and resources from the class, will be emailed to class members only.

  Your Registration Fee is a Donation
  

  Because this event is so generously being offered by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg as a fundraiser, your entire registration fee will go directly to support scholarships, program development, and other offerings meant to expand and enrich our community. You will be helping programs like:

  • Power of Words Scholarship Fund
  • Online Class Scholarship Fund
  • The Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund (conference and online class support for both BIPOC people and people who are living with serious illness and/or disabilities.)
  • Our free and open to all Community Circles and Virtual Salons

  Registration Levels:

  • Level I – $200.00
  • Level II – $150.00
  • Level III – $75.00
  • Level IV – $50.00

  We thank you. 

  About the Facilitator

  Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D., the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate, is the founder of Transformative Language Arts and the author of two dozen books. Her publications include How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam's Well, a novel; Needle in the Bone, a non-fiction book on the Holocaust; The Sky Begins At Your Feet, a bioregional memoir.

  A writing and right livelihood coach, working with people to bring what wants to be written and lived into being, Mirriam-Goldberg offers community writing workshops widely, and with Kelley Hunt, Brave Voice retreats. She also co-leads the Your Right Livelihood class and retreat with Kathryn Lorenzen, and the Art of Facilitation training with Joy Roulier Sawyer, with whom she also offers the annual Writing from the Soul retreat.

  Born hard-wired to make something (in art, music, and especially writing), Caryn’s long-time callings include writing as a spiritual and ecological path, yoga, drawing, cultivating a loving marriage, family, and community, and helping herself and others make and take leaps into the miraculous work of their lives.

  You can connect with Caryn at:

  https://www.carynmirriamgoldberg.com/

  https://www.instagram.com/carynmirriamgoldberg

  https://www.facebook.com/CarynMirriamGoldbergWriter

  https://www.linkedin.com/in/caryn-mirriam-goldberg-3772006/

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• TLA Network Virtual Salon

  • When
    23 February 2025
  •  
    5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
  • Location
    online
  • Registered
    5 registrants

  Register

  
  

  TLA Network Virtual Salon

  Sunday, February 23, 2025

  Join Us!

  5:00–6:30 pm ET (UTC-5)
  

  4:00–5:30 pm CT // 3:00–4:30 pm MT // 2:00–3:30 pm PT // 10:00-11:30 pm UTC

  Click here to find your timezone.

  Our Virtual Salons feature TLAN members who all use the written, spoken, or sung word for personal and community transformation. TLAN members have incredibly generous spirits, and we are excited to provide a venue to feature their artistic work.
  

  The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) virtual salons feature presenters who are active members of TLAN. Each presenter will have 5-7 minutes to present their written, spoken, or sung work followed by a brief period of audience response. 

  Potential Presenters: To present at the Virtual Salon you must be an active member of TLAN. Active members are current on their dues. (Check on your membership status or re-join TLAN.)

  If you are interested in presenting at the February Virtual Salon, please fill out the Google Form. If we have a multitude of entries we may have to feature you at a future salon. THE CALL FOR FEBRUARY PRESENTERS CLOSES ON SUNDAY, FEB. 2, 2025.

  Audience members: Registration is FREE and open to anyone, not just members of TLAN and will take place online via Zoom. 

  After the reading, there will be an artist talkback and time for questions and engagement from the audience. 

  You must register if you would like to attend: a Zoom link will be sent to all registrants the day before the event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  The salons are free to attend and donations to TLAN are very welcome to allow us to continue to sponsor events like this.

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• Foundations of Facilitation // with Amanda Faye Lacson & Tracie Nichols

  • Start
    05 March 2025
  • End
    29 April 2025
  • Location
    online
  • Spaces left
    32

  Register

  
  

  This course introduces the foundations and best practices of facilitation to TLA practitioners.

  You will learn about yourself as a facilitator and explore principles for designing and facilitating effective workshops that carefully consider ways to support different populations.

  You will emerge from the class with a Capstone Project, a detailed workshop proposal that covers the content and structure of your program; considerations for marketing, ethics, technology, and moving in the physical space depending on the populations you plan to welcome in; and how you might facilitate the work beyond the workshop space and connect to a larger community. 

