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(Re)invent
Sometimes we reinvent out of necessity, sometimes we’re spurred by our own initiative. Whatever the catalyst, a full life typically involves a life of constant reinvention. It can be big or small, a shout or a whisper. Some would say our country is in the midst of a rare moment of reinvention; others might say we reinvent it - and ourselves - every day.
Will that reinvention be so significant that the original is unrecognizable,or will it be a small, yet necessary step toward the next, best version of who we are? Any change creates ripple effects, effects that we can’t see until we jump. Young Writers knows a thing or two about holding its breath and taking a leap of faith. Not only was Y-Dubs a reinvention of summer camp, each of you left as slightly different versions of the young writers who arrived, whose creative power has been turned into accomplishments of every stripe and have no doubt created their own ripple effects.
We want the 40th Anniversary Conference & Reunion to be the catalyst for your next reinvention, the spark for something new and meaningful. A time to remember who you once were, who you’ve become, and all the possible versions of yourself waiting to unfold.
Here are some of our favorite examples of reinventions to inspire your journey:
Caryn Elaine Johnson, better known as Whoopi Goldberg, has worked as a bricklayer, waitress, bank teller, AND mortuary makeup artist and hairdresser. Now, her resume boasts standup, improv, theater, movies and a talk show. She’s one of fifteen people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Academy, and Tony Award.
144 years after Alexander Bell invented the telephone, it has evolved from standard landline to cordless phone to mobile phone to a device that combines the mobile phone with the radio, the record player, the notepad, the audio recorder, the camera, the video camera, the photo/audio/video editor, and a search engine that can identify everything from birds to sofas. And it talks! What’s next? Sentience?
Who’d think The Four Seasons—that most overfamiliar of classical masterpieces—could have a second life? Yet reviewers and audiences are raving about Max Richter’s reinvention of the four violin concerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi. Listen to The Four Seasons Recomposed here.
Widely considered to be one of the first feminist novels, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre has benefited from countless books, movies and TV series inspired by our eponymous heroine. IMDb lists more than fifty movies alone. Then there’s Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, not to mention the perhaps lesser known, Jane Eyre and Zombies.