New College Hosts Words in Action: Finding Your True Purpose

March 4, 2022 – Sarasota

New College of Florida’s Creative Writing program hosts “Words in Action: Finding Your True Purpose,” March 8-16, 2022. The festival, which received funding from the Gender Studies Department and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, rethinks the role of the arts in society by featuring the teaching, production, and circulation of writing as a whole social process within the larger context of work and social activism. Event registration links can be found on the Words in Action web page.

Character Cafe
Tuesday March 8, Noon-4 p.m.
Cook Hall Lawn, New College of Florida

The Character Café is an immersive, interactive theatrical experiment featuring New College students. It’s inspired by the cosplay cafes that are popular in Japan. This innovative event is an opportunity to collaborate with student actors who have been training under the guidance of New College student Kyla Hunter, who is hosting the Character Café as part of her thesis. 

Nul Set Launch
Tuesday, March 8, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Hamilton Classroom 8, New College of Florida

Join us for the launch of New College’s brand new online emporium featuring original creative work by New College students and alumni.

Tiny Impossible Truths: An I Scream Social
Thursday, March 10, 6-7:30 p.m.
Payne Parke Amphitheater

Join student authors as they channel their timely anger into meaningful literary performances. At this interactive, drop-in event, you will receive life-changing truths from student-poets from New College and Booker Middle School teacher Joanna Fox’s Dragonfly Café.

Following Your True Purpose featuring Michelle Tea & Cristy C. Road 
Monday, March 14, 7-8:30 pm
Hamilton Classroom 8, New College of Florida

Join queer memoirist, post-punk performance artist, and Tarot reader Michelle Tea and punk musician, Tarot artist, and zine author Cristy C. Road in a conversation about art-making, magic, spirituality, being a misfit, paying the bills, tapping into your intuition, and following your true purpose: which is to make, to create, and to relate! This talk-show-style event is for dreamers, disruptors, and creatives of all stripes. Tea and Road will share their creative work, talk about their artistic journeys, talk about the ways that spirituality and magic nourish their creative endeavors, answer questions from the audience, do Tarot readings, and end with a spell for fierce empowerment specifically written for student artists at New College.

Queer Memoir Workshop with Michelle Tea 
Tuesday, March 15, 9-11 am 
Cook Hall Lobby, New College of Florida

Drawing inspiration from existing queer memoirs and memoirists, participants will work together to generate inspiration, story leads and some new material. The workshop will offer craft tips as well as troubleshoot issues unique to queer memoir. Tea will be available to answer questions and share her experience in queer memoir from beginning a project to promoting a published work. 

Queering the Tarot with Cristy C. Road 
Tuesday, March 15, Noon-2 pm 
Cook Hall Lobby, New College of Florida

Cristy Road Carrera is the author and illustrator of the Next World Tarot: a deck designed to demystify traditional norms associated with the tarot, both visually and historically. Often seen through images of European nobility, class structure, patriarchy, and white supremacy; the Tarot remains a tool that existed long before colonization; as ancient civilizations developed divination rituals with tangible objects, from sea shells to paper goods. In this workshop participants will dive into a non-traditional history of the Tarot, and eventually focus on deconstructing the red tape that lines Tarot as a practice. Through both readings and group participation, participants will learn new spreads and new ways of communicating and identifying with the Tarot’s abilities, as well as its imagery.  As the goal of the Next World Tarot was to be a battle-cry of the unheard; this workshop will shine light on the unheard powers of the Tarot.

Finding Your True Purpose Redux with Professor Emily Carr  
Tuesday, March 15, 2:30-3:45 pm 
Black Box Theater, New College of Florida

So often, we attend festivals and then we just—go our own ways! What an energetic let-down, after so much creativity and inspiration! This event is an opportunity for festival participants to connect informally, share and process their experiences, and plan next steps. What are you going to go out and create? What are you inspired to do, to make? Join us for inspired conversation about art-making and risk-taking.