Get your creative juices flowing with weekly writing playlists and prompts curated by Fellow Sally Familia all summer long!
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Playlist and Prompt: The Opening Scene of My Biopic
Prompt: Say you are watching an indie film based on your life so far. What is the narrator saying as the first scene comes onto your screen? What images, colors, and sounds are present?
Playlist and Prompt: Hone in on the sweetest voice you hear
Prompt: In a world where you are the superhero, what do the voices outside of you say about you? Hone in on the sweetest voice you hear. Create a piece from that voice’s perspective.
Playlist and Prompt: Memorializing The Sentimental
Prompt: Pick an item that has sentimental value to you. If you were to lose this item, what do you fear the item would take with it?
Using this premise, write a piece immortalizing the people, stories, and moments associated with this item.
Playlist and Prompt: How does your body know that it is loved by you?
Prompt: Through moments of discomfort and unease, how does your body know that it is loved by you?
Playlist and Prompt: What about this love makes you feel the most free to be yourself?
Prompt: Pick a song from the playlist that closely resembles a love that currently settles within you. What about this love makes you feel the most free to be yourself?
Playlist and Prompt: What does that fight look like, sound like, feel like?
Prompt: Who or what are you fighting when you are not giving yourself permission to just be? What does that fight look like, sound like, feel like?
Playlist and Prompt: What is in your catalog of gratitude?
Prompt: Write a piece after the first song of the playlist— the poem, “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude,” written and performed by Ross Gay in collaboration with Bon Iver. Pick a song from the playlist to accompany you while you’re writing it.
Playlist and Prompt: How did it feel to be joyous in your body?
Prompt: Treat yourself to a dance party! How did it feel to be joyous in your body?
Playlist and Prompt: Releasing Your Inner Child
Prompt: Allow one of the songs on the playlist to naturally draw out a childhood memory*. Share this story with your inner child using the medium of your choosing.
*Sit with the playlist until the memory arrives. Trust that it will.
Playlist and Prompt: Ode to the Senses
Prompt: Write an ode to summertime using the senses
Playlist and Prompt: Song Title Poem
Prompt: Using the songs in this playlist, write a poem with as many song titles as you can.
Playlist and Prompt: What do you hear?
Prompt: Choose a song from the playlist that takes you somewhere. Where did you go? What do you hear? Do you see anything? Is someone there with you?
Playlist and Prompt: What feels sacred to you?
Prompt: What feels sacred to you in this moment?
We Want to Publish Your Story!
Currently enrolled mentors and mentees, program alum, teaching artists, and community members are all invited to share their original multimedia work!
If you were inspired by these playlists and prompts, let us know in the Process section of your submission.
Sally Familia
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Sally Familia
Sally Familia (they/them) is a queer poet and freelance editor. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Washington Heights, Familia has a rooted passion for their community. They spent a year serving as senior editor for La Galería Magazine, a Dominican-based magazine for the Dominican diaspora in Washington Heights. They hold a B.A. in creative writing with a focus on poetry from SUNY Oswego. Most recently, Sally’s passions have shifted; now incorporating a strong desire to work with and for the youth. Sally hopes to merge their love for literature, Queer and BIPOC communities, and the youth as they continue to navigate the artist/ professional dichotomy. Sally has been awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize for the poem, “The Trouble with Reminiscing” (2019). They were also nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Brooklyn Poets for the poem, “Esperanza, Republica Dominicana”. Sally is currently working on their first poetry collection.