HOW2 Have a Word Party

Published on July 15, 2011 by IAM

Word Party (n): A gathering of individuals (see also: Word Lovers) who read aloud
pieces of their favorite written texts. May include novels, blogs, short stories, poems,
essays, textbooks, etc. [unlimited field]

Word Party (v): To gather for a Word Party.

Sentence example: "Everyone knew that the coolest people were going to Word Party and
so made their Tuesday evening clear for an amazing time."

While these are "instructions," the best Word Parties are distinctly casual and free form
in nature. There is no "goal" or intended result. The night makes itself and is completely
different with every meeting and each new combination of individuals. The express point
is to have fun and enjoy all the words that are exchanged in conversation.

For many, a book club is not a possibility. For college students (my community), the idea
of adding another book onto a long list assigned readings and homework assignments is a
literary death toll. I've found that many students connect deeply with at least some sort of
text. It could be a blog or a children's book or a comic strip or even a textbook.

Pre-Work:

• Each attendee brings a much admired/beloved text: novel, short story, blog, comic strip, graphic novel, poem(s), collection, tweet, etc. No limits on genre or form. Only limitation is that it must have words.
• Each attendee must be prepared to explain why that text is important and worth liking. Why it is worth "delighting in". Or: Why do you like it?

The Event:

• Have each person introduce themselves. We used the question, "If your relationship to words was a facebook status, what would it be and why?" as our classic icebreaker question. The answers to this are always entertaining.
• Invite one person to begin the readings. They read and explain why they like it. Others chim in with observations.
• Allow conversations to spiral/explode in any direction it feels like.
• At an appropriate lag in that current conversation, invite another person to read. Often times, the texts will have associative links in the conversation that prompts one person to volunteer to go next.
• Allow the night to continue on.
• Be somewhere where plenty of beverages are available.

The excellent, beloved texts will lead to honest, transparent conversations. Beauty and
delight lead to a profound shared experience the language and truth of the Created World.

__________________________________________________

This HOW2 resource was created by Dana Ray (Pennsylvania State University).