I Sing the Body Eccentric: A Four-Week Writing Workshop For Women
In 1855, American poet Walt Whitman published the poem “I Sing the Body Electric” in his collection Leaves of Grass. The poem is an ecstatic celebration of the bodies of men and women, where Whitman unabashedly declares the body “of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t know any woman who has a body who thinks her body are perfect. Electric? Maybe. Eccentric? Likely. But perfect? Never. Most of us wrestle with some form of body shame, "body image distress," or outright "body hatred." In her book, Overcoming Body Hatred Workbook, depth psychotherapist Dr. Kathryn C. Holt describes body hatred as "the feeling that your body is wrong in some way; perhaps a specific body part or your size, weight, or shape . . . and in need of alteration." She sees overcoming body hatred as a form of soul recovery, suggesting that our "true hunger" is to connect deeply with our souls. Walt Whitman would agree:
O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,
O I say now these are the soul!
.Join me for a special writing workshop where we write the parts and poems of the body and soul. With a special guest appearance by Dr. Kathryn C. Holt, author of Overcoming Body Hatred Workbook.
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The Format
Both Brandeis and Febos craft what's known as mosaic or braided memoir essays. They interweave their personal stories with threads of history, science, mythology, research, sociology, and pop culture. By doing so, their narratives transcend their individual experiences, speaking to the collective experience of women and their bodies. This broader perspective not only helps them feel less isolated but also resonates deeply with readers, allowing us to feel less alone in our own relationships with our eccentric body parts.
The Invitation, Redux
Let’s come together to feel less alone in the way we’ve shunned and shamed a part of our body. Let’s come together to write a mosaic or braided memoir that makes our readers feel less alone too.
Let’s reclaim our bodies and recover our souls. Let’s do some healing work. Let’s change the way we feel. Let’s intend to reach for places of tenderness, joy, acceptance, and love for our previously offensive body parts. Let’s offer that to other women.
Let’s reclaim our bodies and recover our souls. Let’s do some healing work. Let’s change the way we feel. Let’s intend to reach for places of tenderness, joy, acceptance, and love for our previously offensive body parts. Let’s offer that to other women.
The Assignment
Pick a specific body part that you’ve had a troubled relationship with through time (long-term relationships are best, but short-term ones will do). Combine your personal stories with research and produce a mosaic or braided essay.
The Course Outline
Session One: Dr. Kathryn C. Holt joins us to discuss the thoughts and emotions that may arise during this intensive month and shares strategies for working through them. (Please consider reading her Overcoming Body Hatred Workbook in advance.) Following her introduction, through a set of guided prompts, we'll brainstorm stories about our personal histories with our body part of choice.
Session Two: We'll closely analyze the personal stories in Brandeis and Febos' essays, focusing on how they weave these narratives together. We'll identify strategies that we can incorporate into our own writing. In small groups, we'll share the personal stories we've written over the past week. Expect laughter. Expect tears.
Session Three: Our focus will shift to the additional elements that make up the mosaic of their essays. We'll examine each component and generate an expansive list of elements we might include in our work, turning our attention towards research. There will also be time for idea generating in small groups.
Session Four: We'll begin outlining our essays, considering how to arrange the pieces of our mosaic in the most aesthetically pleasing and artistically powerful way. We'll also discuss the possibility of compiling an anthology titled We Sing the Body Eccentric with an engaging subtitle, which I can publish under my publishing company's imprint.
Session Two: We'll closely analyze the personal stories in Brandeis and Febos' essays, focusing on how they weave these narratives together. We'll identify strategies that we can incorporate into our own writing. In small groups, we'll share the personal stories we've written over the past week. Expect laughter. Expect tears.
Session Three: Our focus will shift to the additional elements that make up the mosaic of their essays. We'll examine each component and generate an expansive list of elements we might include in our work, turning our attention towards research. There will also be time for idea generating in small groups.
Session Four: We'll begin outlining our essays, considering how to arrange the pieces of our mosaic in the most aesthetically pleasing and artistically powerful way. We'll also discuss the possibility of compiling an anthology titled We Sing the Body Eccentric with an engaging subtitle, which I can publish under my publishing company's imprint.
