The Ark: Creating in Times of Uncertainty
A Community Screening and Writing Workshop | fall 2021
“If we want to emerge from this crisis whole instead of broken, we need to process what we’ve lost. Rather than bulldoze past our grief... we should take the time to work through it.”
How do we “return to normal”? how do we collectively reflect and grieve?
As COVID-19 continues to strike the world in waves, re-emergence into our communities offers an opportunity to share the learnings of these times.
Our offering:
The Ark: Creating in Times of Uncertainty is a 90 minute workshop that guides participants through a reflective & generative writing journey. In the session, we uncover the lessons we have learned from this difficult pandemic period and turn them into poetic messages for the future.
Participants will be invited to share their messages as audio recordings for a collective time capsule to be opened 7 years from now.
Our intentions:
To collectively acknowledge and process the grief of the pandemic.
To engage with Midrash and myth as a pathway for meaning-making through The Ark film.
To use creative writing as a tool for remembering, healing and dreaming.
As Jews, we have learned to mark the sacredness of life-changing transitions through our holy days and rituals. Our art is a tool to help people make sense of the aftermath of the pandemic, what we grieve and now what we dream of. So many of us wish to move on, but what a tragedy it would be to forget all that this time has taught us.
Praise for The Ark film + workshop
“It’s so easy to forget the beginning of this process—to forget that it has been a process and not undifferentiated. The film brings that back.”
“Speechless […] It touched for me how emotionally detached I have been through this whole process.”
“So much has happened in this period [...] A lot of it has become a blur. The film and the sweetness and the power of the anecdotes helped that blur clear and reminded me of some of the many intense moments and feelings and experiences of this time. ”
About The Ark
The Ark assembles intimate video diaries made in quarantine, highlighting the isolation, longing, and loss wrought by the pandemic. This short film builds on the story of Noach and the flood to examine the complexity of our survival. The film invites the viewer to process the changes they have experienced over the past year. It offers ancient wisdom for how we can find wholeness in our uncertain, transitional moment.
Click here to learn more about the film and filmmaking process.