Ailish Hopper

Writing Coaching, Tutoring, and Editing

In addition to my own prose writing I am passionate about being a midwife for other writers’ processes, whether it’s to tease out their best ideas, streamline organization, or edit sentences until they’re crystal clear and compelling. I have proofread or edited everything from college essays and personal statements to articles and book projects. More information is here. I also work with poets one-on-one and in workshops. As a member of Baltimore’s Poetry Coalition, I particularly value supporting people’s access to poetry’s wide spectrum of genealogies. This January I plan to offer a monthly workshop, “The Bread of Poetry,” which will introduce people to poems and poets who’ve used poetry to fight political repression and to nurture our lives.

Meditation Instruction and Mentoring

If you are interested in beginning a meditation or mindfulness practice, or deepening an existing one, I work with individuals and with groups in 8-week regular practice sessions. I’m fortunate to have received gifts (more here) from teachers in several Buddhist traditions, and find that the deep listening in a “kalyanamitta” (“admirable friendship”) can be the ground we need for clarity and sustenance.  These meetings can be as informal as a walk or meeting for coffee, or as formal as a meditation session then conversation. Drop me a line if you are curious.

Freely given, donations accepted.

Relational Organizing and Facilitation

No matter the growth that communities and organizations aim for, a stubborn status quo often remains. A true blossoming might require relationship pathways that do not yet exist, or is hindered because people feel confused or afraid that a necessary change will lead to losses. I provide two services to individuals or groups seeking to facilitate these types of adaptation in community. I like to use metaphors to describe them:

–Dissolvable Stitches: These are techniques for bridging people that move beyond mutual empathy to shift power dynamics and hierarchies. I meet with people one on one, or in small groups, to support people’s insights about one another’s vulnerabilities and “unthinkable” ways that they might, instead, be of support. Together, we connect and realign enough people’s principles so that new understandings emerge.

–The Critical Yeast: Borrowing a metaphor from conflict-transformation practitioner John Paul Lederach, I offer a diagnosis of adaptations that people are avoiding, an analysis of why, and suggested strategies to facilitate life-giving change processes. Since we as individuals are often not aware of our participation in underlying dynamics, an adaptive lens is required. I support folks to understand one another’s hidden needs and conflicting loyalties by relating differently to one another’s complaints, behaviors, and group-folklore. Lederach says “critical yeast” to distinguish this work from “critical mass”—- meaning the masses of money, or people, or energy that might be thrown at a problem. But even with all those resources, the “yeast” is the missing ingredient that makes things rise.

If you are interested in collaborating in these ways, or see any other potential affinity, please drop me a line and we can set up a conversation.

(photo is a Worker Writers School event on Governors Island)