Dates and TimesMondays, August 5th, 12th, 19th, and 26th
4:00-5:30 Pacific Time The FormatLive on Zoom (recordings will be made available if you miss a session)
Cost$185, including handouts, templates, and all course recordings
Individual editing sessions can be arranged with Jennifer at an addition fee EnrollmentLimited to 20 women
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Recommended Prerequisite (Not Required)
Jennifer’s course, “Writing the Segmented or Mosaic Essay or Full-Length Book.” Next course offering, Sunday, July 14th.
Required Prerequisite (Absolutely Required)
Walt Whitman’s attitude:
The man’s body is sacred and the woman’s body is sacred,
No matter who it is, it is sacred
If anything is sacred the human body is sacred. . . .
Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,
Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eyebrows, and the waking or sleeping of the lids,
Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-hinges,
Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition,
Cheeks, temples, forehead, chin, throat, back of the neck, neck-slue,
Strong shoulders, manly beard, scapula, hind-shoulders, and the ample side-round of the chest,
Upper-arm, armpit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinews, arm-bones,
Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, thumb, forefinger, finger-joints, finger-nails,
Broad breast-front, curling hair of the breast, breast-bone, breast-side,
Ribs, belly, backbone, joints of the backbone,
Hips, hip-sockets, hip-strength, inward and outward round, man-balls, man-root,
Strong set of thighs, well carrying the trunk above,
Leg fibres, knee, knee-pan, upper-leg, under-leg,
Ankles, instep, foot-ball, toes, toe-joints, the heel;
All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the belongings of my or your body or of any one’s body, male or female,
The lung-sponges, the stomach-sac, the bowels sweet and clean,
The brain in its folds inside the skull-frame,
Sympathies, heart-valves, palate-valves, sexuality, maternity,
Womanhood, and all that is a woman, and the man that comes from woman,
The womb, the teats, nipples, breast-milk, tears, laughter, weeping, love-looks, love-perturbations and risings,
The voice, articulation, language, whispering, shouting aloud,
Food, drink, pulse, digestion, sweat, sleep, walking, swimming,
Poise on the hips, leaping, reclining, embracing, arm-curving and tightening,
The continual changes of the flex of the mouth, and around the eyes,
The skin, the sunburnt shade, freckles, hair,
The curious sympathy one feels when feeling with the hand the naked meat of the body,
The circling rivers the breath, and breathing it in and out,
The beauty of the waist, and thence of the hips, and thence downward toward the knees,
The thin red jellies within you or within me, the bones and the marrow in the bones,
The exquisite realization of health;
O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,
O I say now these are the soul!
The man’s body is sacred and the woman’s body is sacred,
No matter who it is, it is sacred
If anything is sacred the human body is sacred. . . .
Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,
Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eyebrows, and the waking or sleeping of the lids,
Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-hinges,
Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition,
Cheeks, temples, forehead, chin, throat, back of the neck, neck-slue,
Strong shoulders, manly beard, scapula, hind-shoulders, and the ample side-round of the chest,
Upper-arm, armpit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinews, arm-bones,
Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, thumb, forefinger, finger-joints, finger-nails,
Broad breast-front, curling hair of the breast, breast-bone, breast-side,
Ribs, belly, backbone, joints of the backbone,
Hips, hip-sockets, hip-strength, inward and outward round, man-balls, man-root,
Strong set of thighs, well carrying the trunk above,
Leg fibres, knee, knee-pan, upper-leg, under-leg,
Ankles, instep, foot-ball, toes, toe-joints, the heel;
All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the belongings of my or your body or of any one’s body, male or female,
The lung-sponges, the stomach-sac, the bowels sweet and clean,
The brain in its folds inside the skull-frame,
Sympathies, heart-valves, palate-valves, sexuality, maternity,
Womanhood, and all that is a woman, and the man that comes from woman,
The womb, the teats, nipples, breast-milk, tears, laughter, weeping, love-looks, love-perturbations and risings,
The voice, articulation, language, whispering, shouting aloud,
Food, drink, pulse, digestion, sweat, sleep, walking, swimming,
Poise on the hips, leaping, reclining, embracing, arm-curving and tightening,
The continual changes of the flex of the mouth, and around the eyes,
The skin, the sunburnt shade, freckles, hair,
The curious sympathy one feels when feeling with the hand the naked meat of the body,
The circling rivers the breath, and breathing it in and out,
The beauty of the waist, and thence of the hips, and thence downward toward the knees,
The thin red jellies within you or within me, the bones and the marrow in the bones,
The exquisite realization of health;
O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,
O I say now these are the soul!