A Portal to Healing: Using Creative Writing to Calm Our Minds

Would you like to learn how to use creative writing to deal with anxiety, stress or grief?

“A Portal to Healing: Using Creative Writing to Calm Our Minds” is part of a series of workshops and events that focus on mental health in Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, sponsored by the Queens College AANAPISI Project (QCAP).

Join us on Tuesday, May 7, from 4:30-6:30pm, for the next QCAP Mental Health Workshop, where Bushra Rehman, a writer, cultural activist, and CUNY alum from Queens, will help us explore writing as a portal to healing.

Rehman will lead us through exercises that will help us understand our life experiences, connect to others, and find healing in community. We will learn a variety of creative techniques, as well as breathing and tapping exercises to help us write. We will have a chance to explore our life experiences through a variety of playful activities and feel energized by the creative sparks that are unleashed.

Previous creative writing experience is not required, and all genres and experience levels are welcome!

Snacks will be provided!

Masks are encouraged but not required. Visitors to Queens College may be required to present a valid state-issued ID for campus access. See the Queens College website for directions and a campus map.

About QCAP

The Queens College AANAPISI Project (QCAP) aims to support the academic success, mental health, and community engagement of QC’s diverse and underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) Program, QCAP addresses the specific needs of our AAPI students via a range of programs. To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram @qcap.queens.

Speaker Bio

Bushra Rehman’s dark comedy, Corona, was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of its favorite books about NYC. She is the co-editor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism and author of the collection of poetry Marianna’s Beauty Salon. Rehman's newest novel, Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion, is a modern classic about what it means to be Muslim and queer in a Pakistani American community. Roses was noted as a Best Book and Editor’s Choice by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, People Magazine, The New York Times, Good Morning America, Ms. Magazine and more.