UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who made Ruminate Happenings possible! It was such a special and beautiful experience. We didn't meet our fundraising goal with this event (we raised $5,300 out of our $10,000 goal), but we're so very proud of the experience and community that was created. If you'd still like to make a donation to Ruminate, you can do that here. As a nonprofit, reader-supported literary magazine, every lit bit helps! And if you are new to Ruminate and found us through Ruminate Happenings, please consider subscribing to the magazine.
If you bought a ticket, you can expect your creation to arrive in the mail shortly. If you missed the event, you can watch all the live videos of our artists and writers creating on our facebook page. We also have some samplings of the videos below.
What was Ruminate Happenings? Well, Ruminate isn't an ordinary nonprofit, so of course we couldn't host an ordinary fundraiser. Inspired by the “happenings” of the 1960s, where people showed up and made good things together, we decided to create our own version of this goodness! Between Feb. 25 and March 1st, our brave writers and artists showed up and spontaneously created poetry, art, little stories, and small essays for our community. Folks bought a ticket with a writer or artist, and in exchange they received an original creation personalized just for them based on some prompts they filled out to inspire their artist/writer. And they got to watch the creation being made live on facebook. It was a wild ride, and we're so glad we went on this adventure with you all!
A sampling of videos featuring our brave artists/writers each making a handful of spontaneous creations in just one hour & live for our patrons. Whew!
Last April, I was at a conference listening to Marie Howe and Pádraig Ó Tuama discuss the power of poetry, and Marie Howe described an event she helped plan and host called The Poet Is In. Poets set up tables with typewriters in Grand Central Station and invited the public to come and have a poem written for them, "with them," as she said. Marie shared how the poet would ask questions of the person, questions like, "Tell me a dream you've had more than once. Tell me about a toy you used to love." And then "the poet would take this and transform what the poet heard using language and silence and musicality. Take it and transform it, type it out, and then read it to the person. It was their own lives, given back, if you will."
Inspired by The Poet Is In and by the chance to celebrate our upcoming 50th Issue, we set out to create our own online version: 50 Hours of Ruminate Happenings. For 50 hours over the course of five days at the end of February, our writers and artists went live on our Facebook feed and spontaneously created poetry, visual art, flash-fiction, and lyric essays for our community. It was a wild and beautiful experience—thank you to everyone who participated!
Flip through our booklet to meet the brave writers and artists participating. If you want a creation from a specific writer/artist, make sure to select them during checkout. A limited number of tickets are available with each artist/writer.
Your ticket includes a spontaneous original creation made for you (you can watch it being made live on Facebook, if you'd like—see times/days of below). And it helps Ruminate raise significant funds for the coming year.
After your purchase, we'll send you a link to answer a few questions that will give the writer/artist some prompts to work with, allowing your creation to be made for you and with you.
Not to worry, if you can't be on Facebook watching/chatting with the artist/writer as the creation is made live, you can always watch it afterwards. All the videos will be saved and archived on our Facebook page.
After the event is over, your creation will be mailed to you!
Last April, as I was sitting in a beautiful chapel at Calvin College listening to Marie Howe and Pádraig Ó Tuama discuss the power of poetry, Marie Howe described an event she helped plan and host called The Poet Is In. Poets set up tables with typewriters in Grand Central Station and invited the public to come and have a poem written for them, "with them," as she said. Marie shared how the poet would ask questions of the person, questions like, "Tell me a dream you've had more than once. Tell me about a toy you used to love." And then "the poet would take this and transform what the poet heard using language and silence and musicality. Take it and transform it, type it out, and then read it to the person. It was their own lives, given back, if you will."
Inspired by The Poet Is In and by the chance to celebrate our upcoming 50th Issue, we've set out to create our own online version: 50 Hours of Ruminate Happenings. For 50 hours over the course of five days at the end of February, our writers and artists will go live on our Facebook feed and spontaneously create poetry, visual art, flash-fiction, and lyric essays for our community. It's going to be wild! Tickets will go on sale February 5th ($50/ticket). We hope you'll join us and help Ruminate raise funds for the coming year and experience having a piece of art made for you and with you.