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Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center
Writer’s Retreat Series
From songwriting to screenwriting, the BBAC’s summer-long writing
series offers a variety of exciting new classes to suit your writing skills
and interests.
Getting Personal with Cindy
La Ferle, a weekend workshop in writing and publishing personal
essays, June 20 and 21, 1:30 pm – 4 pm.
Whether your goal is to write for personal pleasure or publication, this
workshop/retreat will help you conquer your fear of self-expression. You’ll
learn how to craft your life experiences into marketable short essays
for magazines or chapters for your own memoir. The workshop will include
an in-depth discussion on what makes a compelling personal essay, plus
in-class writing time. Instructor will share the secrets of marketing
short essays to a variety of media. New writers are welcome. Please bring
two or three photos depicting special events or people in your life.
INSTRUCTOR: Cindy La Ferle, B.S., Michigan State University, believes
that writing and sharing personal stories can be a tool for healing and
self-discovery. Her workshops provide a safe and supportive space in which
students can rediscover their creativity and learn how to snare a byline
if they want to pursue publication. Focusing on women’s midlife
issues, her weekly “Midpoint” column runs every Thursday in
the online edition of The Oakland Press. Cindy’s own essay collection,
Writing Home, won several awards for creative nonfiction and is distributed
to bookstores by Wayne State University Press. As Writer-in-Residence
for the Royal Oak Public Library, she has developed many creative writing
programs and events for Oakland County writers and journalists.
John D. Lamb’s Songwriting:
Methods and Prompts, Sunday, July 19, 3 pm – 5 pm.
This class is open to anyone, beginners or experienced songwriters. Lamb
will demonstrate the different ways that he has written songs. Then each
participant receives a song assignment based on methods that are used
at Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters. These retreats have birthed well
over 300 songs written from Lamb’s assignments.
INSTRUCTOR: John D. Lamb, winner of the 2007 Detroit Music Award for Outstanding
Acoustic/Folk Recording for his CD Feel That. “What I teach my song-writing
students is what works best for me.,” Lamb said. “You may
be inspired to write but it isn’t a gift from the heavens. You still
have to put it aside, look at it again and again till it reflects your
very best work.” The Royal Oak entrepreneur combines creativity
and business skills to play 160 music gigs a year, coordinate three writer’s
conferences and provide a showcase for poets and songwriters around town.
Screenwriter, Ivan Raimi,
Sunday, July 26, 1 pm – 3 pm.
Ivan Raimi is a screenwriter who has written on more than eight Hollywood
feature films including Spiderman 1, 2 and 3, Army of Darkness, and Darkman.
He has worked as the creator, director and producer of network television
programming. Currently he is the writer and producer of Universal Picture’s
upcoming horror film Drag me to Hell. This class is for all levels of
screenwriters, from those who have not yet begun to those experienced
writers who have hit a wall in their writing. This class is about finding
the fun of writing. It will explore the basic rules and structure of the
three act screenplay and why it’s sometimes best to ignore them.
Discussions will include how to revive a dead scene, write for high budget
features versus low budget independent films, obtain the financing to
make your movie, and balance writing with another career. Several examples
of written scenes, and how they did or did not translate to the screen,
will be displayed.
The new catalog is now available at the BBAC. Space
is limited, so register soon.
For complete details on all writing workshops contact The Birmingham Bloomfield
Art Center, 1516 S. Cranbrook, Birmingham MI 48009, 248.644.0866
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