On March 2, 2024, in the Plenum building in Guatemala City, the Poetry, Artistic Appreciation, and Storytelling workshops were held, which were announced through social networks.
The workshops were free, thanks to the sponsorship of the publishing house La Pepita.
Lasting two hours for Art and Story, and three hours for Cienvecesuna. For poets they were led by the academic and renowned Aida Toledo; the curator Rocío Quiroa, was in charge of the Artistic Appreciation course, and the narrator Angélica Quiñonez, taught the Storytelling course.
The participants, fifteen women and a fifteen-year-old teenager, discussed techniques to improve their writing; They composed short essays and verses in the chosen modality, and examined the work of other writers and artists in order to stimulate creativity and find inspiration for their own compositions.
Dr. Toledo went into depth about the good use of metaphors, the use of poetic turns and the use of imaginative licenses. The most difficult thing in poetry is determining how to find the right word so that a poem resonates, and thus reaches the soul of the readers. The subjectivity of the poet, transferred to paper, needs the echo of an interlocutor who manages to penetrate the soul of the one who writes.
Curator Rocío Quiroa explained, based on pictorial samples, what are the elements to observe in the work of art, and how an artist's work should be conceptualized from a visual point of view. She asked each participant to choose a painting that resonated with them, and write a description of it. Next, each of the attendees wrote a free essay about the chosen work.
Angélica Quiñonez explained how it is possible to create a narrative structure that makes sense. How to decide when a chapter begins and ends, and the importance of the characters corresponding to reality without harming the imaginative world of the storyteller. She pointed out that narrative is fluid, and that the very art of writing gives you the guideline to know where to place each narrative element.
La Pepita was founded in order to promote, support, and sponsor women's writing. We believe that Guatemala needs more women writers, and greater support from cultural institutions for women's literature. The workshops organized by La Pepita are a good example of the above and not only fed the souls of the participants, but also fed their bodies with tacos, chuchitos, banana bread and muffins, so that a happy body equals a productive soul.
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