Stories transform lives at Write Around Portland

“Everyone has a story to tell. What’s yours?”

By Faye Powell
The Portland Upside
June 2009

Left to Right: Diane Tamassia, Sofi LaReva and Matt Flores are part of the collage of voices at Write Around Portland. (Photo by Faye Powell)

Diane Tamassia, Matt Flores and Sofi LaReva sit across the conference table from me in the busy downtown office of Write Around Portland. The three are among hundreds of participants who have taken writing workshops with the nonprofit organization.

Diane is a slender woman with long straight brown hair and hands that fly excitedly in all directions as she speaks. In spite of her proclaimed shyness, words tumble rapidly from her when I ask about her experience in the workshops.

“They bring out the best in you,” she says. Homeless when she was younger, Diana found her voice through the writing workshop and now writes for the Sisters of the Road Café newsletter. She also reads her poems occasionally on KBOO Community Radio.

Like Diane, Write Around Portland is committed to the belief that everyone has a story to tell and that individuals and the community alike are enriched when people have the opportunity to write and share their stories.

Since 1999 the organization has facilitated writing workshops at no cost for those affected by HIV/AIDS, survivors of domestic violence, seniors in foster care, people in recovery from addictions and physical or mental disabilities, prisoners, homeless teens, veterans living with PTSD, and many others who might be unable to participate due to lack of income, social isolation or other barriers.

The Write Around Portland model is based on the philosophy that everyone is a writer and that writing skills can grow exponentially when strengths are encouraged with positive feedback rather than criticism and competition. Participants meet for ten weekly two-hour sessions to “free write” in a safe, supportive environment. Various prompts are suggested to get the words flowing, such as a picture, a line of a poem or a sentence fragment.

The results are as varied and unique as the participants. Matt, known as Haz Matt when he deejayed on the Spud Brothers radio show in Idaho, used a seashell as a metaphor for his journey of life that has involved “hitting the very bottom and, I imagine, some pretty high highs.”

Matt is serious and reserved until he begins to talk about his writing. At age thirty, he had a heart attack that left him with a chronic heart condition and the possibility of Sudden Death Syndrome. For Matt, writing has been an important means of processing the fear and anxiety that he lives with daily.

“The workshops are also really good for socialization and increasing self-esteem,” Matt says. “When people don’t have a lot of resources, they tend to become isolated. Through the workshops you meet a lot of people.” Like Diane and Sofi, he lives in subsidized housing where getting to know people isn’t always easy.

Write Around Portland is the brainchild of two individuals, Ben Moorad and Liza Halley, who once worked with Outside In, a social service agency for homeless youth. Liza and Ben, a current Write Around Portland board member, believe in the power of writing to transform lives. They conceived of workshops that would reach those in the community who otherwise would not have access. The first volunteer facilitator training sessions were held in Ben’s living room ten years ago. From that modest beginning, Write Around Portland now holds 50 workshops a year.

In addition to the ten-week workshops, mini-workshops are held on the third Thursday and one Sunday a month at Hot Lips Pizza in southeast Portland. The workshops are open to anyone who wants to experience writing in community. A $20 tax-deductible donation is suggested. While reservations are encouraged, drop-ins are also welcome.

Workshop writers engage in the community in two major ways. First, every participant can have his or her work published in an anthology. Over the last ten years, 29 anthologies have been published.

The impact of seeing one’s work in print is huge, says Sofi, a workshop participant.

“I always wanted to be published, but I never thought it would actually happen. It was such a feeling of achievement, a real high. I can’t say enough about the experience.”

Sofi moved to Portland from Spokane, Washington, a little over a year ago to seek the culture and diversity of a large urban environment. She, too, claims to be shy and says through Write Around Portland she discovered a safe, non-judgmental community in which to write, to experience the creativity of others as well as to discover her own. Having her work published was an exciting validation of her creativity.

Public readings provide a second form of community involvement. Write Around Portland invites writers published in the anthology to read their work at events drawing diverse audiences of up to 300 people. Though it can be scary at first, participants find that reading their work publicly gives them an opportunity to feel seen and known in ways they may not have experienced before.

Executive Director Robyn Steely was a workshop facilitator before accepting her current position. She says the organization is inclusive and helps people deal with many issues, such as trauma, poverty and poor health. The workshops, published anthologies and public readings are all part of simultaneously promoting creative expression and social interaction.

Write Around Portland Development Director Beth White describes the experience of writing in community as life-changing. Various programs support “the potential in every person, and this is true not only for workshop participants. For the community at large, there are tremendous advantages to hearing the stories of those not always heard from. Their stories engender respect and dispel fear of others.”

Beth is concerned, however, about the organization’s health in an economy where foundations are cutting back subsidies by 20 to 30 percent. She explains that at the moment the program’s resources are adequate to maintain its current level of service, but they may have to scale back the number of workshops. Already more people apply than Write Around Portland can accommodate.

Three levels of workshops are offered: entry-level traditional workshops facilitated by trained volunteers; “Write On” workshops in which veteran workshop participants begin to self-facilitate; and “Seasoned Writers” groups that meet regularly without an outside facilitator to write in a safe space provided by Write Around Portland. Several “Prompt” workshops are also available on a fee basis for those who can afford to pay, including one this summer at Powell’s Books.

Write Around Portland partners with a long list of social service agencies such as Cascade AIDS Project, Veterans Living with PTSD, Central City Concern, and the Youth Employment Institute. Much of Beth’s work involves telling potential donors the amazing stories of participants.

“We never talk about our work as therapy, but it is hugely therapeutic,” she says. “When you put people together in a room with paper and pen in front of them, magic happens.”

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For a schedule of upcoming workshops and events, see www.writearound.org/events, call 503-796-9224, or visit the office at 917 SW Oak Street, #406.

Faye Powell is a retired librarian who has a lifelong engagement with reading and writing.