Events

A workshop for facilitators who teach during difficult times, with author and Transformative Language Artist Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg. As writers, creatives, and facilitators, we all face moments when it's difficult to be fully present in facilitating life-living workshops, especially when the interior landscape of our stories and challenges or the exterior landscape of our culture overwhelm, hurt, or confused us. Whether we are going through hard times as individuals or as a people at sharp point in history, we can open the door for enough tenderness and curiosity to see what next to say and where next to go in our workshops. We'll discuss ways to work with ourselves before, during, and after facilitating workshops as well as ways to name and respect healthy boundaries and brave spaces. There will be time for questions and an ample handout provided as well as innovative writing prompts to try out and consider. Ticket sales from this fundraising workshop will benefit Community Building Art Works programs for veterans, service members, military families, and health care workers. A limited number of FREE tickets for Veterans, Service Members, and Healthcare workers are available on a first come, first served basis. This workshop will be recorded, and […]

Join us for a generative creative writing workshop where we use the written and spoken word to find healing and self-discovery together in a welcoming, safe community. Open to all voices. No experience necessary. Ben Weakley spent fourteen years in the U.S. Army, beginning with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and finishing at a desk inside the Pentagon. He writes poetry and prose about the enduring nature of war and the human experience for veterans, their families, and anyone who would help them bear witness to war and its aftermath. A believer in the power of words to empower and heal, Ben leads writing workshops for Active Duty Military, Veterans, their families and caregivers, as well as Frontline Health Care Workers and other communities of ordinary people bearing witness to a difficult world. Ben lives in the Tri-Cities of Northeast Tennessee with his wife, two children, and a well-meaning but poorly behaved hound-dog. REGISTER HERE MissionBelonging is funded in part by Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network, an initiative of the National Endowment in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant program is managed by Mid-America Arts Alliance.

The natural world provides so much inspiration for art. In this workshop we will learn about nature assemblages and then use materials gathered from the natural world, along with collage materials, to build artistic creations. This workshop is a creative exploration; no prior artistic experience needed! Suggested Supplies: Various collected natural items (leaves, rocks, sticks, pinecones, shells, feathers, etc) Collage items (old magazines work great; or any other materials with images or words you can cut up) Blank piece of paper, white or black Gluestick Scissors Camera (on phone works great!) Angie Ebba is a queer disabled writer and artist who teaches workshops and performs across the US. Angie believes in the power of art, writing, and performance to help us gain a better understanding of ourselves, to build community, and to make change. Find Angie online at rebelonpage.com and on social media: Instagram | Tiktok | Facebook | Twitter/X About CBAW Visual Arts Workshops Join Veterans and Artists, Valerie Acosta, Shaun Smith, Joe Merritt, or a special guest to learn new art techniques on Wednesdays at 7pm EST. Come hang out in a collaborative group setting and bring what materials you have. No experience necessary! To register, click the […]

No experience required! If you can think, you can write. In this creative writing workshop, we'll consider writing as a tool for communication, expression, and relief from holding it all together. Join us. Seema Reza is the author of the books A Constellation of Half-Lives and When the World Breaks Open. She is the CEO of Community Building Art Works, a non-profit organization that brings workshops led by professional artists to service members, veterans, and clinicians. An alumnus of Goddard College and VONA, Reza has taught poetry in classrooms, jails, hospitals, and universities. She was a 2019 Stand-to Veteran Leadership Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute and the 2023 Pauli Murray Art for Racial Justice Fellow at the Antiracism Research and Policy Center at American University. Reza’s writing has been widely anthologized and has appeared in the Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The LA Review, LitHub, and Electric Literature among others. REGISTER HERE MissionBelonging is funded in part by Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network, an initiative of the National Endowment in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant program is managed by Mid-America Arts Alliance.