Programs
Current
On the Page & On the Stage
at the Boston Public Library
(Open to the Public)
We’ve teamed up with the Boston Public Library and its local branches to provide a variety of free workshops for adults and youth, matching the interests and energies of library patrons and the specializations and backgrounds of our facilitators who come from the surrounding neighborhoods and the communities we share. Since 2015, we’ve offered workshops led by freestyle artists, therapists, and authors focusing on everything from managing our emotions in times of isolation and upheaval, to nature, to history, to embodying and articulating the elements of poetic and performance art. Programs run periodically throughout the year and rotate among nine branches throughout Greater Boston.
For current classes and workshops listings visit Boston Public Library calendar here or Writers Without Margins, Inc on Facebook.
Radical Reversal
at the Suffolk County House of Correction
We’re collaborating with acclaimed poet and musician, Randall Horton, to bring music, poetry, and performance to correctional facilities, demonstrating how art can play a pivotal role in social justice and provide pathways for established artists to give back. Writers Without Margins has been selected to participate in this Creative Capital national program, which is also currently being offered in Alabama and Minnesota.
The Power of Poetry
at the Cambridge Public Library
(Open to the Public)
Our newest program is a partnership with the Cambridge Public Library's Social Work Department bringing expressive writing to the branches of the City of Cambridge. This therapeutic series, modeled after our hybrid history with the Boston Public Library and various health and human services organizations, highlights the four tenets of connection, collaboration, consciousness, and clarity as literary and life skills.
Write Here, Write Now
at the Safe & Sound Recovery Center
This peer-led, writing group is held within the Mass and Cass vicinity of treatment centers and public health services targeting unsheltered individuals. Our expressive writing model is tailored to nurture compassionate reflection and offer inroads to confronting addiction and adversity through writing.
Available Upon Request
Writing In Respite
at the Barbara McInnis House
This workshop is provided to individuals receiving inpatient medical care and is offered to participants during their extended stays at the Barbara McInnis House, a Boston Healthcare for the Homeless respite care center. Literary examples, writing exercises, and collaborative discussion allow for thoughtful contemplation and creativity to engender self-growth and empowerment during a critical time of refuge and healing.
Step By Step
at Step by Step Supportive Services
This workshop, located at an outpatient, treatment center, aims to engage adults with psychiatric, cognitive, and social disabilities through the healing power of expressive writing. Through art, guided exercises, guest speakers, and collaborative discussion, we explore the ways in which language, poetry, literature, storytelling, and other expressive modalities can promote healing, recovery, and authority.
Recently Featured
Inside Expression
at the Suffolk County House of Correction
This program is modeled after the prison reentry workshop showcased in the documentary, In Their Shoes: Unheard Stories of Reentry & Recovery. The group uses the techniques of literary discussion, guided prompts, and expressive writing. Utilizing the philosophy of “credible messengers,” which espouses the belief that communities have within them transformative resources to lift up justice-involved people in a comprehensive and positive way, this workshop is co-facilitated by a returning citizen who exemplifies sustainable change from within.
The Intensive Caregivers
Contact Us about a Live or Virtual Workshop Suited to your Organization
This workshop is designed for those who self-identify as “caregivers,” whether by traditional or less conventional definitions, or both. Almost universally, we experienced how the Covid-19 pandemic increased pressure for people to take care of one another, from homeschooling, to grief counseling, in unprecedented ways, while “essential workers” bore the burden of the economy and health care system, often with little, affordable, mental health support. These workshops encourage expressive writing as an accessible, artistic and therapeutic outlet for an individual’s own self-care. Notable programs we've held include our work with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Sexual Assault Response Unit’s Disabled Person’s Protection Commission and the Boston Public Health Commission's professional development series for emerging BIPOC leaders confronted by the continuous trauma and urgency demanded by their careers
Taking Authorship
Contact Us about a Live or Virtual Workshop Suited to your Organization
This workshop framework is created to build empowerment and invite self-discovery through a supportive, structured environment of engagement and insight. Confronting personal, professional, and familial challenges such as perfectionism, procrastination, and people-pleasing, we approach our own life stories from creative angles in order to become more aware, accountable, and with greater authority in the next chapter. Previous and ongoing examples of programs range from our live seminar with Brockton's Family Center to virtual sessions with the Connect Crew, a women's group encouraging gratitude and growth through the lens of literature.