Voice into Poetry - last chance to join

Hello,

I used to hate my voice. When I was 18 someone pointed out a tremor I didn't know was there, and that incident sparked a deep desire within me to fix what I perceived as being broken. For the next 15 years, I sought out voice teachers to help me to fix my voice, and through that process I learned, unexpectedly, that I have a body (I lived so much in my head before), and that I could allow my voice to live and resonate within it -- this completely changed my relationship to its sound.

One of the classes I teach that is closest to my heart is my Voice into Poetry 7-week poetry writing series. In this series we read, speak, and write our own poetry about our relationship to our voice. Each week, we explore our topic of voice through a different theme: silence, metaphor, growing up, apology, assertiveness, playfulness, and performance. I love how this series builds. I love the compassion that gets expressed, and the bonding and real listening that always takes place between the participants. I love how both acceptance, care, and curiosity are sparked as we write.

Day 1 of this series starts today at 5:30pm PT, online. There are 2 spots left if you would like to join us.

Why I Designed a Poetry Writing Workshop on Voice

On October 7th, I taught an intro to this series. During that class, I shared why this topic is so important to me. Listen to that story below.

The poem I mention in this video is ‘On the Nature of Understanding’ by Kay Ryan. I also mention the book ‘Anatomy of Voice’ by Blandine Calais-Germain and Francois Germain.

About the Voice into Poetry 7-Week Series

In this video, I share info on the structure of the series. I also answer some questions from participants, including:

1. Is your series geared more towards seasoned poets, or towards those who are interested in poetry but have never written it before?

2. With someone who has never written a poem before, how do you support them to start writing poetry for the first time?

3. Do we have to read our poems out loud to others?

A shout out to my voice and breath teachers, over the last 15 years

There are several teachers I would like to acknowledge who had a profound impact on me as I developed a loving and embodied relationship to my voice. I don’t think this workshop would exist without their mentorship.

Those teachers include: Valerie Galvin, Alisa Kort, Gayle Murphy, and Linda Marie James from Breathexperience Canada; Juerg Roffler from Breathexperience International; David Smukler and the generous faculty from Canada’s National Voice Intensive; Diane Roberts, Gerry Trentham, and Julie Tamiko Manning from the Arrivals Legacy Project; and Mark Downey who I worked with as a singing coach near the start of all of this for over a year.

There are many more people to thank, but here are just a few. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope to pass on some of what they taught me, onto you in this series.

(By the way, after over 10 years of study here’s how my voice actually changed).

Day 1 of the Voice into Poetry series starts today at 5:30pm PT, online. I’m keeping registration open until October 27th, and then registration will close. Register here.

Questions or comments about anything in this email? Send an email to [email protected] . I’d love to hear from you.

with thanks,
Christine Bissonnette

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