Soft Skills Summer School
Creating An Empowering + Compelling Narrative About Your Work
With Kamala Puligandla
Sunday, July 23, 1-3PM
on Zoom
Free
This summer, we’re bringing you the “softer side” of professional development, straight from the experience of your favorite FCCW Staff. You voted on professional development topics you needed/wanted, and we’ve scheduled them! Once a month from June–Sept, you’re invited to learn about Values Centered Professionalism, Writing an Empowering and Compelling Narrative About Your Work, Organizing and Organizational Systems, and Grant Writing. This month we’re learning to write and talk about your creative work!
Doing your art practice or creative work is entirely different than explaining it to other people! In this workshop we’ll discuss different ways to put together the what, how, and whys of your work, and link them to the story you want to tell about who you are and the impact of what you create.
In addition to reminding you of why your work is special, we hope to generate language that you can work into artist statements, applications, bios, and other places where you need to explain what you do. We’ll talk through questions, do some exercises together, and construct a narrative, in your voice, that ties together your identity, experience, and creative work.
Kamala Puligandla is a writer, editor, copywriter, and queer mentor, with a knack for giving words to the ineffable, and finding the elegant version of what people are trying to say. Especially for people of color and queer people, it’s often necessary to invent the language to talk about the themes and aims of our work, and carefully position it so we’re read the way we intend. I’ve spent years honing the language to describe myself and my writing for various audiences — I’m excited to share what I’ve learned, and our collective knowledge, to help you do the same.