“The old plucked chicken — or the ‘okay senior’?”

By Elizabeth Ussher Groff

The Bee, Oct 31, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

“Helena S.” joined fifty other Portlanders, who late this past summer captivated the audience as they read personal essays they’d written with the help of free writing workshops offered by “Write Around Portland”.

Elizabeth Ussher Groff / THE BEE

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On a warm late-summer night I found myself sitting in the basement room of the First Congregational Church in the Park Blocks downtown, listening to one of my neighbors and over fifty other Portlanders read personal essays they had written over the summer.

My neighbor, Helena, who invited me to the reading, is a woman in her early seventies, whose passion is exploring the cultural life of Portland. She is most attracted to those events that enrich the mind and heart without leaving a large hole in the pocketbook.

This pastime and hobby, if you will, has led Helena to discover and support nonprofit organizations that make life more meaningful for citizens in our city, especially those in need.

“Write Around Portland”, the nonprofit organization which sponsored the reading, is an example. Write Around Portland provides free writing workshops for people who have never had the opportunity to explore their own voice through the written word.

Workshop participants include at-risk youth, teen parents, people with disabilities, young people with mental illness, and families affected by HIV/AIDS. Some participants are in recovery from addictions, or are veterans of various wars. Some, like my neighbor, are affiliated with a senior citizen organization.

Eastmoreland resident and fiction writer Natalie Serber is a relatively new Write Around Portland board member and workshop facilitator. “The workshops bring together people from a diverse community with a wonderful commonality of experience, which is, all of us at some point in our lives feels, unheard. It is an amazing gift to be present where people are really heard.”

Serber says that as workshop facilitators, they work very hard to create a non-judgmental experience for participants. The resulting group dynamic enables participants to be trusting and open.

That night, all writers who read from their work revealed something personal about themselves, describing moving experiences, insights, and emotions. They spoke of pain, trauma, joy and struggle, and of opportunities lost and found. Some described with humor and poignancy the solace they find in the company of animal friends.

At the end of each series of eight Write Around Portland workshops, all of which are facilitated by volunteers, an anthology is published. Anthologies are on sale around the city, and also at the Looking Glass Bookstore in Sellwood, at 7983 S.E. 13th Avenue.

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