Creativity for Leaders
with Emily Rapp Black & David Chang
Are you a busy professional who may be so busy making your mark on the world—perhaps leading your company or a congregation—that over time you have lost touch with your deepest creative self? Would you like to—for one week at least—set aside the push for productivity and perfection as you explore new ways of being, knowing, and experiencing the world? World-class instructors Emily Rapp Black and David Chang will guide you in writing and calligraphy and mark-making exercises in this workshop.
More class details to come shortly.
Each Day
More information to come.
Preparation
Only preparing yourself to be open to learn and to be patient with the process.
Supplies
Image will provide pen holder, nibs, pencil, pen, paper, and ink in advance of the class. You'll want to bring a journal or notebook and your favorite writing implement for the writing exercises.
Experience Level
All experience levels are welcome in this space.
About the Instructors
Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir (BloomsburyUSA) and The Still Point of the Turning World (Penguin Press), a New York Times bestseller and an Editor’s Pick, and a finalist for the PEN-USA Award; Sanctuary (Random House); and Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg (Nottinghill Editions/New York Review of Books). A former Fulbright scholar, she was educated at Harvard University, Trinity College-Dublin, Saint Olaf College, and the University of Texas-Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow in Fiction and Poetry. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she has received awards and fellowships from the Rona Jaffe Foundation; the Jentel Arts Foundation; the Corporation of Yaddo; the Fine Arts Work Center, where she was a winter writing fellow; Fundacion Valparaiso; and Bucknell University, where she was the Philip Roth fiction writer-in-residence. Her work has appeared in VOGUE, the New York Times, Die Zeit, The Times-London, Lenny Letter, The Sun, TIME, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Good Housekeeping, O the Oprah Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and other publications and anthologies. Her essays about end-of-life care and palliative care appear frequently in medical and academic journals and anthologies. She is currently professor of creative writing at the University of California-Riverside, where she also teaches in the School of Medicine. The mother of two children: Ronan (2010-2013), and Charlie (age 10), she lives in the Inland Empire in Southern California. Her next book, I Would Die If I Were You: Notes on Craft, Consciousness and Creativity, is forthcoming from Counterpoint Press in 2026.
David Chang is a renowned artist who has pursued the art of western calligraphy for the past twenty years. His masterful study of calligraphy is driven by a passion for “bringing the essence of a word or message to life.” Chang's calligraphic mark—vacillating between traditional scripts and contemporary abstraction—issues statements of personal, cultural, and spiritual awareness, while retaining a formal beauty full of urgency and redemption.
David was first introduced to the rhythm and art of writing through Spencerian penmanship, and his work has since appeared in numerous shows and institutions, including Onishi Gallery, Clemente Soto Velez Center, Waterfall Mansion, Pratt Institute, Calvary Saint George’s, and the Society of Scribes at the National Arts Club. Notably, his calligraphy has also been prominently featured in the internationally acclaimed film Mother! (2017).