The Current: Volume I
Welcome to The Current, a monthly newsletter for writers and changemakers.
It seems relentless, doesn’t it? I feel it too. The movements, causes, and organizations we love are in jeopardy, and there you are, day in and day out, unwaveringly committed to the work. I want you to know that I see you. I’m proud to be in this with you. And somehow, maybe not despite the trials of this moment but because of them, I’m feeling the pull towards creativity these days. You too?
Poetic verses fly as I refill my coffee. Characters and plot lines dance through my thoughts as I sit down to write another grant proposal for advocacy that is critically needed and critically underfunded. The creative and philanthropic pages before me are in contention for my words, and too often my own journal takes second place.
I know I’m not the only one. I know your journal, your short story drafts, your poetry manuscript, your novel’s next chapter are yearning for your time. The Current is for us.
I offer this newsletter as a monthly reminder to myself, and to all of us, dear changemakers, that our creativity, our art, our voices are not mere hobbies but essential building blocks of the world we want to see, if only we are brave enough to dream, to create, to nurture, to connect, and to write. In community, for community, with community. The Current is a safe and brave place for us to explore the many shapes that writing a better world can take. You’ll find inspiring poetry, opportunities to submit your own writing pieces, reading recommendations, local events for writers, and updates of how our community is advocating and amplifying ours and others’ voices. Let’s get to it.
Be well & keep creating,
Words from the Well
Signs
by Meg Cannon
I search for signs
and they appear.
I search for meaning
and it is created.
I search for myself
and I become.
The more I search the more I know
to be, is all magic.
Beyond the Page Happenings
We are over the moon to have welcomed Allie Mattil & Katie Madison to our consulting team, and we aren’t slowing down. Keep an eye on our Join Our Team page and be the first to know when opportunities arise!
Our First Grant Writing Workshop
Molly Cullen, Founder of Beyond the Page, co-presented at the National Conference to End Homelessness in Washington, D.C. this summer. She shared grant writing strategies and led a logic model workshop for experts, advocates, and practitioners at the forefront of ending homelessness.
Our First Poetry Workshop
Beyond the Page partnered with Main Street Connect to facilitate an accessible, inclusive, and supportive poetry workshop for a dozen budding writers, ending the four-part series with a poetry slam. From tech-assisted poetry reading and writing to handwritten lyrics, every poet had a voice in this creative space.
Poets explored acrostic, concrete, limerick, and free verse poetry and learned tools such as metaphors, symbols, imagery, alliteration, and personification. Activities such as Poetry Mad Libs and group poetry writing invited playfulness and joy to our creative space!
Image shows a worksheet that says “Keep Writing” on top. Three poems are handwritten below. 1. “Bingo is playful, laugh, classic movies”, 2. “Love is god evening star’s I haven above”, 3. “Love is a Dog A LIFE But Your Love was A, Sunflower".