  Weekly Zoom sessions and Wet Ink lessons with extensive resources will cover course content and offer opportunities to engage with and practice facilitation principles. Weekly assignments will include readings, written responses, and self-care practices.

  Week by Week

  Week 1: Roles & Rules: Introduction to Facilitation

  In this opening session, we’ll introduce ourselves, the course, and the foundational principles of facilitation. These principles are rooted in the idea that whatever the subject or situation, the goal of facilitation is to support individual and collective transformation. We’ll also cover the importance of establishing ground rules and prioritizing self-care.

  Week 2: Good Bones: Structuring Workshops for Effective Facilitation

  Effective facilitation depends on a program that has “good bones.” In this session, we’ll explore   foundational principles and techniques for planning, organizing, and reviewing facilitation sessions. We’ll focus on ways to build a solid yet flexible structure that supports your goals and meets the needs of your participants.

  Week 3: Considering Power Dynamics of Rank and Class

  As a course designer and facilitator, you bring a position of privilege and higher rank into a room from the beginning. Tied up with rank, especially in our society, is class, which isn’t just salaries earned, but what access people have to good education, meaningful employment, and safe communities. In this week we will discuss what ranks we live with on a regular basis, and the ones that we take on and off, depending on the situation. We will also discuss perceived power, and what you may or may not want to do to take on or cede power in the groups you facilitate.

  Week 4: Facilitating across Identity: 

  In this session, we will look at different ways to facilitate groups of mixed identity, including affiliations with race, gender, sexuality, generations and parenthood. We will learn how we are socialized to think about different identities; if/how we have had experience with conversations across identities; and what considerations we can adopt when creating a space that will be welcoming across identity. 

  Week 5: Facilitating across Disabled, Neurodiverse and Aging Bodies:

  In this session, we will discuss how to prepare for and facilitate across disability, neurodiversity, serious illness, and aging bodies. We are operating from a social model of disability, which says “individual limitations are not the cause of disability. Rather, it is society’s failure to provide appropriate services and adequately ensure that the needs of disabled people are taken into account in societal organization.” We want to discuss how we can create spaces that do not “disable” our participants. How can we structure access in our workshops from the beginning, instead of having to create accommodations as issues arise?

  Week 6: Trauma-Informed Facilitation: 

  No matter what kind of workshop or event you facilitate, a majority of your participants will have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lives. And as transformative language artists, we often work with specific survivor populations to offer tools and opportunities for personal and communal healing. In this session, we’ll discuss trauma, its impact, and why a trauma-informed approach is so important in facilitation. You’ll learn the key principles of trauma-informed facilitation as well as practical steps to take before, during, and after facilitating. You’ll also be reminded of the importance of self-awareness and self-care as a trauma-informed facilitator.

  Week 7: Facilitating for Community Transformation:

  One of the unique tasks of a Transformative Language Artist is that we use words not only for personal transformation, but to effect change in our communities. In this session, we will discuss ways to bring your work and the work of your participants out into the community. How can you continue the conversation beyond the workshop space? Who, in your community, needs your work? What is the change that you wish to see in your community? Through reviewing examples of TLA in the world, we will consider ways you as a facilitator can contribute to community dialogue and transformation. 

  Week 8: Capstone Project Presentations:

  The final week will include the opportunity to present your Capstone Project, a document that outlines the offering you would like to present in your community, and what considerations you plan to take in your facilitation approach. As this is a living document that you will work on throughout the class, we will discuss: How has your vision evolved from the beginning of class? What challenges or barriers do you anticipate in fulfilling this work? What considerations have you most appreciated? What considerations may you have missed?

  Who Should Take This Class
  

  This class is required for the Certification in TLA Foundations. It is appropriate for beginning and seasoned facilitators who are new to TLA; TLA practitioners who are seasoned in their art and looking to facilitate work in their community; and TLA artists and facilitators who want to update their practices with current language and best practices around community identities.

  Format
  

  Weekly Zoom sessions are scheduled for Saturday March 8, 15, 22, 29 and April 5, 12, 19 & 26, 2025 from 1-2:30 p.m. EDT (UTC -4). Click here to convert to your time zone.

