Strengths and shifts with poet Theresa Davis
If you’ve had the opportunity to see Theresa Davis perform as a spoken word artist, or have read her work, then you know that there is a lot of love behind those words.
As we get ready for the Love Letters to Your Younger Self workshop (Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021 at 7 PM EST) featuring Davis, we thought it was a great time to reacquaint you with one of our favorite writers, teachers, and members of the 7 Stages family. Below, Davis talks about the upcoming workshop and how she has adapted during these isolating times to keep the creative energy flowing.
[Caroline Baxter]
The Love Letters workshop is not a love letter in the traditional sense, it’s a love letter to your younger self. Why was it important to you to shift the focus of the love from another to oneself?
[Theresa Davis]
You don’t necessarily need to shift the focus of love from another to oneself, I think you need both. This workshop is more about acknowledging those moments in your past where something shifted in our lives that reveals something that pointed you in a different direction or provoked a new way of thinking. After the last year of so much disinformation and unbelievable dysfunction, writing a love letter or poem to my younger self, reminds me when the strength to endure and overcome slights shifted.
C – What are some of the ways that participants will tap into this self-love and embrace the qualities that make them authentic and then write about it?
T – When strolling through our pasts, it is important to wade in and be as vulnerable as make participants feel safe. Sometimes writing takes you to places you didn’t expect, so make sure you can swim in those waters.
C – Is there a certain piece of your own writing that makes you feel the love?
T – I have many pieces that make me feel the love, even if that love is rooted in fear, anger, hope or activism. When we trust ourselves with our own stories the love is always there whether it makes you laugh or cry. I write for myself, connections, conversations, all these things equal love.
C – You have been working with 7 Stages for many years as a teaching artist, performer, and creator, what pulled you into the 7 Stages family, and what can audiences look forward to next?
T – My parents pulled me initially into the 7 Stages family in my teens, kicking and screaming no doubt. My work at Horizons School brought Heidi S Howard and Youth Creates into my sphere. The attention to work that is not so traditional and the openness to all kinds of art keeps me connected and being a teaching junkie has a lot to do with my connection to 7 Stages as well. I am plotting my next project, I’ll let you know what I come up with.
C – Since it is a writing workshop based on this year’s Big Read pick, ADVICE FROM THE LIGHTS by Stephanie Burt, what is your advice to writers to keep the light inside themselves burning bright?
T – In this time of strangeness, I think it is important to unplug from screens when you can. And while we can’t gather in large groups I’ve seen some very creative ways to check in with each other. I have had some laughs standing in parking lots and yards shouting at my friends. I’ve also taken up old hobbies that calmed me and brought joy in the past – puzzles, miniatures and journaling have kept the lights on in myself.
