Arts of Aveilut: a Workshop on Personal and Communal Reckoning

This event is co-sponsored by Co/Lab: Reimagine Jewish, Eastside Jewish Commons and the Oregons Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
No one will be turned away for lack of funds - when you click to register you will see a sliding scale option

Members of Portland’s overlapping Jewish communities are invited to join together in making art in order to mourn, and to make sense of senseless acts. This event, led by current and past Art/Lab Fellows, will be a Jewish space for introspection and respectful discussion. 

We will have two simultaneous workshops: one using writing, and the other involving clay. No experience is required for either option! Please indicate your top choice when you register, and see details on what you will need to bring to the workshop. 
During our final hour, we will come together as one large group, to share across the two approaches. 

   WORKSHOP #1: BRAIDED WORDS Facilitated by Holly Goodman, writer, journalist, teacher, and mother; and Merridawn Duckler, writer and visual artist. 

Holly and Merridawn’s two-hour writing workshop will explore the intersection of memory, emotion, and current events. Participants will first create independent pieces in response to a series of prompts. Then they will alternate text threads of multiple, sometimes disparate-seeming stories, to weave them into something wholly new. 

Nuts and BoltsBring along your preferred writing implements (electronic or analog—whatever works best).


  WORKSHOP #2: SAFETY • GLASS Facilitated by Leila Wice, ceramicist, ritual maker, and Educator Artist Fellow at the Jewish Studio Project.

Through close textual readings and then hands-on experimentation with clay and glass, we will contemplate the meaning of safety to us, both as individuals and in community. 

Nuts and Bolts We may get messy. Consider bringing an apron or old shirt to wear while we are sculpting. 

Accessibility notes
- The event space is ADA Accessible.
- Air purifiers will be in use, and masks are required for participants.
- Workshop leaders will be unmasked when teaching from the front of the room. They will test for COVID before the event.- Trimet #12 bus stops half a block away from the EJC, at NE 24th and Sandy.