Becoming Intimate with Aging and Dying

A Two Day Workshop with Molly Sturges and Acushla Bastible

This workshop series focuses on personal and collective transformational practices that foster culture change around aging and dying.
What are your feelings, reflections, and fears about dying?This workshop invites us into a reflective process on our personal relationship to the aging and dying processes. Take inventory of personal and/or professional experiences, feelings, fears, beliefs, and questions using creative and reflective exercises and begin the process of engaging with these important stages of our human development in a life-affirming manner.

At the heart of Lifesongs is a belief in the power of storytelling. We believe that stories have the power to shift our attitudes, dismantle our fears, enable us to be present with our loved ones when they are dying, and to be present with ourselves when it is indeed our time.
This workshop is open to anyone interested in working creatively with the elderly, be it as an extension of the work they are already engaged in or as something they would like to do privately with a family member.
Please join us as we work to foster culture change around aging and dying.

Please Register | Space is limited
Lunch provided on both days. Partial scholarships available.
For more information please call: 505-995-1860
Part two and three of this series will take place in 2014

Workshop Two:
Finding The Essence: Creative Engagements for Working with Aging and Dying

Workshop Three:
Creating A Compassionate Culture Of Dignified Aging And Dying
Dates to be announced

Molly Sturges is a composer, performer and facilitator. She is artistic co-director and co-founder of Lifesongs and the artist collective Littleglobe and specializes in interdisciplinary creative collaborations with a wide range of communities that foster community engagement and social transformation. In 2011 she joined the faculty at the Academy.

Acushla Bastible is a multidisciplinary theatre artist–performer, stage director, writer, and educator. She is the artistic co-director of Lifesongs, an artistic associate with the Santa Fe Opera, and an artistic affiliate with Littleglobe. She is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

About Story Telling:

The Lifesongs program is a response to a sense of loss: loss of communication with a vital part of our community, an embrace of our older selves, a celebration and a meditation on life by those who have lived. It is about storytelling.
We know that one of the best ways to communicate and transform our discomforts around aging and dying is through stories. We know too that one of the best ways to share memories, dreams, and wisdom has always been, and still is, through stories.
In Lifesongs, we elevate those stories, experiences, insights, and prayers into the poetry of verse, song, and music.

For those in nursing homes, or living alone and isolated, social connections are often as important as medical treatment in preventing physical and functional decline. Stories and songs are a reflection of a culture’s values. If elders are featured in our stories and songs, then they become part of our understanding of a full human life.
Stories are an essential tool for social and cultural change.

There are however other successful practices, collective efforts, and possibilities. In this workshop, we will explore the role of storytelling within this larger context.

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