  Because we are dedicated to making the course as accessible as possible, all sessions will be recorded. All class materials (lessons, assignments, and extensive resources) will be shared each week in Wet Ink. Students who cannot make a live call have the option of watching or listening to the recording and responding to the prompts/questions in the asynchronous classroom platform, Wet Ink.

  About the Facilitators

  Amanda Faye Lacson (she/hers) is a Filipina-American writer, photographer and historian. She examines how our identities are shaped, how they impact the way we move in the world, and how we write our history through her creative nonfiction and playwriting; photography documenting the artistic process; oral history-oriented podcast interviewing; and by creating and facilitating community-based workshops for the family historian. Amanda is a board member and Membership co-chair of the Transformative Language Arts Network; writer, performer and director with the Playful Substance theater company; and producer, host and editor of Goddard in the World Podcast. She is also the founder of FamilyArchive Business, a studio designed to support the family historian at any point in the archiving process, from organizing photos in boxes to creating a final product to share with the family.

  Recent projects include: writing and performing work based on her experience as a Pinay child and mother in the devised theater piece Raised Pinay: The 5^th Generation; presenting a generative writing workshop on using Transformative Language Arts to create and deepen one’s family archive at the TLAN Power of Words conference; writing a satirical monologue from the perspective of Christopher Columbus reckoning with his legacy in the afterlife, for Playful Substance; and photographing classical Indian dance performance by Brooklyn Raga Massive for Chelsea Factory. Keep up with Amanda's work at amandafayelacson.com.

  Tracie Nichols (she/her) is a poet, facilitator, HSP, over-thinker, introvert, and woman of deepening years. When she's not doing managing director things for the Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN), she writes poetry and creates seasonal word adventures for shy but curious people. 

  Tracie’s appreciation for the power of words to heal and transform started decades ago when she began writing poems to navigate early trauma. She knew she'd found home with the Transformative Language Arts Network community when she realized it merged the principles of her graduate degree in Transformative Learning and Change with her passion for writing as path to healing and growth.

  Today, she lives in southeastern Pennsylvania with her husband, occasionally her adult children, and a very large ginger tabby cat named Strider. She writes poems from her tiny desk under the wide reach of two old Sycamore trees. Tracie is honored that her recent work has appeared in kerning, Rogue Agent, Text Power Telling, and The Weight of Motherhood anthology.

  Connect with Tracie at tracienichols.com.

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• Embodied Storytelling through Song // with Elizabeth Addison

  • Start
    05 March 2025
  • End
    01 April 2025
  • Location
    online

  Register

  
  

  Looking for a deeply moving experience that builds connection and healing and celebrates your resilience?

  This incredibly unique and innovative workshop builds on our other storytelling programs with the addition of music, guiding participants to discover a story within themselves and turn it into a song.

  Techniques combine narrative and drama therapy with a fully embodied songwriting process that requires no instruments and no prior skill, leaving participants with a deeply moving experience that builds connection and healing and celebrates their resilience.

  Week By Week

  Week 1

  • Identifying home - songs that give you a sense of comfort
  • Group ground work and community building through play
  • Finding the story for your song (prompts and verbal sharing)
  • Writing time

  Week 2

  • Music Therapy exercise 
  • Fleshing out your story
  • What is the most important thing of your story
  • Elements of a song
  • Writing time

  Week 3

  • Song structure
  • Coaching the heartbeat and melody
  • Finding your hook
  • Writing time

  Week 4

  • Time to share (you do not need to have a finished song!) 
  • Process and reflect

  Who Should Take This Class

  Anyone who has a story to sing. There is no "right" or "wrong" in this workshop. You do not need to be a songwriter or a singer or play an instrument.  You just have to have the willingness to play, try something new and be open to letting this work and this process work its way through you.  The process is the product.

  Format

  Course materials will be delivered through weekly Zoom sessions; dates and times to be announced. Sessions will be recorded and made available to students only. 

