Events
Washington Biography Group
Meeting steadily since 1986
Go here for more about Washington Biography Group: Washington Biography Group
• Get on Pat's e-letter list to get the details. Put "WBG" in your message.
• Go here for more about Washington Biography Group
As of April 2023 WBG is still doing Zoom meetings, because of Covid.
You can ask to be put on the WBG e-mail list to get notices of the meetings.
During the school year, the WBG used to meet once a month, usually on a
Monday from 7 to 8:45 pm at the
Washington International School
3100 Macomb St., NW
Washington DC 20008
Drive up the long driveway all the way to the top.
We meet in the Goodman Room (new name for the Terrace Room) in the main building.
Members often bring a snack or drink to share. I (Pat) send out e-mail notices of the meeting dates and topics, which are also posted under 'Events' on both Pat McNees's website (www.patmcnees.com) and her Writers and Editors site: www.writersandeditors.com) . (You can ask Pat to add you to the distribution list)
. Go here for fuller instructions on where the WBG meets.
Details go out in Pat McNees's e-letter to the WBG (you can ask her to add you to the distribution list, now at 300+).
To be added to the e-mail list and receive meeting notices and Pat's e-letter about memoir and biography, send a message to Pat's WBG email: (spelled out to elude spammers: washingtonbookgroup at gmail dot com
(Convert that to traditional e-mail formula,) What you get is periodic e-letters full of links related to life story writing, plus notices about our meetings (or big events in the lives of members).
Occasionally parking is a slight problem, if the school is also holding an evening event. At one meeting someone came in and said the owner of an SUV had left its lights on. Marc responded, "This is not an SUV kind of group" and sure enough, it wasn't one of us (although there are SUVs among us).
My Life, One Story at a Time
Pat McNees's workshop
My Life, One Story at a Time
Pat McNees's Guided Autobiography workshop
What will be written on your headstone? What will your obituary say? How will you be remembered, and what has your life meant? The goal in this nontraditional workshop of short personal writing (a slightly modified version of James Birren's Guided Autobiography) is to capture your personal and family legacy for the next generation, the friends and family who will survive you. Knowing that you are writing not for publication but to set the record straight--in your own mind, as much as anything--may liberate you, allowing you to examine with candor your important life choices and experiences, achievements and mistakes, beliefs and convictions. You will write one piece each week, to read aloud, including one piece (500 words or less) to bring for the first night, to introduce yourself with.
(Assignment 1: A turning point in your life. Ask Pat to send you a handout.)
Through a series of exercises designed to open a rich vein of personal material, you will begin the exploration and storytelling that may help you tell you personal or family history. No whining, no boasting, no name dropping, and no critiquing: Just an honest examination of what went on in your life or your family, with an emphasis on telling the stories and fleshing out the characters you find there. This course, which grew out of the warm-up exercises for Pat's workshop on ethical wills, will encourage you to reminisce deeply: to mine your life (and family) experiences for personal stories, myths, themes, and values.
My Life, One Story at a Time
Instructor Pat McNees
The Writer's Center
4508 Walsh Street
Bethesda, MD 20815
Phone: 301 654-8664
Writer's Center workshops (search for McNees or title of course)
http://www.writer.org
postmaster@writer.org
$300 (less for members; most of fee goes to support the Writer's Center)
You can e-mail postmaster@writer.org and ask to be notified when workshops go on-line for registration. Include your mailing address and ask for a hard copy of their brochure of workshops.
Check out Pat's article on The Beneficial Effects of Life Story and Legacy Activities (first published in Geriatric Care Management Journal, Spring 2009). But hey -- young people benefit, too!
Books Alive, an annual conference about books organized by David O. Stewart and the crew of the Washington Independent Review of Books, usually has a panel or two about biography and memoir. This year's conference will be April 28-29, 201, at the College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center in Hyattsville, MD). For more info: www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/page/washington-writers-conference-2017
The Biographers International conference returns to Boston for its 2017 Compleat Biographer conference (May 19-21, 2017). Check out BIO's conference archives.
Guided Autobiography
Pat McNees's workshop
Six Wednesday evening sessions
led by Pat McNees
7:15 P.M.-9:45 P.M.
