Writing Together

Do you have a history in your mind to write in a creative way, but you do not know how or where to start? Why does that specific history matter to you? Why are you holding on to the story? Please come and bring untold history in your heart to Tanya’s workshop. Tanya will show how her history based on “Comfort Woman” was written in poems and translated into different languages and how she turned it into a play. This workshop will benefit people who have
something in their mind to write but procrastinate to write about that story. This is how Tanya wrote Comfort Woman:

Tanya was shocked and horrified to learn about comfort women during her MFA program. As a Korean American woman, it altered her perspective to realize nobody in her life was aware, or had made her aware, of an atrocity directed at Korean women. She hesitated to write about it at first, uncertain whether she
should take up the responsibility for talking about the comfort women from an uninformed perspective. Compelled to do more than raise comfort women’s stories, she wanted to engage others in thoughtful witness to a trauma that has been historically dismissed. Through documentary research, Tanya gained the insight and confidence to connect deeply with her subject matter. Her research became a thesis, which became a collection of poetry, and now, a play.

Workshop 
What kind of art form do you want to create with history that you want to share in an artistic form? Do you have a historical story in your mind to write in creative ways? Bring all the research information that you have so far and let’s make a plan: In this class, participants will share what story in their mind to start writing and how they want to share in platform. Tanya will have methods to work on how to research and how to record. Tanya will bring how she researched through books, photos, articles, etc to share with you her project. After this class, participants will be inspired to start to tell their untold stories and will walk out the class with their simple plan to start in their hands.