  About the Facilitator

  Elizabeth Addison is an award winning multi-hyphenate whose work exists at the intersection of recovery and the performing arts. She has written three musicals inspired by her recovery journey, one of which, “Chasing Grace,” is set to have an Off-Broadway run in 2025/26. Elizabeth is a Creative Recovery Coach, Story Coach and Trauma Informed Facilitator with The Meghann Perry Group where she facilitates Recovery Storytelling, Embodied Storytelling and Embodied Songwriting workshops.  She is also a consultant for The Opioid Response Network (ORN) and The Grayken Center at Boston Medical Center. Her website. 

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• Happy Ink: Crafting Poetry and Prose from Simple Pleasures // with Kimberly Gomes

  • Start
    09 March 2025
  • End
    16 March 2025
  • Location
    online

  Register

  
  

  What’s something every poet and writer uses for inspiration?
  

  Heartbreak, the past, and pain - am I right?

  But maybe you want to build a writing practice that doesn’t rely on ultra highs and crazy lows to create. If you’re ready to mine inspiration from simple pleasures and the everyday, then this workshop is for you. 

  In this two-week generative series, we’ll get inspiration from other writers and dive into pleasureful writing prompts to help you use creativity to enhance everyday living. Writers will walk away with new poem/prose pieces, as well as writing exercises to explore the local community while gathering inspiration for new material.

  Kim is a natural teacher, sharing her own discoveries with a genuine enthusiasm that inspires action. The way she shared her openness to trying new techniques and her curiosity approaching new themes unblocked me from avoiding those things I'm "not good at." I'm a poet and I started writing a novel after a call with Kim because I saw it as entirely possible for the first time. She makes you believe in yourself while you try new experiments on paper and then, new experiences in life. -Lara

  Week By Week

  Week 1: We’ll dive into a poetry session designed to awaken your senses and spark inspiration. We’ll study selected poems, generate new material from interactive writing prompts, and walk away with exercises to keep creative juices flowing during the week. 

  Week 2: We’ll shift to prose and study how acclaimed essayists mine inspiration from the everyday. We’ll explore how to jumpstart writing from emotions and everyday scenes often forgotten about and have some time for optional sharing.

  After our class wraps, writers can participate in a free and optional 3-day challenge to craft and share new works from simple pleasures.

  Who Should Take This Class

  This class is for all levels of writers and aspiring creatives! If you’re a poet, prose writer, or songwriter who needs a break from the pain and wants to fuse more joy into your life through creativity, then join us! 

  It’s also for folks who are brand new to writing and looking to bring more pleasure into their lives and write their first pieces in the process. If you’re feeling like you want to get your spark back, this class is for you!

  One thing about working with Kim in creative spaces is that she is safe. When you are already being vulnerable in your creation it is so essential to have someone like Kim who can create a safe space for you to explore and come into your highest creative self! -Thomas

  Format

  Course materials will be delivered through two live virtual sessions with recordings and coursework available after our class. 

  Sessions will be held on Sunday March 9 and March 16 from 11am-12pm PT |12-1pm MT | 1-2pm CT ET |2-3pm ET | 7-8 PM UTC.

  About the Facilitator
  

  Kimberly Gomes is a writer, musician, adventuress, and creativity coach. She’s the author of poetry collection, Love Notes the Body (Dancing Girl Press, 2019), travel novel, A Road of Her Own (Red Light Lit Press, 2025), spoken word-musical album, First Bloom, and is currently writing a collection of personal essays. Her novel was a semi-finalist for the 2022 Black Lawrence Press Prose Book Award. Her work was named a top personal essay of 2021 by Entropy Magazine and featured in a variety of journals, as well as the San Francisco Chronicle and Sunset Magazine. A natural hype woman for budding creatives, she’s excited to be teaching virtual and in-person creative writing workshops this spring with Transformative Language Arts Network and the Santa Cruz Public Library. Learn more about her offerings and writing at https://kimberlygomes.substack.com and @writeon_kim.

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• Transformative Language Arts Network Community Circles

  • When
    23 March 2025
  •  
    5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
  • Location
    online

  Register

  
  

  Transformative Language Arts Network Community Circles

  
  

  The work of Transformative Language Arts

  is rooted in community.

  TLAN Community Circles provide a welcoming space to connect with fellow practitioners, share our stories, practices, ideas, and challenges, and deepen our understanding of this powerful work.

