‘Memoir and Monologue’ Students to Read Personal Essays at MCC on Main
MANCHESTER – October 22, 2013 – Three Manchester Community College Continuing Education students will read personal essays at the college’s MCC on Main location at 903 Main Street from noon to 1 p.m., Saturday, October 26. This entertaining and inspiring event caps off the students’ experience in a course about how your own life stories contain valuable lessons. The public reading celebrates not only the students’ accomplishments but also the authentic, inspiring and centuries-old art of storytelling. It is free and open to everyone.
Students Joan Hale, Doris McKinney and Doug Senerth will read the essays they composed as part of “Memoir and Monologue,” a Credit-Free Programs course held this fall. The course focused on how people can use the personal stories of their past to become the “authors of their future,” according to Stacey Zackin, a certified life coach and Manchester native who has offered the course twice so far. The class has attracted people ranging in age from their early 20s to their late 80s.
“The class has been all about applying the lens of personal experiences to spot life lessons that can be valuable for everyone,” Zackin said. “Two of our readers – Joan and Doris—used the class to develop essays as a legacy for their grandchildren, and Doug developed an essay focused on the challenges he faced up to this point in his still young life.”
The course, which MCC Credit-Free Programs plans to offer again in the Spring 2014 semester, uses creative writing assignments and collaborative exercises that stimulate memory, imagination, metaphor and sensory perception. “We explore the significance of story and the impact of individual and collective myths,” Zackin said.
Founder and President of theCoach4you, Zackin partners with individuals and groups to maximize their time and energy, and transform their potential into productive results. She spent the last two decades in Los Angeles helping entertainment professionals and non-profit organizations create strategies for success. She is creator of the “DeFrag Your Life” system, host of The Work & Playlist – a radio show on WESU 88.1, and her article on “The Psychology of Mary Poppins” can be read in the Fall 2013 e-zine of Depth Insights at Depth Insights.
Also coming up at MCC on Main is Words on Fire: The Art of the Poetry Slam, taught by CT National Poetry Slam team member and author Elizabeth Thomas. This two-session course in the art of oral presentation starts Saturday, December 7, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and concludes on Saturday, December 14 with a public poetry slam (refer to CRN 31942). The fee is $55.
Enrolling in and completing Continuing Education courses through MCC means students have access to hands-on experts in the field for instruction, as well as the added benefit of an official college transcript that serves as a record of their education.
For more information, call the Credit Free Information line at 860-512-2800, or to register, contact the Registrar’s Office at 860-512-3232, or visit Credit-Free Programs .