Docuseries workshops open for youth participants

A writing workshop for youth interested in exploring climate change and nuclear weapons

We received this exciting invitation from our colleagues at Reverse the Trend for youth who are interested in become better writers. We hope you will pass this on to anyone you feel might be interested.

---

REVERSE THE TREND

Reverse the Trend (https://rttreversingthetrend.org/) offers educational resources, networking opportunities, and creative workshops to youth who are interested in exploring the deep connections between two existential threats: climate change and nuclear weapons.

The world is grappling with multiple crises with few resources and a lack of political will. Reverse the Trend presents an opportunity to think about the overlapping nature of these global challenges, and encourage fresh thinking and advocacy on how to tackle them with young people as leaders!

DOCUSERIES

Reverse the Trend offers the Docuseries program: a series of creative writing workshops offered online (via Zoom sessions), where participants can practice writing skills, cultivate creative confidence, and explore nuclear weapons and climate change issues from a community-centered approach. At the end of the workshops, participants will have an opportunity to showcase their writing through a final art piece.

For example, the last Docuseries held in 2020 culminated in a community poem (titled, “A Journey Home”) written collectively by Marshallese youth living in the United States. The poem, which is a reflection on the impact of nuclear testing legacy and the many meanings of “home,” has since been published in Outrider Magazine and interpreted in a short animated film to be previewed in the United Nations as part of the 2022 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Review Conference.

2022 DOCUSERIES NOW OPEN

Reverse the Trend is now looking for participants for the next Docuseries workshops! This year, we would like to engage Canadian youth (high school or college level), especially those who identify as part of the First Nations community in the region.

● We will be hosting TWO Docuseries workshops (1.5 hours each on Zoom) to be held late February or early March 2022 (most likely to be scheduled during two consecutive weekends). Participants must be able to attend both workshops.

● Participants will receive a modest honorarium, and have their writing featured in a future art piece (part of an online “zine” to be designed with an artist) to be shared publicly, and with environmental and nuclear policy diplomats.

THEME: UNCHARTED FUTURES AND ECOLOGY OF PEACE

Anxiety about environmental collapse and continued inaction towards climate change leaves little room to imagine a better, sustainable future. Reverse the Trend believes that strong community-building and effective activism cannot be achieved by only channeling dread and fear. Rather, it is equally important to believe in new possibilities – building alternate futures – where humanity finds peace and balance with the greater world.

For this Docuseries, participants will be writing short nonfiction and fiction (500 words or shorter) about environments they feel connected to and inspired by the most (example: their neighborhood, favorite parks, sacred lands, etc.); examining how it has been harmed by human activity; and imagining a future where these places survive and thrive.

In the process of writing and sharing, participants will also discuss how conflict and human violence impacts ecology, from scarcity of natural resources to the deterioration of biodiversity.

If participants are interested, the workshops can focus on a specific place or issue, such as the ongoing water contamination issue affecting the Six Nations of the Grand River in Canada.

INTERESTED IN JOINING THE DOCUSERIES?

Please email Reverse the Trend Docuseries facilitator Lovely Umayam to join:

lovely@bombshelltoe.com

More information about Lovely’s work can be found here: www.lovelyumayam.com

THANK YOU FOR CONSIDERING THIS PROGRAM!