LA EVENTS: Women, Protest and Song

Celebrating Women’s History Month, Dawn Norfleet will present musical interpretations of songs of protest and freedom made famous by Nina Simone, Tracy Chapman, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin and others. This event is free and all children must be accompanied by an adult.

Details are as follows:

Women, Protest and Song – A Performance by Dawn Norfleet

Saturday, March 24th at 2pm

California Afro-American Museum

600 State Drive, Exposition Park

Los Angeles, CA 90037

One Reply to “LA EVENTS: Women, Protest and Song”

  1. I’ve done it three years, and “won” every year — in other words, made it to 50K or more.I even wrote a booklet about it, a free ooanldwd, or you can email me and I’ll send it to you, 30 Tips for 30 Days.If you want it badly enough, it’s no big deal. I write my first 1-1.5K every morning first thing anyway. For Nano, it’s only 1666 words/day. I like to be done before Thanksgiving, so I write 2500 words/day.I have a slew of deadlines in November/December this year (novel, novella, play, etc.), so I don’t know if I’ll do it this year. But I think everyone should try it once.Quantity instead of quality can get frustrating, but it’s a first draft, people, you’re supposed to vomit up the first draft quickly so you can see what you have and revise.It’s a good way to shake up your process. The “process” is supposed to be a springboard, not a prison. Too many people use “process” as an excuse not to expand and experiment, even when, in the long run, it’ll help the writing.You have to somewhat reinvent the wheel with every novel anyway.You can hop over onto my blog archives and read about the process from the previous few Novembers, if you want a hint of what’s going on.If you visit the website, http://www.devonellingtonwork.com and go to the ‘bazaar’ page, I think the ooanldwd link to the booklet is still there.The past two years I mentored first years through it — thirty-four of them last year, which was a bit much.I’m signed up for this year, although I don’t know if I’ll do it — it depends how far I get with the novel and the novella and the play this month, in addition to teaching at the Muse Online Conference.I may skip this year — but I’ll probably go back and do it again.I managed a novel every time I did it. Granted, they needed more rewriting, mostly because by the end of it I was so sick of them I couldn’t look at them anymore. But it was worth it.If you don’t push yourself once in awhile, you don’t grow. What’s the point of being in the same kind of rut with you writing as you are in a day job, if you have a day job?Plus, I also really like the sense of writing in community.I don’t like the people who whine or who aren’t committed and then complain about it or make excuses. Far too many of those every year.There are pros and cons. You’re tired. You’re freaked out. You’re ecstatic. I’ve met some truly lovely people through it, including hooking up with a writers’ group I will join as soon as I relocate.But you have to really want it, and it makes you re-assess your commitment to the writing life, which I think is a good thing. Things I learned during Nano have helped me make the transition to full time writing.

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