with Jun Maruyama

Sunday October 26, 10am-12pm Pacific via Zoom
(A recording will be made available to all registrants for a limited time afterwards.)

OBSIDIAN

As in hardening, sharpening, cracking, forming, uncovering, disintegrating

As in stone, galactic, rapidity, volcanic, endurance

Obsidian is an igneous rock or volcanic glass formed through the rapid cooling of lava coming out from a volcano. The stone is an amorphous material called a “mineraloid,” a gray area between a mineral and a crystal, and forms with various textures/features (i.e. smooth, shiny, glasslike, or small bubbles/swirls), colors (i.e. black, brown, green, gray, purple), and shapes. Because the material cools so quickly, the stone does not have time to form into a crystalline structure, and becomes this alluring and magnetic creation: obsidian.

How do we grapple with or respond to sudden changes, to rapidly changing conditions? How can we imagine our bodies, our experiences, our stories, through the process in which obsidian is formed? When do (or must) we “harden” or rapidly form? What happens when we undergo intense, volcanic transformations and become various shapes, colors, textures? How do we become obsidian?

SNAKES

As in shedding, molting, stripping, relinquishing, loosening, undressing

As in regeneration, rebirth, re-seeing, re-vision, release

Snakes regularly shed their skins through a process called ecdysis, and it starts with the eyes. 

A new layer of skin forms beneath the old skin. Lubrication occurs in between and separates the two skins. The eyes turn a milky blue, indicating signs of oncoming shedding of skin. They become dormant and seek humid environments. They may refuse food. 

Then, the snake rubs their snout against rough surfaces to tear the old skin. The snake crawls out of their old skin, leaving it behind in a discarded whole, and comes into being with their new skin, body, self. They navigate a new existence. 

What does it feel like to shed or molt one’s skin(s)? What happens when we shed our skin that is no longer serving us? In that relinquishing, that releasing, that shedding, how do we re-see, re-vision, re-born? How do we balance or navigate between poison/fatality and antidote/healing? How might we metabolize, utilize, or resource the venomous in our lives into healing and regeneration?

OBSIDIAN + SNAKES

As in trans/formation, adaptation, adaptability, resilience, reinvention, de/creation

What can we learn about the process through how obsidian is formed, through how snakes molt their skin? Our quick, fast-changing transformations and our drawn-out, prolonged transformations? What can be learned if we understand obsidian and snakes together? In our hardenings and our crackings, and in our sheddings and moltings, what is revealed, divulged, opened? What are the potential insights, wisdoms, knowledge to be learned through the times when we need to harden and become volcanic, and when we need to shed and molt and release? 

We will engage with these questions through writing portals and brief sharing. 

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Pricing:

The following payment model is inspired by and borrowed from the payment model of Bayo Akomolafe’s class, We Will Dance With Mountains: Into the Cracks.

This workshop offers a sliding scale based on your relative financial standing. In an effort to reflect disparity in economic condition and access to wealth, the following payment system is designed for those with more wealth to help cover the costs of those with less access to wealth and resources. We trust your discernment of your current financial situation and how you fit into the global economic context.

As you decide what amount to pay, please consider your present-day financial situation governed by income, but also the following factors: historical discrimination faced by your peoples; your financial wealth (retirement/savings/investments); your access to income and financial wealth, both current and anticipated (how easily could you earn more income compared to other people in your community, country, and the world; are you expecting an inheritance); people counting on your financial livelihood including dependents and community members; the socio-economic conditions of your locale (relative to other places in your country and in the world); your relationship to food & resource scarcity.

$90 Supporter

$60 Companion

$30 Friend

Scholarships are also available for anyone needing further financial assistance. Please email Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com for more info, or if you are feeling challenged in any way by the financial requirements of participation.

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Jun Maruyama (they/them) is a queer, trans Japanese-American writer, interested in exploring hauntings, senses/sensations, the body, dis/assemblage, and gender. They enjoy listening to music, drinking coffee, and being around trees and old shops. Enamored by snakes and bees, liminal spaces, and the unknown. Constantly transforming. “Life and death were mine, and I was monstrous” by Clarice Lispector is a fav quote. They have a BA in Creative Writing (with minors in Anthropology, Japanese, and Literature) from Pacific University and a MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University, where they taught writing and composition courses.