Another wonderful and soul inspiring week at the 2023 Curriculum Inquiry Writing Fellowship @CI_Editors 💕 It is always such an honour to learn and think with this wonderful group and grow our community as new fellows join us each year.

Can we talk about how dope Dra. García-Sánchez is ?!?! I need more of this *how* we treat and take up narrative and story in #academia

Here to say that Dr Taylor is one of the best mentors ever, and was such a humanizing and thoughtful scholar at the @CI_Editors Writing retreat. I feel so full of love and confidence from this scholarly community.

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve @DanezSmith @LEGO_Group As #CIWF23 attendees craft a re/presentation of their world(s), @JustinAColesPhD provides additional provocations related to their world-building, including considering why their design is necessary, & whether/if their world is complete

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve @DanezSmith To close, @JustinAColesPhD turns up the music & invites #CIWF23 to use an array of analog materials (craft supplies, playdough, @LEGO_Group) to leverage their creativity & physically engage in worldmaking.

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve @DanezSmith Building on that (but changing thought-partners), @JustinAColesPhD then asks #CIWF23 to discuss the following: What message do you have for the new world/s you are building via your writing and curriculum work? Who would you like to hear this?

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve @DanezSmith Shifting folks into a fishbowl configuration, @JustinAColesPhD asks #CIWF23 to pair-share their thinking related to their vision for a new world.

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve Ahead of asking #CIWF23 to think through their own worldmaking, @JustinAColesPhD shares a poem from one of his own fave creatives, @DanezSmith, to provide an example of (embodied) world-making. Interested? Listen to "Dear White America" here:

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve After detailing his recent (youth) work w/ "L.I.T. City," @JustinAColesPhD argues for the urgency to address (anti-)Blackness, highlighting the sustained violence against Black youth – from #TamirRice to the aggressive cutting of a young wrestler's hair. #CIWF23

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve Upon returning to their seats, @JustinAColesPhD reads aloud an excerpt of his own writing to #CIWF23, & tells his own story of starting w/ Black Worldmaking, often through #BlackAesthetic & in opposition to anti-Blackness

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve After providing everyone at #CIWF23 a single sheet of paper, @JustinAColesPhD asked folks to create a #6WordMemoir wherein they addressed the following: "Living for liberation, perhaps an im/possibility?" In turn, folks posted their page & observed the words of others

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve Noting his love for the visual, @JustinAColesPhD offers an intro slide following his initial invitation to self-reflection. #CIWF23

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve To some extent, @JustinAColesPhD says, his creativity felt halted, even in how he designed his shared grad student office. Slowly, he realized people didn't know what to do w/ his sort of creativity. Yet, "I still fight to get back to that self (creative, poetic, visual)" #CIWF23

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve After years of creative writing (plays, poetry), @JustinAColesPhD recalls blocks to creativity he encountered as he applied/began his PhD studies: "this too poetic" "too free" "what are the facts" "why do you want a PhD" #CIWF23

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther @OISEUofT @wtgrantfdn @tuckeve Alright, #CIWF23 fans, are you ready for your 1st prompt from @JustinAColesPhD?! Pause & consider how you enter the work(shop) this AM. Specifically, consider: What is your method of creativity in the world? How do you keep that alive/present/sustained as you do #academicWriting?

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst @ooh_esther Notably, @JustinAColesPhD isn't just connected to @OISEUofT through his role w/ @CI_Editors, but as he noted in his opening remarks, his work as a @wtgrantfdn Writing Fellow, which is co-facilitated by our fab colleague @tuckeve! #CIWF23 To learn more:

@JustinAColesPhD @UMassAmherst And, if you'd like to take a look at the special issue of @CI_Editors that @JustinAColesPhD & #CIWF22 Mentor @ooh_esther co-edited, be sure to read their stellar editorial here! #CIWF23 https://t.co/rxmMcqfP0Z