ONLINE Writing to Shift Systems: Storytelling for Changemakers
4 weeks | Tuesdays | Begins April 7, 2026
5:30pm-7:30pm PT | 6:30pm-8:30pm MT | 7:30pm-9:30pm CT | 8:30pm-10:30pm ET
Instructor: Dr. Shumaila Hemani
MEMBER PRICE: $160.00
NON-MEMBER PRICE: $210.00
How do writers influence not just individual hearts, but the systems and structures that shape our lives? This workshop explores the power of narrative as a catalyst for systems change, drawing on approaches from social innovation, community-engaged arts, and creative nonfiction.
Participants will learn how writing can:
- reveal hidden assumptions and patterns within social systems
- make structural inequities visible to broader audiences
- shift dominant narratives that uphold injustice
- amplify community knowledge and lived experience
- invite new futures, policies, and possibilities into public imagination
Through readings, case studies, and guided prompts, writers will:
- identify the systems (immigration, housing, healthcare, labour, culture, etc.) connected to their stories
- map how personal experience intersects with larger structural forces
- transform individual narratives into social-analysis frameworks
- craft writing that is persuasive, ethical, and grounded in community realities
- develop skills for writing op-eds, essays, blogs, and reflective pieces for journals and advocacy platforms
- explore techniques used in arts-for-social-change organizations to build empathy and shift mindsets
This class takes place online using Zoom.
Dr. Shumaila Hemani is a Calgary-based ethnomusicologist, soundscape composer, Certified Positive Neuroplasticity Teacher, and author of the memoir Writing in the Wound: Acculturation, Trauma & Music. Her writing spans personal essay, creative nonfiction, and arts-for-social-change scholarship, with work published in The Conversation, Canada’s National Observer, The Goose, New Forum Magazine, Wellbeing Magazine, OC87 Recovery Diaries, and Dr. Dan Susman’s Hope and Resiliency Blog. She has also been featured on podcasts such as Mental Health Today, OC87’s In-Depth Podcast, The Artsy Raven, and more.
From 2016–18, Dr. Hemani served as Editor-in-Chief of Intonations: The Music Journal at the University of Alberta*. She currently sits on the editorial boards for LUNA Magazine (2024) and the Arts for Social Change Guiding Collective. Her community-engaged arts practice includes residencies with Trico Changemakers Studio (2022–24), Music to Life (2024–25), and the International Centre of Arts for Social Change (2025). She has facilitated workshops for the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, Canadian Poverty Institute, and Werklund Centre for Arts-Based Research, focusing on climate justice, immigrant well-being, creative resilience, and positive neuroplasticity.
Her memoir Writing in the Wound was recently selected by award-winning Alberta author Barb Howard as her favourite Alberta book for the Winter 2026 issue of WestWord. Howard praised it as “a fascinating memoir… covering Hemani’s journey through three continents, her studies as an ethnomusicologist, her growth and multiple awards as a Sufi poet and musician, and 17 years of being denied permanent residency by the Canadian government.”
Dr. Hemani’s work has been featured through MRU’s ArtistSpeak Series, the Canadian Authors Association, ActionDignity, and the Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology. Upcoming publications and features include Canadian Dimension, Wise Brain Bulletin, OC87 Recovery Diaries (March 2026), WestWord, and an invited talk for the Creative Nonfiction Collective.
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We are a community that thrives on support and encouragement. Based on the philosophy of "no writer left behind", the J. Michael Fay Subsidy Program is available to anyone who finds themselves in financial need but really wants or needs to participate in one our programs are classes. Click link above for more details and to apply.
