A Room of Our Own
When I was asked to write a journal entry for Workshop I immediately said yes. When I sat down to write I felt a bit overwhelmed. The word “workshop” is loaded with history, it’s a word and concept that has taken up so much space throughout my life. Over the last 25 years, I have been a part of writing workshops as a student, a teacher, and a writer. But a workshop is never just a class or a room; it is a place of gathering as much as it is a place of honesty and hope and creation. It is a place where an idea becomes easier to carry because of the community around you.
For me, a workshop has always been less about creating something perfect and more about simply being present. It is where half formed ideas are welcomed, where the questions raised matter as much as the answers sought, where listening is sometimes more valuable than speaking. A workshop is not a linear space, it is circular. It is rooted in seeing yourself and your work and your passion through the eyes of the others present and being open to shaping and reshaping meaning together.
Vivian with her sons Justin and Andrew
As a mother, I have come to see the importance of the concept of “workshop” and the importance of being present and open. My two sons remind me what it is to approach the world with wonder, to trust ideas and words even before they begin to make full sense, because it is beautiful to live in a world where butterflies have eyelashes (they don’t) and bumblebees have a great memory (they do). As a mother, I have come to understand that learning isn’t reserved for classrooms, it happens everyday in all the spaces we create and when we take time to pause and listen. Listening is its own act of creation.
To be part of a workshop is to belong. Workshop fosters a space where all the parts of yourself meet. It is a space that lets the student in you stay curious, the writer in you take risks, the teacher in you keep learning, and the parent in you remember the small, astonishing details of the world.
Written by Vivian DiGennaro
