Who are You Serving When You Stay Quiet?
Sometimes telling an important story takes a lot of courage.
Silence is asked of us on so many fronts. We are silenced by family values, by the economic class we occupy or want to occupy, by our education, by our ethnicity, by our gender. Fear silences. Loyalty silences. Love silences. Most of us are taught very well to be silent, to live in cultures of censorship, so much so that we easily internalize fear and silence ourselves.
Never do I teach a writing workshop without writers grappling with silence. They worry about what their family will think, what their town will think, what friends will think, if they write what they know. Will someone be hurt? Will someone be angry? Will someone go to jail?
Oppression flourishes in silence, which is why Martin Luther King, Jr. said,
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
As there is a connection between oppression and silence, there is one between people of courage and writers of books. On March 6, 2002 an article appeared in The New York Times, "India Jails Novelist for Criticizing a Court Ruling."
The prize-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy was sentenced today to a day in jail and a $42 fine. The Supreme Court convicted her of criminal contempt for having suggested that the court was trying to "silence criticism" of its approval of a hydroelectric project.
Stories start movements, document movements, end movements. "Writing is a struggle against silence," said Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes.
One of the more common ways writers silence themselves is with insidious rhetoric they speak to themselves. It goes like this: My story is not important. My story is boring. My story is embarrassing.
But you are a human, full of complexity. You are interesting. I'm interested in you.
Our civilization is not furthered by the Kardashians and Hiltons of the world, but by all of us, adding sticks as fuel to this fire we're building, which is our culture. We don’t find meaning by watching a few "stars," but by studying constellations formed by many voices, many characters, and many epiphanies, yours included. Story validates your identity. Story gives you a sense of agency, of personal power. Story validates all of us.
Your story is important.
Your story is probably not boring and definitely not if you write it well.
I want to hear it.
You may have figured out something that I need desperately to know.
My telling you, of course, is not enough. You have to tell yourself those transforming lines. You have to learn to believe them, or if you can’t believe them, to move past your outer and inner censors and do the work anyway.
Boat-tailed grackle on the Georgia Coast. Thanks to Silas Ray-Burns for use of his amazing photography. You can find his work here & follow him on Instagram @crumbstarz.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, Is This Week’s Co-working Session, 11:30-12:30 Eastern Time
Janisse Ray is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Writers Co-Working Session
Time: This is a recurring meeting.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81679057457?pwd=UlhlM3ZSaUVPV21YdlQ3MXJlWmxQZz09
Meeting ID: 816 7905 7457
Passcode: 415285
As usual, here’s the process.
Choose a project to work on.
Join the Zoom room.
Mute yourself on the computer & un-mute yourself on the page.
Let the energy of others lift you up.
Feel the gold dust that I sprinkle on you.
Get the work done.
Pat yourself on the back.
Invitation to Open Mic Night with my Magical Craft Writers
The writers in my current Magical Craft course and I would like to invite you to our Open Mic Night. It’s Monday, July 24, 2023 at 7 pm Eastern Time. Only 13 writers are in the course, and they will be reading a piece they’ve written that is short, 1-3 minutes long. We focus on flash CNF in this course, forms like sudden essay, micro-memoir, and prose poem. We peeps will go first, and then we’ll invite other writers to get up and read for a minute or two.
We would be honored to have you join us to read from your work or to listen in on some of the fun and powerful pieces my writers have created. Get a message to me if you’d like to read, and I’ll put you on the list.
If you misplace this link, no worries. I’ll be sending it out again. Or you may want to highlight it so that you can find it easily.
If we could serve you refreshments, we would. Think of these fine stories as finger food. You will savor it.
Janisse Ray is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Open Mic Readings * Magical Craft *
Time: Jul 24, 2023 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89753880083?pwd=OU1zT25NV3JnUldOdHZ4dE5XSjY0dz09
Meeting ID: 897 5388 0083
Passcode: 239832
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Thank you, Janisse. I needed this today.
Thank you for this reminder.