Interviews
Community leader and ritualist, Laurie Dietrich will enlighten students about the secret of speaking to the subconscious during her upcoming workshop. She’s slated to conduct the two-day workshop on Nov. 14 and Nov. 21, Dietrich will discuss the dual voice technique rooted in hypnotherapy and the psychology of brain function used in ritual and performance. Dietrich spends most of her time working as a practicing ritualist at Diana’s Grove, a community/ sanctuary/ retreat center in Missouri. The center stands by its precedence that self-discovery and self-creation is a spiritual process by promoting self-awareness through sacred rituals.
Gemini Ink intern Nicole Harbaugh talked with Laurie Dietrich about her upcoming class.
Former Express-News travel editor Tracy Barnett will conduct the Starting and Getting the Most Out of Your Weblog beginner and advanced courses this weekend as part of Gemini Ink’s fall semester. Barnett is a bilingual, multicultural and web-savvy travel writer, editor and teacher. With more than two decades of experience as an award-winning newspaper and magazine writer, an educator, and an author, she incorporates literary talent and a flair for adventure with today’s new media as an audio-video producer, photographer, blogger, and storyteller who crisscrosses boundaries of medium and culture. But more important than medium is the message, which goes beyond language and culture. No matter where she goes, Barnett’s travels are questions in search of answers that exist on the plane of the human heart. 
Gemini Ink’s Communications consultant Jennifer Herrera conducted a Q&A interview with Barnett via e-mail with a goal to keep questions and answers only 140 characters long (à la Twitter) as an example of incorporating social media in readers own blogs.
Gemini Ink’s Writers In Communities (WIC) 2009 fall projects kick off September 11 with a talk on taking control of your life through writing by Austin writer Abe Louise Young. Young will speak to an audience of 40 returning high school students working toward their General Equivalency Diploma (GED) at the East Central High School Learning Academy (ECHS). The students will participate in two Gemini Ink writing workshops. One group comprises young parents working on an anthology of food stories for their children. The second group will work on a poetry/ceramic project, incorporating text into mosaics.
Much of Young’s work focuses on oral history projects, education, and community literacy. A 2007 recipient of an MFA in writing from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, Young’s publications include Hip Deep: Opinion, Essays, and Visions from American Teenagers (Next Generation Press, 2005), and a DVD First in the Family: How to Make it to College (Next Generation Press and the Lumina Foundation for Education, 2006).
WIC talked with Abe Louise about bringing poetry and personal storytelling into the community.
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