August 4 - Storytelling

For our last ROMWrites session of the summer, we are focusing on the storytelling behind some of the museum’s most iconic items.

If this is your first time joining us, please note that you can use our guide to facilitate a group. If you’re writing on your own time, you can dive right in! Please email info@inkwellworkshops.com if you have any questions during the process - we’ll be happy to help you out.

Once you’ve finished the workshop, we’d love if you posted a comment on this page with a favourite line you wrote today, or a whole piece if you feel like it! Leanne will be checking back over the course of the week to share some encouragement. You can also connect with our writing team on social media: @InkWellW on Twitter and @inkwellworkshops on Instagram.

If you’re ready to get started, click the link below to open the PowerPoint workshop. Thanks for sharing in this creative journey with us over the past few months. We’ve loved reading your work and getting inspired with you!

STORYTELLING

July 20 - Movement

ROMWrites is back with a fun and challenging new workshop on MOVEMENT. Today, we will ask you to reflect on your ancestry and try writing a poem that emphasizes movement through both words and the use of space across a page.

If this is your first time joining us, please note that you can use our guide to facilitate a group on your own. If you’re writing solo today, you can dive right in! Please email info@inkwellworkshops.com if you have any questions during the process - we’ll be happy to help you out.

Once you’ve finished the workshop, we’d love if you posted a comment on this page with a favourite line you wrote today, or a whole piece if you feel like it! Leanne will be checking back over the course of the week to share some encouragement. You can also connect with our writing team on social media: @InkWellW on Twitter and @inkwellworkshops on Instagram.

If you’re ready to get started, click the link below to open the PowerPoint workshop. May the muses move you!

MOVEMENT

July 6 - Communities Create

Whether you’re new to creative writing or experienced in the art of storytelling, you’ll find new inspiration in objects from the ROM’s boundless collection. Guided by Leanne Toshiko Simpson, participants in this live Zoom workshop will engage with multi-genre creative prompts that will build towards a larger piece that can be expanded and polished after the workshop.

You can watch the recorded session below!

June 22 - Discovery

Welcome back to ROMWrites! We’ve taken the last few weeks to reflect on our responsibilities as educators, organizers and writers, and we hope you have too. Today’s workshop is inspired by some incredible creative contributions made by Black and Indigenous artists, and we hope it inspires you to seek out other ways that BIPOC communities are reimagining our collective pasts, presents and futures. We have so much to learn from each other.

If this is your first time, please note that you can use our guide to facilitate a group. If you’re writing on your own time, you can dive right in! Please email info@inkwellworkshops.com if you have any questions during the process - we’ll be happy to help you out.

Once you’ve finished the workshop, we’d love if you posted a comment on this page with a favourite line you wrote today, or a whole piece if you feel like it! Leanne will be checking back over the course of the week to share some encouragement. You can also connect with our writing team on social media: @InkWellW on Twitter and @inkwellworkshops on Instagram.

If you’re ready to get started, click the link below to open the PowerPoint workshop. Happy writing!

DISCOVERY

A Statement from Us

In support of our BIPOC community, InkWell Workshops, in partnership with the Royal Ontario Museum, has decided to postpone our ROMWrites workshop on June 8. We stand in solidarity with everyone impacted by systemic racism and recognize its effects on mental health. During this time, the ROM will be taking meaningful steps towards implementing inclusive, anti-racist practices. You can read their full statement here.

InkWell Workshops will also continue to support our writers through new and existing programming. Current participants can join us for our Writing for Social Justice workshop on June 17, and stay tuned for new BIPOC literary salons coming later this summer. Our staff will also be engaging in additional training through the CMHA to better support our diverse network of creators.

For writing, mental health, and other resources, please take a look at our new Anti-Racist Resource Sheet.

Until ROMWrites resumes on June 22, we encourage you to consider the following writing exercise:

Think about the first fictional character you ever identified with:

a)      What qualities did they possess that reminded you of yourself?

 b)     Were you used to encountering characters like you in popular culture?

                           i.          If yes: As a writer, how can you help build a creative landscape that

incorporates other experiences?

                          ii.          If no: How do you choose to write your realities into your creative work, and

what power can you draw from this?

Take care of yourself and the people around you, and we will see you on June 22!

In solidarity,

The InkWell Workshops Collective

May 25 - Connection

Welcome to our first ROMWrites workshop! We are so thrilled to have you with us and we hope you’ll get inspired by some of the stories behind the ROM’s massive online collection.

If you’re facilitating a group, check out our guide before you begin!

If you’re writing on your own time, you can dive right in! Please email info@inkwellworkshops.com if you have any questions during the process - we’ll be happy to help you out.

Once you’ve finished the workshop, we’d love if you posted a comment on this page with a favourite line you wrote today, or a whole piece if you feel like it! You can also connect with our writing team on social media: @InkWellW on Twitter and @inkwellworkshops on Instagram. We love reading our writers’ work.

Now let’s get writing! Click the link below to open the PowerPoint workshop.

CONNECTION

Who are these fine-feathered friends? And what can they teach us about our connections to each other?