The X Page:
A Storytelling Workshop
Click here to visit the web site!
Applications for season five will open in January, 2024. We also host a monthly “writing club” online; newcomers are welcome.
In 2019, I co-founded the workshop with Dr. Lamees Al Ethari. Our first season took flight thanks to the collective energy and effort of a large team of artists, sponsors and supporters. Each season has been different, as we’ve adapted to changing circumstances during the pandemic.
Our season two performance, “Stories in Transit,” was abruptly cancelled due to COVID-19; however, the stories had already been written.
“Stories in Transit” were published online by The New Quarterly in May 2020.
In spring of 2022, we were thrilled to be back together again in person.
Our season four performance, titled “Voices,” can be viewed in full here.
The stories have been published online by The New Quarterly.
The 2022 X Page Team also included: Anandi Carroll-Woolery, editor, and season 2 performer; Pamela Mulloy, editor of The New Quarterly; Melissa Durrell, vocal coach, and founder and owner of Durrell Comm; Maha Eid, stage manager, and season 1 performer; Cecilia Vizcaino, peer mentor, and season 3 performer; Eleni Zaptses, administrative coordinator, and Nada AbuSaleh, assistant director. Tarunima Mittal returned as artist-in-residence.
The X Page is an interdisciplinary community arts project that connects women who are immigrants or refugees with artists in Waterloo Region, who assist and mentor them in writing and performing their own stories.
Our inaugural performance titled “Quilt of Stories” played to a sold-out theatre audience, in the spring of 2019.
The stories were published online by The New Quarterly literary magazine.
Our third season, in 2021, was held entirely online, during a period of lockdown. Our weekly meetings brought welcome connection.
The 2021 stories and a recording of our live online performance “Little Things” are available here.
Our twelve-week workshop sessions include both writing and performance practices, and are guided by writer Tasneem Jamal (Where The Air Is Sweet) and director Pam Patel, artistic director of MT Space theatre company.
Our workshop uses writing and drawing exercises based Lynda Barry’s teachings and philosophy, including “The X Page.”
We like to say that “The X Page” is the opposite of a blank page. It’s the space where we enter into an image using all of our senses. “The X Page” has been a solid foundation for our workshop’s trust-based collaborative creative process.
Thank you, Lynda Barry.
