Notes and Thoughts
The posts below reflect our thoughts on writing, teaching, and the workshops and retreats we have offered over the last decade, extending back to the launch of our original retreat in Hawaii, Pele’s Fire, in 2015.
Elena, Bhanu and Reiko: A Conversation
This conversation was made possibleby one of our founding Pele's Fire participants, Heather Leah Huddleston “…for me, the word ‘core’ feels like I am in partnership with my work…” ~ Elena Georgiou Pele’s Fire was birthed from the very core—hearts, minds, passions, and desires—of three women: Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Elena Georgiou and Bhanu Kapil. Joined by Black Belt Nia instructor Susan Tate, who will incorporate daily creative movement classes, including Nia, these mentors make Pele’s Fire the retreat to access, to transmute, to move and write from the core of the body, from the very core of...
The Three (21st Century) Rs
Every year, I take a week off. Ostensibly, it’s a vacation in Cape Cod, but it always turns into a mini writing retreat. I unplug; and once I’ve done so, what happens? I Read. I wRite. I Relax. Why is it that relaxation in the 21st century feels like a luxury? In my childhood, adults didn’t have to decide to relax. They just did it; exhaustion forced relaxation on them. My family didn’t need to go to Fine Dining Establishments (FDE) to prove they were doing The Third R. In fact, we only did the FDEs on special occasions like birthdays or anniversaries. The rest of the time we made Sunday...
Don’t Write?!
I’ve been thinking a lot about being a writer in this world. Not about the need to raise our diverse voices, or to break down the barriers that keep too many of us silent; not about the role of writers to expand our collective understanding of what it means to be human. I’ve been thinking about the opposite: about how our current culture is strangling art, and how we are letting it. You’ve been reading, surely, about authors’ declining income, about our paltry sales figures (even for prize winners). You’ve quite likely read suggestions on the Internet for “making a living” as a writer. But...
Notes on Hybrid Forms
by Bhanu Kapil A few years ago, as part of my on-going research for a creative writing seminar I was teaching at Naropa University, The Hybrid, I spoke with a "Mad Scientist"; actually, I met him as part of my on-going attempt to be the mother of a son in love with volcanoes. We were at the local science museum, where Dr. Warnock was giving a demonstration [he had an unkempt, patched together, clearly home-made "time machine"] on the birth of volcanoes, which was followed up with 3-D chalk, scissors, and actually building one. A volcano. After the presentation, my son was the only one at the...
Rock The Casbah (Redux)
First: Take a large breath. Do you know that moment when you are in your Bootcamp exercise class, trying not to look totally decrepit as you struggle to find the right form when the trainer commands that you do endless burpees and then the music changes to The Clash’s “Rock The Casbah,” but it isn’t The (actual) Clash but some session musicians that have been paid to convert Punk into Disco so that gyms across America can use the song as a workout track, and suddenly you plunge into a profound sadness when you realize that the music of your youth—the music that spoke about revolution, that...
The Gifts of Retreat
It’s 94 degrees in Brooklyn, and I am writing in a pair of blue cashmere fingerless gloves. They are a gift from a dear friend – crafted from recycled goodness, and sent from Canada. They are also a shared talisman that connects me to my tribe: a group of women who inspire me, recognize me, support me, and challenge me. Women writers. We found each other in retreat. At Hedgebrook, an oasis for women writers on Whidbey Island, famous for its radical hospitality. Hedgebrook is the only retreat I have ever been to, though, as I write this, I am poised to announce a new, week-long retreat in...