Writers Work Together for a Weekend...and Beyond!

When asked what her challenges are as an author and community organizer in an article featured in the Philly Voice on July 31, 2015, honoring her work as one of the Top 18 Young Creative Artists working in Philadelphia, Maryan Captan responded: “I’ve always just ignored those who doubt the capabilities and creative minds of young people. Young minds are incredibly fluid, electric, and unafraid, and I think that sort of rebellion scares people – speaking out scares people.” This quote represents a lot of what was addressed and worked to facilitate with authors in Chester on Saturday at the Creative Placemaking and Creative Writing Workshop, held at the M.J. Freed Theater. Maryan Captan works with many organizations in the Philadelphia area to foster the work of artists of all ages, who might otherwise not know how their writing could be used or shared to help them not only as artists in a career capacity, but also in life and within their communities.

The workshop that was held on Saturday was a unique experience that brought individuals from all backgrounds together to discuss and work together on what it means to be an author, how to use expression and creative writing for a multitude of social, community and personal progress, and how to look outside the box to create work that is unafraid to discuss the hard issues of the day. Those that attended all have used writing, poetry, prose, and spoken word work as outlets for their artistic expressions and as a means to have a voice in all issues that assist our society and in their own lives. Individuals who either live, work, or study in Chester, along with Maryan Captan worked on a number of various writing exercises, networking opportunities, and began discussing collaborative ideas for future projects using creative writing to bring together our community.

This workshop was held to teach us how our art and our voices can be used together in collaboration to talk about and express concerns and ideas about the community, city, and culture that we all currently live in. Although it was a rainy day, the workshop was packed to capacity, and participants spent the day getting to know new friends and acquaintances, talking about how we can all work together to imagine a better future and use what we write and think to work towards bringing our community back together. It was an incredibly powerful, emotional, and productive workshop that opened many new doors, and new ideas to the group. Maryan Captan showed that although she is still young respectively herself, she is not afraid to discuss difficult issues, and helped us all to learn how to work together and use our talents and skills for the betterment of us all.