On April 2, more than 100 people gathered on GCC’s campus for the school’s first-ever Community Creative Writing Night – an open house event featuring writing workshops, live music, and opportunities for creative collaboration.

The event was free and open to the public, with no RSVP or sign-in required. Throughout the two-hour gathering, people could come and go as they wished, and late arrivals were still able to participate. Current and former GCC students were present, as were other members of the greater Glendale community. Free food and drinks were also available. 

The opening 10-15 minutes saw the majority of attendees arrive and gave people time to casually socialize. After the opening period, one of the organizers introduced everyone to the four expert-led creative writing workshops on offer. 

Each workshop covered a different field of creative writing: narrative writing, poetry, playwriting/screenwriting, and exploratory writing, a broader workshop meant for those who were unsure where their interests lay. Most of the time was spent participating in the workshops, which served as the evening’s central focus. Former GCC student Hilary Khteian took part in the screenwriting workshop. “I really enjoyed the workshop for screenwriters. I do writing on the side myself as a web designer, so as someone who’s kind of trying to get into screenwriting, these types of workshops really help me get exposure and it’s also really great to bounce ideas off others as opposed to just writing in a vacuum,” said Khteian. “I liked that it was split into groups, so people could kind of pick and choose. I just really liked the structure of the event.” After the workshops finished, the band “Guerra/paz” arrived and performed multiple songs to close out the night.

Students pursuing various majors were drawn to the event, rather than strictly those in writing-related fields. GCC Freshmen Evan Ellersieck and Jared Bautista, who are Economics and Architecture majors respectively, were present. Bautista said that he attended because he felt that creative writing could potentially aid him in the future as an architect by improving his ability to describe his work.

English Division Chair and Professor Francien Rohrbacher was present and shared her thoughts on the importance of creative writing, and why the event was hosted. “We’re holding this not only because we want to promote creative writing at GCC, but we also believe that currently, the way things have been in our society, we want to encourage community; to talk to each other. Poetry and creative writing can transcend a lot of political stuff and people can talk about what’s going on and get into that humanity that we all share,” Rohrbacher explained.

Rohrabacher said that a $10,000 grant provided by the GCC Foundation financed the evening, and that the English Division plans to organize similar events in the future if this one is deemed successful. 

Lucas Lignini can be reached at [email protected].