Unlocking Creativity on Tuesday Nights at Lyfe in Bali.
Unlocking Creativity provides an opportunity for students unlock their creativity through the vehicles of writing and painting.
Scope & Sequence: Unlocking Creativity Workshop.
Purpose – to encourage people to discover their inner creative by exposing them to writing exercises, tools, & techniques that can empower them to get rid of their internal critic. Inspiring them to level up in all areas of their personal, professional, & spiritual lives.
Writing Workshop in depth – audience All ages welcome
Desired Outcome
– Empower & inspire more creatives
– Cultivate a consistent community of creatives (meet weekly)
Other Elements.
– No fee to participate
– Fee for additional materials that can be created later (journals, workbooks)
– Fee for food/beverages available throughout from the Lyfe in Bali menu
Workshop Lessons/Series/Units
Sample Outline of 1-2 hour session (dependent on group size)
Introductions
10 minute writing prompt
Share (partner, small group or whole group depending on the size)
15 minute writing prompt
Share (partner, small group or whole group depending on the size)
10-20 minute writing prompt (depending on time and vibe of the group)
Share (partner, small group or whole group depending on the size)
Debrief & hook for next week
Prompt Types: Individual, Partner, and Collective Group
Series 1: Who are we?
Week 1: Who am I- a look into our foundation
Prompt 1- alliteration poem
Prompt 2- Who am I template
Prompt 3- Journal prompt
Week 2: Who are we- a look into our present
Who we become- a look into our future
Your Guide – Esther Milanzi…
Born in Utah and raised in North Carolina, Esther Milanzi is half Black South African and half Caucasian American. Spending most of her life in America with her mother and 2 sisters, she was estranged from her biological father who was deported from the US when she was 3 years old. The only time Esther was able to visit South Africa was 23 years later at his grave site. The opportunity to visit the birthplace of humanity arrived after she finished graduate school from Florida State University with a degree in International Education Development. She was then awarded a Fulbright grant to teach leadership and literacy skills at a FET college in Vereeniging, South Africa, an Afrikaans town 40 minutes south of Johannesburg. To share her teaching abroad experiences with family and friends back home in the states, she started a blog. Unintentionally, it became a journal of her healing journey as she documented her experiences understanding the post-apartheid racial climate, visiting her father’s grave, and meeting her paternal family including a younger brother and sister. It was there that she received, from her cousin, her South African name, Ubuntu, meaning humanity -”I am who I am because of who we all are.”
Inspired by her journey, she began to write magical realism, poetry, and daily morning pages, as a way to continue to heal, elevate, and to empower others. For the last 5 years, she has been traveling, teaching, writing, & radiating bread crumbs for other creatives.
She is the co-founder of the Surat Warrior Writers group in Surat Thani, Thailand. Weekly writing workshops were held and a community of creatives was cultivated in a time and place where people were looking for alternative ways to connect other than partying.
Eventually, Esther co-led 3 writing retreats in Thailand. The first one focused on unlocking creativity and getting rid of the inner critic, the second one focused on healing through love and letters, the third one focused on developing an individualized blueprint as a creative.
In Vietnam, Esther was a member of a writing society and eventually led the group with exercises. techniques, and insights she’d learned, discovered, and created in South Africa and Thailand.
Currently, Esther teachers grade 6 literacy, grade 8 social studies (with a focus on social justice & sustainability), and a 6-week intensive novel writing course at the Green School; runs weekly writing workshops for teachers; and manifests abundance and happiness with her life partner and husband, Lo. She is in the middle of writing the first draft of a novel: The Enchanted Elm, the sentence summary reads: A woodcarver’s life is changed forever when she discovers an enchanted tree and its connection to the oppression of one family. She is excited to begin the Unlocking Creativity weekly writing series at Lyfe in Bali. Throughout this series, Esther will take you on a journey to uncover the true source of your own unlimited creativity.