money talks and writing class announcement
NYC: facilitating a 3-week workshop series for short-form writing
Let’s talk about money. Let’s talk about how costs are going up and work is going down. Let’s talk about how money is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And let’s talk about how none of us are meant to navigate this alone.
The systems of targeted debt, racial capitalism, and health inequity have convinced us that we deserve the situations we’re in. Or that other people are getting what’s been coming to them. This idea of meritocracy is a myth.
Nobody deserves to starve. Nobody deserves to be out of work. Nobody deserves to live out an apocalypse scenario streamed to billions of people around the world, and still get called *erroris*s.
Spiritual philosopher and orator Jiddu Krishnamurti said in Commentaries on Living Series 3 (1960):
“Is society healthy, that an individual should return to it? Has not society itself helped to make the individual unhealthy? Of course, the unhealthy must be made healthy, that goes without saying; but why should the individual adjust himself to an unhealthy society? If he is healthy, he will not be a part of it. Without first questioning the health of society, what is the good of helping misfits to conform to society?
To help the individual to fit into a society which is ever at war with itself – is this what psychologists and analysts are supposed to do? Is the individual to be healed only in order to kill or be killed? If one is not killed, or driven insane, then must one only fit into the structure of hate, envy, ambition and superstition which can be very scientific?”
This quote has often been summarized as: “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
So, I’ve been talking about it. How sick all of this feels, how I’m having a hard time pivoting and adjusting, how I’m being forced to get more resourceful and creative. When I’m talking to someone I trust, I answer honestly when they ask how I’ve been. I say work has been slow, bills are unpaid, and it takes everything out of me to get anything done.
I encourage you to talk about it too. And share with each other what you feel is appropriate, reasonable, and valid. Otherwise, we feed the machine that keeps us suffering in silence.
I’m thinking about money today because finally, I feel more stabilized than I have in months and months. I’m not completely in the clear, but I feel like I’m rocking in a tiny lifeboat, collecting the supplies I need for my next leg of the journey. I’m grateful for this. It’s a very different feeling from drowning, treading water, and shouting for help, which is what I feel like I’ve been doing all year. Self-funding and self-producing a 6-city book tour was a sobering, humbling experience. It would have been impossible without receiving support from people— airport pick ups, spare bedrooms, meals covered. And trying to break in as an actor during perhaps the worst possible time to pursue an acting career is…also deeply sobering and humbling.
Money comes and it goes. And sure, building financial security, healing money wounds, and developing an abundance mindset are all important. But there’s no denying, we’re living through a period of time that historians and economists will probably look back on and name as some sort of “next Great Depression.” So if you’re working as hard and as smart as you can and it still doesn’t feel like enough, it’s not you. And as much as our world revolves around money, your value is not defined by how much you have in your bank account. Please remember this!
👩🏻🏫 On that note, I’m still booking workshops for this fall/winter so if you have funds and want to bring me in to talk about:
Change as a Creative Practice
The Power of Disability and Neurodivergence
Self Care and Collective Care During Times of Crisis
Rewrite Your Bio: Redefine Your Story
Design Your Future: An Exercise in Creative Visualization
or a custom workshop, keynote, lecture, or talk, please reach out. You can reach out via the form at jezzchung.com/contact~
And this announcement is for anyone who lives in NYC:
📝 I’ll be teaching an in-person 3-week short-form writing course with New Women Space on Monday, September 23, Monday, September 30, and Monday, October 7. The first 2 classes will be in person in Williamsburg, and the third class will be virtual.
I’m envisioning this as a space for writers who are especially interested in short-form writing (writing for social media, poetry, single-page prose, newsletters) because lately my ADHD is running wild and sticking to short-form has been the only way I’ve been able to maintain a steady, consistent writing and reading practice. Even my book This Way to Change is a collection of poems and short excerpts because I wanted to write a book I could actually read. By the way, my book is now available on all audiobook platforms for people who retain information better through audiobook 🎧
If you’re a seasoned, professional writer, consider this workshop series as a way to strengthen your foundation and be in community with other writers. If you’re someone who is hesitant to call yourself a writer because it’s always been something you do in private, consider this course a way to get more comfortable calling yourself a writer and move through any blocks and fears you have about growing your practice and building an audience.
The class will consist of prompted writing exercises, low-stakes readings within a very supportive environment, and lots of dialogue with each other to get to the roots of why we write and what we want our writing to do in the world. You can find the full list of topics I’ll be covering and the registration link here.
If it’s not clear by everything I share— I’m passionate about facilitating spaces that center personal expression for collective healing, and I love sharing the knowledge I’ve accumulated from all that I’ve been practicing and studying over the years.
Spread the word to any NYC writers you know!
As always, thank you so much for reading and engaging with my work.
xoxo
Jezz