About The Workshops
Photo of Rae’s notebook, poastel cover, on black and white sheet. The notebook is dotted grid, and has four sentences:
What can I write about?
How should my writing look?
How do I even start writing?
Note: My voice is important!
A Word From Rae White, Our Facilitator
It's vital for young TGD people to write with a facilitator who is also TGD - it gives them the familiarity and connection they need to be vulnerable with themselves and in their writing. Our stories are so often told for us, so it's crucial to provide young TGD people with the space, the tools and the confidence to tell their own stories.
Heading into the workshops, I think most people already knew the story they wanted to tell, they were just unsure of how to tell it. It was such a joyous experience to connect with this group of young TGD people! I watched as the confidence in their writing skills grew over time, as they gained the skills they needed to tell their stories in their own words.
In the workshops we covered how to start the writing process, as well as topics to write about, the forms they might take, and what to do once you've written something. I was also able to mentor workshop participants one-on-one, assisting them more with their writing ideas and fine-tuning their work.
You can visit Rae’s site, and check out their book, if you click here.
A Word From HGA
We had the privilege to work with Rae at the Our Lives Conference in 2019. We were struck by Rae’s compassion and professionalism - and the fact that there were 20+ people in their room, writing poetry and enjoying it.
Although we reviewed other TGD poets and facilitators for the workshop contract, doing workshops via Zoom meant we could offer the workshops to a wider range of people, and attract an interstate facilitator. Rae is a multi-award winning poet and author, as well as a TGD community member - an invaluable combination for working with TGD young people.
Without Zoom, we could not have offered Rae’s expertise to our participants.
We also attracted writers not just from Newcastle and it’s surrounds, but also Brisbane and even the United States!
Granting young people the tools and skills to express themselves, and doing so in a supportive environment, is crucial to the health of future generations of trans and gender diverse people. We’re very grateful to Aurora Grants for making this possible.