Write for Life Culture Club

About This Event

Culture Club: Unplanned + 'Stories from the Pavement' Workshop Monday 27th April - 7.30-9.30pm Be inspired this Spring and join us for our popular online Culture Club on Monday 27th April (7.30-9.30pm), where, in the first half, we'll be discussing the powerful true pro-life conversion drama, Unplanned; and, in the second half, we'll be joined by 40 Days for Life International Director, Robert Colquhoun, who will be sharing other fascinating accounts from 40 Days witnesses at abortion clinics. Sarah de Nordwall will be leading a creative writing workshop inspired by such accounts, titled 'Stories from the Pavement'. Unplanned (2019) Unplanned is based on the 2010 memoir of the same name by former Planned Parenthood clinic director, Abby Johnson. As the movie recounts, the young idealistic Abby was recruited into volunteering for America's largest abortion provider whilst at University, working as an escort to accompany women into the clinics that would regularly have a pro-life witness outside. Abby went on to work professionally for Planned Parenthood, becoming their youngest ever executive director of a clinic, being responsible for overseeing over 22,000 abortions at the clinic she managed in Bryan, Texas. Despite working as a top administrator and advocate for the organisation, however, she'd had little involvement in the procedures herself. That changed in 2009, when after being asked to help out with one of the abortions she saw something that resulted in a dramatic conversion experience — and just 9 days later she resigned from Planned Parenthood, joining the Coalition for Life witness (who had been praying for her) outside the clinic, and since then becoming one of the pro-life movement's most powerful voices. The movie is produced, written and directed by Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, who had previously had a huge surprise box office hit with the popular Christian movie, God's Not Dead (2014). Unplanned faced many of the production and distribution problems you would expect of a movie taking on the abortion industry — secrecy had to surround the making of it, they struggled to get cinema chains to screen it (SPUC helped bring it to the UK), and it provoked a hostile reaction from the mainstream film critic fraternity — who largely rejected it as 'anti-abortion propaganda'. One of the main issues we are always attempting to address in our Academy is “How do we represent pro-life themes and messaging in a way that is both artistically effective and which is capable of influencing hearts and minds?” What is your response to Unplanned? Does it succeed in opening your mind and heart to new ways of understanding the workers in the abortion industry? Have you watched it with friends who are not pro-life, to see their reaction? We'd love to hear your views. Join us at Culture Club to be part of the discussion. Some things to think about in advance: 1. In what ways do you think this movie contributes to the pro-life message? 2. What can we learn from the movie about the art of writing a narrative — especially one based on real-life testimony? 3. What could we learn from the movie about the art of directing and film-making? And in the 2nd half of Culture Club ... 'Stories from the Pavement' workshop Because Unplanned sprang from a real prayer campaign around an abortion clinic, we thought it might be interesting to gather our own stories, or real stories we’ve heard, from being ‘on the pavement’ outside an abortion clinic. Maybe you were praying outside, or maybe you were walking in yourself, and had or avoided a conversation with someone on the pavement? We want to gather such stories together tonight and experiment with creating a story arc that would make a good radio play, in order to bust some of the myths and distortions put out by the media and our opponents — especially to justify the 'Buffer Zones' around abortion clinics which legally came into force across the whole of the UK by 2024. We need to find a way to bring the truth about those pavement conversations to the public. For instance, conversations that are reported as harassment can in fact go like this … a friend of Sarah’s had a conversation with a girl going into the clinic and later ended up being invited to this girl’s wedding and the baby’s Christening! Sarah de Nordwall will lead this pro-life creative writing workshop, in which we will also be joined by 40 Days for Life International Director, Robert Colquhoun, who will be relating some of his own 'stories from the pavement'. So, even if you don't have a story of your own to share, Robert will be providing a range of interesting and moving accounts that you may want to reflect on and consider writing about in the workshop. How to join us at Culture Club? Sign up for this event and click on the link to join the zoom. Nice and simple!

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