I (joey) would like to thank Craft Cultura and Rountree Market for hosting the Freedom Writing Workshop. My idea for the event came together after attending a Craft Cultura event in San Antonio Texas hosted at Young Blood Gallery in San Antonio and led by Marco Cervantes, a good friend of mine. The event was so good and I covered it in a blog post on my personal blog.
So I set to work getting to know Misael of Craft Cultura and ideating a Brazos event and boom we were in tune and set an April 25th date and I had already been in contact with Victor about having Rountree Market hosting an event, so we were good.
Misael of Craft Cultura was adamant about having a good flyer, so I reached out to my good friend Ernest Cuevas and he made us an amazing poster for the event and it ended up capturing so much of the event.
With a flyer on hand we began advertising the event and getting the word out there. This is one part I personally reflect on often. What is a successful event? One where hundreds show? The one where just a few show, but it’s highly impactful? What is a “first” event suppose to be measured by, especially in a small town.
With the event starting at 2pm, a few people had shown up, but really it wasn’t until 3pm that we had a group and began working away and the group would become a TAZ for that hour we gathered. We were not a big or small group, just a group. We shared our backgrounds, our stories, and then we wrote, and we wrote. After writing we began sharing our pieces and that is where things really began taking off, the stories, the lived realities and ability to engage with like minded people was inspiring.
The event for myself was a roller coaster of feelings. For me, I put this event together because at the last one it felt so great and I figured there were people in Brazos county that such programming would resonate with and it did. Now the goal is to have more events where people can engage with writing as a source of release and empowerment in Brazos county. To be able to build community and feel heard.
So stay tuned for more programing in Brazos County by the Convergent Media Collective. We plan to host some community mural events, more freedom writing workshops and general creative meet ups and collaborations. If you would like to collaborate with us, feel free to reach out to me, joey lopez phd.