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

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.