{"id":222,"date":"2017-11-28T17:43:29","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T22:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/?p=222"},"modified":"2017-11-28T17:44:53","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T22:44:53","slug":"madeleine-lengles-granddaughter-lena-roy-listening-creative-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/madeleine-lengles-granddaughter-lena-roy-listening-creative-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Madeleine L’Engle’s Granddaughter Lena Roy on Listening as a Creative Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBecause we fail to listen to people\u2019s stories, we are becoming a fragmented human race.\u201d
\n<\/em>\u2014 Madeleine L\u2019Engle,\u00a0Sold into Egypt: Journeys Into Being Human<\/a><\/p>\n

Listening is a creative act: it takes great imagination to be able to step into someone else\u2019s world, into their truth. We not only need stories to survive, we need witnesses. Listening to someone else\u2019s story is a form of intimacy, of generosity, of connecting, of piecing our own fragments back together.<\/p>\n

November brings not only Thanksgiving, but Gran\u2019s birthday. She would have been 99 this November 29th, \u00a0so at this time of the year I look to her words and her legacy for inspiration.<\/p>\n

I miss her \u2014 she continues to be my touchstone because her deep concern for humanity is palpable in every piece she ever wrote. \u00a0She calls on us to engage empathetically as active listeners, to have a willing suspension of disbelief in our communication with others who are different from us. My own concerns mirror hers: they lie in the way people treat each other, and that nobody seems to be listening. We get stuck in our own \u201cstories\u201d, not questioning our attitudes or using our imaginations.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.<\/em>\u201d
\n\u2014 Madeleine L\u2019Engle,\u00a0The Rock that is Higher: Story as Truth<\/a><\/p>\n

Listening is a form of responding, and I am grateful that I get to \u201crespond\u201d by working with children and teens in creative writing workshops through\u00a0Writopia Lab<\/a>. Every day of the week I am surrounded by amazing kids looking for truth and meaning through their writing \u2014 fiction, plays, poetry, and creative nonfiction. I\u2019m grateful that our creativity feeds off of each other. I\u2019m grateful for our reverence for imagination, and for co-creating \u00a0a space where kids feel safe to ask questions of each other and to explore both their visions and demons.<\/p>\n

My grandmother wrote every day \u2014 at home, on the subway, in hotels, on airplanes. I am not as disciplined in my writing as she was. I spend much more of my time working with kids and teens, but that\u2019s what feeds my soul the most \u2014 the creative aspect of active listening, of full engagement. I get to guide \u00a0kids to find their own power through the discovery that creative writing facilitates. I know they will turn into empathic adults who will keep their curiosity about the world and treat others the way they would like to be treated. They are learning how to listen \u2013 to the characters in their stories and to their peers in workshop. They are learning how to listen to their higher selves.<\/p>\n

And I am learning \u2014 and listening \u2014 \u00a0too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

L\u00e9na Roy works with young writers in Westchester, NY and Connecticut as the regional manager of Writopia Lab. With her sister Charlotte Jones Voiklis she wrote\u00a0Becoming Madeleine: A Biography of the Author of A Wrinkle in Time by her Granddaughters<\/em><\/a>, which will be published in February 2018 by FSG. She is also the author of the young adult novel\u00a0Edges<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Read the original post:\u00a0https:\/\/www.madeleinelengle.com\/granddaughter-lena-roy-listening-creative-act\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBecause we fail to listen to people\u2019s stories, we are becoming a fragmented human race.\u201d \u2014 Madeleine L\u2019Engle,\u00a0Sold into Egypt: Journeys Into Being Human Listening is a creative act: it takes great imagination to be able to step into someone else\u2019s world, into their truth. We not only need stories to survive, we need witnesses. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-staff-voices","entry entry-center"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9aRpX-3A","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":240,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/writing-dance-leap-faith-lena-roy-westchester-regional-manager\/","url_meta":{"origin":222,"position":0},"title":"Writing & Dance: A Leap of Faith by L\u00e9na Roy, Westchester Regional Manager","author":"L\u00e9na Roy","date":"December 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A student of mine spontaneously leapt up and started moving to a peer\u2019s piece of poetry during a summer camp workshop this past summer. 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