“Stories have the power to create social change and inspire community.”
Terry Tempest Williams (writer, educator, conservationist, and activist)
The Soul Fire Writing Retreat in April 2023 was held at Bore Place, Kent, and centred on using stories for activism. For this retreat, we took inspiration from the spirit of clandestine movements of activists, artists, pirates, writers, and storytellers who collaborate and co-conspire to positively disrupt and disturb the status quo. We wanted to offer late nights, smoky rooms, hard drinking (or herbal tea), food on the run. We worked together in a lively and energising way to tell stories. Stories from our lives, and those which describe the world we want to live in. Stories which inspire. Stories which were real, imagined, funny, poignant, powerful. The stories unfolded, literally, as our weekend progressed.
We wanted to co-create something that we could publish at the end of the weekend, and this collection of stories – micro-tales from our lives, and visions for the future we want to create – is the result. These stories were written in situ during our retreat and we asked everyone to resist the urge to edit and change them afterwards. They are real, and they are raw.
Grab a drink. Curl up by the fire. Lose yourself in a story.
Write On Changemakers 