Warrior Writers Memorial Day Commemoration

May 30, 2021 @ 10:00AM — May 31, 2021 @ 10:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Two days of virtual art, healing, and community!

Warrior Writers Memorial Day Commemoration image

Register for our Memorial Day Weekend events!

There are currently no tickets available for this event, but you can still make a donation.

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This Memorial Day Weekend, please join Warrior Writers for two days of wellness, art, and community. We will be offering a full program of free virtual events, including meditation, writing workshops, visual art workshops, performances from veteran artists, and even a cooking lesson! We welcome all veterans, active duty, military family members, artists, allies, and healers who are interested in our mission to engage in artistic expression and support veterans in the discovery of the arts as a transformative tool. This “virtual retreat” will have spaces for creation, reflection, and connection. Learn more about each session in the schedule below. When registering, select all the sessions you would like to attend. You will receive an email with Zoom links for your personalized schedule!

SCHEDULE

Please note, all times are in Eastern Time

SUNDAY, MAY 30th:

10:00am-10:30am Guided Meditation with Stacey Engels

Join us for this breath-based mindful meditation and learn a technique that can be a powerful antidote to stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, etc. Relax, reduce tension and experience calm in community. No experience necessary.
Stacey Engels is a writer, teacher and coach. A long-time member of Warrior Writers’ Advisory Board, she is a trained yoga and meditation instructor and Reiki practitioner. She has worked at the intersection of creativity, education and human services in NYC for over twenty years.


12:00pm-1:00pm "Grief Matters" with Julie Holman

Grief is a profound and personal journey and different for everyone. If you or a loved one are feeling overwhelmed in your personal grief journey and feel the added stress due to the global health crisis, this brief offering provides simplified helpful strategies for finding comfort in uncertain times. Uncertainty can trigger stressors and the intention of this presentation is to briefly address challenges and share positive ways to realign and ease distress.
Benefits : Valuable tools and resources to utilize and share that may help support and guide you and those you care about on your healing journey. Tips and Resources provided
Who is this class for : Family friendly for all ages

What you need : Notepad or journal. Resources will be shared.

2:00pm-4:00pm Generative Writing Workshop for Veterans and Family Members

This workshop will offer prompts that cover a variety of military issues and experiences. This encourages sharing stories, opinions, and ideas for productive writing/reflecting/story-telling and art-making. This workshop also welcomes family members. Whether you are a veteran yourself, a civilian who plans to attend alongside a veteran in your family, or a military family member planning to attend alone, you are welcome at this workshop, regardless of experiences with writing, combat, art, deployment, etc.

5:30pm Cooking Lesson

This virtual cooking session will feature a recipe for an Iraqi dish that participants can follow along with from their own home kitchens, or just watch and learn! While we can’t physically be together on this day, we can still connect and share through the act of cooking; creating a dish to be enjoyed together while apart. Ingredient list will be shared with you after registering for this event.

This session will be in honor of Jason Mays.

7:00pm Virtual Dinner Party

Join us for an informal social hour where we will gather with our community, toast to the ones in our hearts and minds, and relax over a good meal (whatever that may be from wherever people are joining!).

"If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him- the people who give you their food give you their heart."— Cesar Chavez

MONDAY, MAY 31st:

11:00am-1:00pm Acupressure with Sarah Lefkowich

Start your morning with some guided tips on acupressure from Sarah Lefkowich, founder of West Philly Community Acupuncture

2:00pm Memorial Day Ceremony

Join us as Eddie Falcón of Calpulli Coatlicue in Oakland, California will officially start the day's events with the opening ceremony of Mi'totiliztli, an indigenous Aztec/Mayan/Mexica ritual consisting of the huéhuétl (drum), atecocolli (conch shell), and words of reverence that will honor our ancestors, warriors, the youth, the sacred elements, the energies of the Four Directions, the sky, the celestial bodies, and Mother Earth.

3:00pm-4:00pm Watercolor Workshop with Amber Zora (Hoy)

Join veteran artist Amber Zora (Hoy) for a step by step watercolor workshop. We will mail the materials you will need for this workshop to you!

4:00pm-5:00pm Bookbinding Workshop with Laura Rowley

Join us for an introduction to bookbinding to design your own hand bound journal! We'll create a Single Pamphlet structure which contains about 40 pages, soft covers, and a sewn binding, which is great for writing, drawing, and more. Participants will also learn about tools used in bookbinding and practice skills in the craft. This book can be made with basic materials found around the home, but you have the option to have a supply kit sent to you!
This workshop is taught by Laura Rowley, a teaching book artist from Trumansburg, NY. Laura operates Illuminated Press, an independent publisher that produces handmade books which explore the complexities of our social/political/economic fabric. Laura also teaches Bookbidnding at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She shares a studio with Nathan Lewis who makes paper from military uniforms.


5:00pm-7:00pm Generative Writing Workshop for Veterans and Active Duty

This creative writing workshop will offer prompts that cover a variety of military issues and experiences. This encourages sharing stories, opinions, and ideas for productive writing/reflecting/story-telling and art-making. By creating an open and accepting atmosphere, we build a community of support. Workshops are for any service member or veteran regardless of experiences with writing, combat, art, deployment, etc.

8:00pm "Songs and Stories"

Please join us for an evening of storytelling from veteran artists, featuring musicians and spoken word performers. For more details and to register to see the performance, please go here: https://warriorwriters.networkforgood.com/events/2...