Creative Bridges 2023 - September Update

I can’t believe that it’s 12 months since the planning team for this year’s conference first met. Time is flying towards Creative Bridges 2023 now and we are enjoying it so much that we have scheduled a final final meeting the day before the conference begins. The tech team also have their meeting very soon to test all of the Zoom links to ensure that you can enter seemlessly.

Once we’ve checked the links we can send out the special code for those who have bought a ticket. Have you booked a ticket?  Don’t leave it till it’s too late. Our Eventbrite will close at 18.00 UK time on Friday 15th September, so be sure to book your place.

Have you checked out the proposed sessions on the website?  Click here to see some smiling faces of presenters who are looking forward to welcoming you to their conference session:

https://creativebridges.site

Watch out on our social media for short films by presenters too.

Sarah Jackson’s presentation on Sunday 17th will use Peter Levine's metaphor of gazing at Medusa. Sarah references the metaphor that directly contacting traumatic memories and feelings can cause individuals to ‘freeze’ or engage another threat response. Embracing trauma-sensitive practices can act like Perseus’ shield to allow writers to approach these topics safely.

A workshop by Rachel Godfrey will offer reflective space, through two short writing activities, to celebrate the interpersonal magic that happens in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes.   The activities will give participants the opportunity to articulate and share their positive experiences, while never breaching the confidentiality of those they work with.

Anvi Sawant will make a presentation which explores the the facilitation of self-narrativisation and safe introspective spaces in urban and rural India while discussing human problems & existential threats through children & teenagers’ writing.

In her presentation Lucy Windridge-Floris will her share duoautoethnographic research which explores responses to a recurring hiatus in conversations when as a white English woman, she states that she is married to a man with an Arabic name. She will evidence the power of co-inquiry, demonstrate the necessity of flexible responses to written expressions of trauma; and reveal outrage and silence as distinctive ways of coping with discrimination.

Who remembers CB 2021 when Georgiana Blake-Hall roused us as word warriors in her conference poem.  Georgiana is back this year as our resident poet in conference to create another poem and will be faciltating a workshop to inspire your reflections for potential inclusion in that poem.

I’m feeeling excited and energised  for this year’s conference and looking forward to seeing you all there.  Thank you to my planning team mates who helped to make the conference preparation go so smoothly. Thank you Barbara, Dominic, Helen, Georgiana, Jeannie, Kim, Lucy, Richard and Tim.

Mel Perry, Conference Administrator