Arts in Education hosts writing workshop

One of seven children in a working class family, Ferron left home at the age of fifteen to explore and develop her own songs and poetry. Picking strawberries ironing shirts, driving cabs and waiting tables-these experiences infiltrate Ferron's music and strike a chord with anyone who has taken on such work to support her art. She bought her first guitar with money raised from mowing lawns, and in 1975 held her first show for a women's press in Vancouver, B.C.

Since those humble beginnings, Ferron has gone on to produce 12 CDs, including "Shadows on a Dime (1980), which won a four-star rating from The Rolling Stone, and "Driver" (1984), which The New York Times named one of the Top Ten Albums of the Year.

She has toured worldwide and become an icon of the women's music movement, mentoring female artists like Tracy Chapman and Ani DiFranco, and performing with the Indigo Girls, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Tori Amos.

In her latest recording, "Turning into Beautiful" (2005), Ferron once again "uses her vocal agility, exquisite musical passages, and restrained timing to paint broad brush strokes across the listener's brain." Highly autobiographical, this CD offers songs that have been described as "essays...chiseled from the hard stone of reality."

Ferron believes that writing involves curiosity about the veil between what we say and don't say. She stresses the interplay of illusion and reality, communicated through concrete images that operate as metaphors for larger meaning.

This writing workshop with Ferron will be highly experiential, utilizing a number of writing exercises and techniques, interspersed with periods of reflection and sharing.

The workshop, which is $65, will be held from 1-5 p.m. at the Hood River Library. Enrollment is limited to 15 participants.

For more information or to register, call Columbia Gorge Arts in Education, (541) 387-5031 or lgaines@hoodriver.k12.or.us.

This workshop is co-sponsored by the Oregon Arts Commisison and the Friends of the Hood River Library.