Witness Journaling: A Gift to the Future

​A witness journal is a place for your love and your worry, your pride and your heartbreak. It’s a place for figuring out what you actually think, really specifically, about what’s going on in the world — for getting to change your mind, think carefully, ask questions, and get it wrong. Because the future knows how it ended up. But, unless you share your particular inner thoughts, not how we got there.

​With some examples, prompts, and hands-on collage time, we will talk about what and how to write to the future, and how to try to make sure it's received on the other side.

​Facilitator Diana Ruta Lempel, a history curator, began her practice of "witness journaling" during the pandemic, but refined her approach as she thought about what she wanted her children to know about the times they lived in, when they became old enough to learn more about it.

​This workshop is for you if you already have a journaling practice and wonder how to make it matter, or if you've never had one but feel that if you don't get out what you can't say you might burst. Whether you have bio-children, community kiddos, or none of these. If you are craving a structured way to pay attention, you are welcomed into this practice.