Survivor Stories Series: Testimony, Collective Storytelling, and a Community of Practice as the Catalysts for Societal Change with Meadow Jones, PhD

This month on Voice Lessons, I’m doing a special series where every week we’ll have a new episode sharing the voices and stories of survivors who have experienced sexual trauma. 

I had the privilege of speaking with Meadow Jones, PhD, a social practice artist, award-winning filmmaker, community organizer, and so much more. Meadow's vast experience includes utilizing the Amherst Writers and Artists Method (AWA) and her research on arts-based practices for trauma and resiliency to facilitate writing workshops for diverse communities. 

We begin by unraveling Meadow's multifaceted resume and exploring what it means to be a social practice artist, focusing on collaborative community art-making with a mission to address social inequalities and foster peaceable relationships. We venture into the intricacies of Meadow's workshops, particularly her collaboration with Mary Simmerling and other survivors of sexual violence to produce anthologies of powerful poetry and narratives. 

Meadow explains how collective storytelling can transform individual and societal trauma and foster a shared understanding, therefore contributing to deep social change. Her work emphasizes the importance of testimony and the act of listening as pivotal components of the therapeutic and transformative process. 

She emphasizes the significance of building a community of practice, silencing the inner critic, and simply getting into the position to create in order to find your voice. This episode brims with Meadow's infectious passion for art's role in healing and societal transformation, offering listeners profound insights into leveraging creativity for personal and social impact. 

Key Topics:

• What is a social practice artist?
• Finding points of societal change and social equity within a community
• Collective storytelling as a way to create a better understanding of ourselves 
• Using the AWA method to change the social construct by writing and telling stories
• Meadow’s collaborative work with Mary Simmerling on the anthology series
• We all have the capacity to make art 
• How Meadow believes we can uncover and claim our own creative voices
• How to build a community of practice
• Testimony and witness as a major part of the therapeutic process of integrating traumatic experiences
• How AWA writing can help writers separate themselves from the potentially traumatic stories they’re telling
• Meadow’s poem — ‘Swallowing Lilies’ and how a moment in time is often the best subject for a story
• How meditation and a writing practice are very similar 
• Silencing the critic when writing
• The Gezundheit! Institute 

Connect with Meadow online:

Website: https://meadowjones.com/

The Gezundheit! Institute: https://www.patchad

Find more from Jill:

Email: jill@thewritersrefuge.com

Website: https://www.thewritersrefuge.com/

Writing Coaching Programs: https://www.thewritersrefuge.com/coaching

Sign up for my free 3x weekly writing session: write to jill@thewritersrefuge.com for ZOOM info

Special thanks to LVDY for allowing us to use their song, Saltwater, in the intro and outro of the podcast!