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ONLINE: Writeability Goes Local – Why Writing Matters Forum (Mornington Peninsula)

Date:

With:

Jax Jacki Brown and Jessica Walton

Rating:

ALL

Summary:

This forum is for anyone in the Mornington Peninsula Shire interested in receiving professional development on the Social Model of Disability and best practice language for organisations. The second workshop, Our Own Voices, explores how language, writing and telling our own stories helps transform ways of thinking about the self, disability and community. It is the introduction to the Writers Group, scheduled to run for eight sessions over the coming months. Writers with disability at all levels of experience are invited to attend.

Two images of white women – one has short red hair and glasses and sits smiling in a wheelchair, the other is smiling broadly off camera with her short blonde hair pinned back from her face.

Jax Jacki Brown and Jessica Walton

Details

Who is it for?

Come and be part of the launch of Writeability Goes Local at Mornington Peninsula.

Explore how language, writing and telling our own stories helps transform ways of thinking about the self, disability and community. Developed by people with disability, the forum provides professional development on the Social Model of Disability and best practice language for organisations.

The forum is for writers and aspiring writers with disability in the Mornington Peninsula, as well as arts and community development workers, disability and health service providers, teachers, local councils and libraries.

When we say that Writeability is a program for people with disability, we mean that it's for anyone who experiences barriers as a result of their particular impairment or condition (such as the lack of physical access, communication barriers, discrimination or other people’s attitudes).

This includes (but isn't limited to) people with sensory or physical impairments, hidden impairments, ongoing medical conditions, intellectual impairments, learning difficulties or mental health conditions. If you self-identify as a person with disability, or as someone who experiences barriers as a result of your condition, then this opportunity is for you.

 

Program

By bridging the gap between mainstream arts and disability communities, the Own Voices Forum will use writing to break down barriers to social inclusion and give people with disability the skills and opportunity to tell their stories their way.

  • 5.45pm – Zoom link open.
  • 6pm Welcome and Why Writing Matters. The Writeability team will teach you about the Social Model of Disability, best-practice language, advocacy and power, and share some tips on how to write about disability.
  • 7.30pm Write Now – Writing Activity
  • 7.45pm Q&A

 

About Jax Jacki Brown

Jax Jacki Brown (they/them) is a disability and LGBTIQA+ rights activist, writer, and educator. Jax has written for Junkee, Daily Life, The Feminist Observer, Writers Victoria, ABC’s Ramp Up, Hot Chicks with Big Brains and Archer Magazine. Jax is published in the following anthologies: 'Queer Disability Anthology' (2015), 'QueerStories: Reflections on Lives Well Lived from Some of Australia's Finest LGBTIQA+ Writers' (2018), 'Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories' (2019), 'Growing up Queer in Australia' (2019) and the forthcoming 'We’ve got this: parenting and disability anthology' (2022). Jax is interested in how we can build resilience, pride and community for people with disabilities.

 

About Jessica Walton

Jessica Walton is the author of 'Introducing Teddy', a gentle story about a transgender teddy bear. She wrote it after realising that the picture books on her kids’ shelves didn’t reflect the diversity of her family. Jess is the author of graphic novel 'Stars In Their Eyes' which will be published by Fremantle Press in late 2021. She has two short stories for teens and kids published in Australian anthologies 'Funny Bones' (Allen and Unwin 2019) and 'Meet Me at the Intersection' (Fremantle Press 2018). In 2017 Jess completed a Writeability Fellowship with Writers Victoria focused on poetry about disability, cancer and pain. In 2020 she completed a Publishability Fellowship, which continues this work. Jess has had poems published in a few anthologies, magazines and journals. She also has a patreon where she shares her poetry directly with patrons. Jess co-wrote an episode of 'Get Krack!n' focused on disability, which aired on the ABC in February 2019.

 

More about Writeability Goes Local: Mornington Peninsula

This nine-month creative writing program is funded by Mornington Peninsula Shire and is a collaboration with Writers Victoria and Peninsula Writers Club. It aims to reduce the disadvantages that disabled writers can face due to social isolation, remoteness from city-based programs, the expense of professional development and the assumption that people with disability need other people to tell their stories. 
Following the forum, Writeability Goes Local: Mornington Peninsula will include workshops and author talks for people with disability interested in writing and building their writing skills for creativity and enjoyment. To take part, register for the Mornington Peninsula Writeability Writers Group here, or email Lyndel to register your interest. 

 

 

Cancellation Policy

Venue:

Online
Australia

Contact:

Phone: 90947895
Email: [email protected]

Registration for this event ended on 20 May 2021 - 8:00
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