BLOOD LINES
Artwork by Alyssa Ranker for Ridgelines
Blood Lines: a gathering to share stories, songs, poems, and other language arts about reproductive experiences
Do you have a story, poem, or song about a reproductive experience you’ve had in your life, or have been a primary support person for? Would you like to gather together with others in a safe, creative, and non-judgemental space to share language arts about pregnancy, parenting, contraception, abortion, adoption, childlessness, sex and sexuality, sterilization, infertility, still birth, loss of a child, reproductive illnesses, miscarriage, menstruation, menopause, and more?
Ridgelines is planning an event for autumn 2026, date TBD, that will honor a full range of reproductive experiences through language arts. This is an opportunity for our community to celebrate, witness, and support experiences that are too often marginalized, misunderstood, and stigmatized. We know that our reproductive experiences and feelings cannot be condensed into one word or catch phrase—we know that our experiences can involve joy, grief, excitement, confusion, and everything in between, and yet the stories we hear in public continue to put pregnancy, parenting, abortion, adoption, and more into silos and boxes that do not reflect our lived experiences.
It’s time to honor, celebrate, and tell our truths!
We are seeking poets, storytellers, singers, etc. of all genders and all walks of life to share works that deal with any and all reproductive experiences. Please fill out this form if you are interested in participating as a performer. Once we get a good number of interested folks, we'll be in touch to plan next steps, including finding time for all the performers to gather together several times to practice and build community in advance of the performance.
Enjoy this video from our 2024 Blood Lines Event.
Please note that we are also planning a visual art component of this event. If you would like to contribute visual art, fill out this form and make a note about you work.
Learn more and register here.
Past Iterations of Blood Lines
Blood Lines Monthly
We are happy to announce Blood Lines Monthly, a series of gatherings for women-identifying and nonbinary central Pennsylvanians to share stories, poetry, writings, and other language arts about reproductive experiences. These gatherings build on the community that has formed over the last two years of honoring, celebrating, and telling our truths about reproductive experiences through the Blood Lines events we've held in the fall of 2023 and 2024 and look forward to holding again in the fall of 2025.
Blood Lines gatherings began on Tuesday March 25th and will continue through 2025 monthly on Tuesdays from 7-8:30 PM. We welcome new voices, along with those who have experienced past Blood Lines programs. Join anytime! Workshop participants need not commit to performing in the Blood Lines event this coming fall in order to attend these monthly gatherings.
Roots & Blooms is a series of digital and in-person workshops, events, and open mics for women, non-binary folks, and other gender-marginalized writers of all ages in central Pennsylvania.
You can find information about upcoming offerings in this series on the Events page of our website and on our Facebook page.
What Roots & Blooms participants are saying:
"What really worked for me in this workshop was being able to be in a group and learn from each other and also have time to learn on my own. Having the space to explore and listen to new parts of myself was nourishing."
"I enjoyed the teaching artist's guidance and calm, centered facilitation. She was encouraging, nonjudgmental, and terrific with giving feedback when folks shared. I liked her prompts and how she presented them. I also loved hearing stories from her past and culture. This was a gift and an inspiration."
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
If there are technologies or services that would make Roots & Blooms programs more accessible for you or someone you know—for example large print materials, audio descriptions, or sign language interpretation—please let us know! You can drop us a line at RidgelinesLanguageArts@gmail.com. We are more than happy to provide these and other services upon request!