The Writer's Center, 4508 Walsh Street,
Bethesda, MD 20815 (301) 654-8664
Writer's Center online
http://www.writer.org
postmaster@writer.org
James Birren developed the simple but effective process of Guided Autobiography (for which Pat was trained) Each week, including the first week, participants will write and read aloud a two-page story from their life based on a theme (for example, Money -- or Love). The idea: to help you (and your survivors) see the patterns in your life. First week's assignment (participants will receive a handout from the instructor prior to the start date): the Major Branching Points of Your Life.
How will you be remembered, and what has your life meant? The goal in this nontraditional workshop of short personal writing is to capture your personal and family legacy for the next generation, the friends and family who will survive you. Knowing that you are writing not for publication but to set the record straight--in your own mind, as much as anything--may liberate you, allowing you to examine with candor your important life choices and experiences, achievements and mistakes, beliefs and convictions. Formerly Life stories and legacy writing.
Through a series of exercises designed to open a rich vein of personal material, you will begin the exploration and storytelling that may help you tell you personal or family history. No whining, no boasting, no name dropping: Just an honest examination of what went on in your life or your family, with an emphasis on telling the stories and fleshing out the characters you find there. This course, which grew out of the warm-up exercises for Pat's workshop on ethical wills, will encourage you to reminisce deeply: to mine your life (and family) experiences for personal stories, myths, themes, and values.
Instructor Pat McNees
The Writer's Center
4508 Walsh Street
Bethesda, MD 20815
$270
You can e-mail postmaster@writer.org and ask to be notified when workshops go on-line for registration. Include your mailing address and ask for a hard copy of their brochure of workshops.
Check out Pat's article on The Beneficial Effects of Life Story and Legacy Activities (first published in Geriatric Care Management Journal, Spring 2009). But hey -- young people benefit, too!
The Moth: Storytellers Finding Success on Stages Large and Small: Going Solo Gets Crowded by Alex Williams, NYTimes 8-14-09; Songs of Themselves (Jim O'Grady, NYTimes, 11-14-08); and The Moth, a nonprofit group that runs storytelling events in New York and Los Angeles.
Dancing in DC
Here's the dance calendar for Glen Echo Park, where most ballroom dancing goes on in the beautiful Spanish Ballroom, though some dances are held in the fresh-air-conditioned Bumper Car Pavilion (repurposed for dancing during the ballroom's renovation) or in the small but nice "Back Room" (behind the Spanish Ballroom), where Blues Dancing is now taught. Click here for info on social dance classes (and a look at the beautiful ballroom).
For those who miss the old LaSalle Orchestra, there's good news: The once-a-month Sunday afternoon tea dance now features the Hot Society Orchestra, which plays music from the '20s, '30s, and '40s: foxtrot, waltz, two-step, cha cha, swing, rumba, etc. This group is brand new to Glen Echo and plays very danceable music!
For more dancing in the capital area, check out the information and schedules at
• Dancing: A Guide to the Capital Area
• DC DanceNet
• Dave Moldover's excellent site (especially for country, hustle, hand dancing, & West Coast swing)
• Capital Tangueros
• Fools Night Out (Scott Mitchell's site, good for Cajun/Zydeco, Latin, Swing, and other dancing, plus venues for blues, swing, rockabilly, zydeco, and occasionally Latin, Ska, and Cajun music)
• Contra Dancing
• Irish céilís and set dances
• Folk dancing
Writing a Legacy Letter
If you had only one hour to live and the only way to communicate with survivors was to leave them a letter, what would you write -- and to whom would you write it?
Events like Hurricane Katrina and the shocking mass murder at Virginia Tech remind us of the fragility of life. This workshop will help you figure out what personal messages,
stories, or life lessons you want to leave for those who survive you. Often written in the form of a loving letter, the legacy letter (a version of what some call an ethical will) is a way to explore and articulate who you are, what you have learned in life, what
you value, and what you wish for the family members who survive you.
Your last will and testament conveys what you want your loved ones to have -- and is legally binding. The legacy letter is an informal message that conveys what you want your survivors to know--which may include how you want to be remembered, what you cherish and regret, what you forgive and apologize for, what you loved (maybe even chuckled about) about your loved ones, and other important things you would not want left unsaid should you die unexpectedly.
Nothing scheduled yet
The Writer's Center
4508 Walsh Street
Bethesda, MD 20815
Phone: 301 654-8664, Fax: 301 654-8667
http://www.writer.org
email: postmaster@writer.org
http://www.writer.org/index.asp (online info and registry)
Writing a Legacy Letter
Code for registering: SU07NON51B
Members $50; nonmembers $65