  These online gatherings foster thoughtful conversation, creative exchange, and meaningful community building around the shared belief in the transformational power of words.

  Whether you are just beginning or well along in your TLA journey, Community Circles offer a supportive space to connect, explore, and grow alongside others who share your passion.
  
  

  Who Should Participate?

  Community Circles are open to everyone—whether you’re a seasoned TLA practitioner, a curious newcomer, or someone passionate about using words for healing, change, or creativity. Writers, artists, educators, healers, activists, and anyone who values the power of language and seeks to feel supported in their TLA journey will find connection, inspiration, and belonging here.

  Format

  When: Every other month in 2025 (1/26, 3/23, 5/18, 7/20, 9/21, and 11/16) from 5–6:30 PM ET.
  Where: Virtual on Zoom (join from anywhere!)
  What to Expect: Each session features an opening and closing ritual, a brief check-in and writing practice, and a facilitated discussion around a TLA-related topic.
  Cost: The circles are free to attend and donations to TLAN are very welcome to allow us to continue to sponsor events like this.

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• 2025 Power of Words Conference

  • Start
    03 October 2025
  •  
  • End
    05 October 2025
  •  
  • Location
    Unity Village, 1900 NW Blue Parkway, Unity Village, Missouri

  Register

  
  

  Join the Power of Words Conference to explore the written, spoken and sung word to find how it can bring liberation, celebration and transformation within our communities. 
  

  Network with writers, storytellers, performers, musicians, health professionals, educators, and change-makers to connect with those who share your passion of making a difference with words.   

  Discover diversity and experience visionary voices at keynote sessions. Get inspired with workshops in five areas:  Social Transformation, Right Livelihood, Engaged Spirituality, Narrative Healing and Ecological TLA.

  Conference Costs:
  

  • Your registration payment of $275 Members or $315 Non-Members includes main conference events only.
  • Pre-conference events and our optional meal plan are sold separately. To purchase either of them, you will add them to your order when you register for the conference. 
  • • Pre-conference costs: $65 Members; $75 Non-Members
    • Optional meal package: $150
  • Partial scholarships and work-study opportunities are available if cost is a barrier. Submit your application before you register. Applications close September 7, 2025.
  • Transportation and lodging are not included. 

  Lodging & Meals: 

  LODGING 

  The conference is being held at the beautiful and welcoming Unity Village in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.

  We have reserved blocks of rooms at both Unity Village Hotel and at Holiday Inn Express for $139/night.

  Holiday Inn Express is only 2 miles from Unity Village, and we encourage people with their own transportation to consider staying at this lovely hotel since we have a limited number of rooms at Unity Village.

  MEALS

  We are very pleased to be contracting with a new caterer who is providing excellent food, including ample gluten-free, vegan, and vegetarian options as well as beverages and desserts. 

  Meals are a package deal: $150 includes Friday dinner, Saturday lunch and dinner, and Sunday lunch. You won't be able to buy individual meals, so please purchase the whole package if you need meals. Please note that there is only a small cafe with limited hours and offerings on the Unity Village campus and no dining options within walking distance.

  While our meal plan is optional, please strongly consider joining us for meals – it's a perfect way to connect with others, make new friends, and find new possibilities for your art and work. 
  

  (Breakfast is provided for free at the Unity Hotel and Holiday Inn Express for people staying at those hotels.)

  Detailed Meal, Lodging & Travel information is on our dedicated conference page.

  Meal, Lodging & Travel Info

  PLEASE NOTE OUR CANCELLATION & REFUND POLICY:

  If you need to cancel your registration, please refer to the following schedule.
  

  • Aug. 14, 2025: Last day for full refund, transfer, or credit, minus $20 processing fee
  • Sept. 1, 2025: Last day for 75% refund, transfer, or credit, minus $20 processing fee
  • Sept. 11, 2025: Last day for 50% refund, transfer, or credit, minus $20 processing fee
  • No refunds available after Sept. 12, 2025

  We will not issue refunds, transfers, or credits after SEPTEMBER 12, 2025. (In the case of unexpected life circumstances—such as hospitalization or death in the family—contact us and we will try to do what we can.)

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