“Until the Lion Learns to Write”: How to Write Your Story with Cinnamongirl
Saturday, May 4 | 4:00 PM - 4:45 PMBerkeley Public Library - Teen Room
- Black voices
- Writing
Cinnamongirl Inc’s Write Your Story program began in 2020 to amplify the voices of Black and Brown girls through writing, inspired in part by the African proverb, “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.” In recent years, words like representation, validation, and authentic storytelling have become so mainstream they threaten to lose their meaning before we’ve even begun to understand their power. Perhaps it is because the idea sounds so simple and achievable on paper: If we only hear one (usually the most dominant and powerful) person’s story over and over again for hundreds of years, everyone else will believe they don’t exist. Until – almost like a spell being broken – we start listening to those who have been silenced and suddenly that representation, validation, and authenticity show those people that, yes, they do exist, and they exist in complicated, beautiful, mundane, and devastating ways. This panel of young writers from Write Your Story will explore finding and staying true to your voice, overcoming your internal critic, writing as a form of empowerment, and the delight and liberation found in sharing your own unique story.
Presented by Cinnamongirl, Inc.