Ritualwell

Writing Our Aging Selves
2023-11-02 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Thursday, November 2, 2023
12-1:30 p.m. EDT
There are so many new things to pray about as we age! Our memory, skin, mobility, and hair color have all changed, developed, and evolved slowly and noticeably. We accumulate wisdom and peel away shame, caring less about what the world thinks of us and more about what we think about ourselves and the changing world around us. Join instructor Trish Arlin to design your own prayers and rituals of gratitude, worry, anger and hope for the life that is unfolding before you. Write, reflect and share your creative self with the Ritualwell community in this free, open for all session. No prior writing experience is required.
All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
Trisha Arlin is a liturgist, writer, performer, and student of prayer in Brooklyn, NY. She has served as a liturgist, scholar, and artist in residence and taught for venues including the National Havurah Committee’s Summer Institute, Ritualwell.org, Haggadot.com, and for synagogues around the country. She is a builder of Bayit’s Liturgical Arts project. Trisha received a BA in Theater from Antioch College in 1975 and an MFA in Film (Screenwriting) in 1997 from Columbia University. In 2009/2010, Trisha was an Arts Fellow at the Drisha Institute. In 2011, she graduated from the sixth cohort of the Davennen Leadership Training Institute (DLTI). Trisha’s liturgy has been used in services, for ritual occasions, and at venues of many denominations nationwide. She is the author of Place Yourself: Words of Poetry and Intention (a collection of liturgy and kavannot). Her work has appeared in a variety of journals, siddurim, and collections of liturgy and can be found online at TrishaArlin.com, Ritualwell.org, and opensiddur.org.

Light the World: Dancing in Community for Hanukkah
2023-12-07 12:00 - 13:30
Thursday, December 7, 2023
12 – 1:30 p.m. EST

Every person must know and understand
That a candle burns deep within them,
And their candle is unlike their friend’s
And no person without a candle exists.
And every person must know and understand
That they must strive to uncover
The light of the candle publicly
And light it into a great torch
And light the whole world
–Rav Abraham Isaac Kook
In this FREE session, we’ll welcome Hanukkah through the Nia movement practice. We’ll bring the light of community into the world to music by Matisyahu, Erran Baron Cohen, Divahn, Noa, and Balkan Beat Box, followed by prompts for reflection and writing.
Nia is based on the philosophy that everyone can enhance their potential for a healthy, meaningful life by engaging their senses and listening compassionately to their bodies. It is adaptable to individual needs and abilities. Its core principle is finding your body’s joy of movement, whether that’s swaying gently in a chair or stomping up a sweat.
What you’ll need

Clear a space so you have room to move. However, Nia can also be done seated.
Nia is low-impact and designed to be done barefoot. But it’s fine to wear tennis or jazz-dance shoes if that’s best for you.
Have writing materials at hand. You may want art materials, as well.

All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Janice Steinberg (she/her) holds a Black Belt in the Nia dance-fitness practice and has been teaching for 15 years. Last spring, she offered an Omer Nia program through Ritualwell. She is the author of the novel The Tin Horse (Random House) and a five-book mystery series published by Berkley.

Writing Poetry in the Shadow of War
2024-01-08 12:00 - 13:30
At all times but especially in a time of war and grief, we need literature to remind us of what it means to be human, what justice demands, where our struggles and conflicts, our strengths and hopes reside.In this Ritualwell event, we will see how other poets have responded to disasters and conflicts Jews have faced and are facing. We will see how poets including Marcela Sulak and Bob Hicok are responding to the Israel-Hamas War and the resurgence in antisemitism and also look at poetry from the Holocaust. In between these readings and discussions of the poems, you will write your own poems based on prompts that will help you shape your thoughts. This experience is all about finding a way through poetry to express ourselves in this critical time.
This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Lynn Levin is a poet and writer. She is the author of nine books, most recently, her debut collection of short stories House Parties (2023). Widely published as a poet, Levin’s five poetry collections include The Minor Virtues (2020); Miss Plastique (2013), a Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in poetry; Fair Creatures of an Hour (2009), a Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in poetry; Imaginarium (2005), a finalist for Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award; and A Few Questions about Paradise (2000). She is co-author, with Valerie Fox, of Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets (2019, 2013), a Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in writing/publishing. She is the translator, from the Spanish, of Birds on the Kiswar Tree (2014), poems by the Peruvian Andean poet Odi Gonzales. Levin is also the producer/director of the 2017 video documentary Life on the Napo River: A Glimpse of the Ecuadoran Amazon, Its People, and Their Traditions.
She lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and teaches English and creative writing at Drexel University, where she received the Adjunct Award for Teaching Excellence. For many years, she taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania.
