Check Out Peggy Dobreer’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Peggy Dobreer. 

Hi Peggy, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
There are decades here. But always a passion for art, expression, activism, inclusion, and the earth. Always circles and tribes. Building communities of improvisors, dancers, actors, musicians, designers, writers, and their audiences. From the Cat’s Paw Palace of Performing Arts in Berkeley to Murphy Hall at Loyola Marymount University, From Toastmaster’s International to the Unitarian Universalist Community Center Downtown. From Ghost Ranch, in Abiquiu, New Mexico to the Globe Bookstore in Prague. From Camera Obscura, Santa Monica to the Outpost in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Silver Park Arts in L.A. 

Then the pandemic lockdown drew it all to a halt, 

After the January 6, Insurrection my friend and dance buddy, Janet Fitch suggested I offer a morning guided (somatic) meditation practice online for a small group of writers. They came from Janet’s fiction workshops at Community of Writers, my E=Mc2bodied Poetry Workshops online, and a small enclave of other friends and artists. 

That small gesture of providing a tiny, committed space for silence and art every day. In the midst of and to help integrate and ‘whimsify,’ if you will, the insanity around us, has evolved into an online community known as Slow Lightning Lit…. which has three main components: 

* The daily Slow Lightning practice online with writers from Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, the Tunk Valley,  WA, Connemara County, Ireland, Prague, CZ, Arizona, New York, Kansas, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

* “Slow Lightning: Impractical Poertry” a journal of poetry from members of Slow Lightning 

* Live and Online events curated both independently and collaboratively with other literary organizations. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth and organic in its evolution, yes…amazing….it has a generative life of its own …. 

However… the growth edge on managing the details of each new aspect of the work has been overwhelming at times. Balancing my own work and navigating collaborations with volunteers and still meeting deadlines without skipping crucial steps in the process. Managing a business was never my forte. I have worked with marvelous Directors throughout my career. In many ways, I must admit, I have inhibited its growth …. as it makes demands for each new skill set. 

Luckily an old dancer CAN learn new steps…but the body moves more slowly. Ha! 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
One of the things I am most proud of are my collaborations with others, and actively encouraging and lifting artists by creating spaces for them to generate new work and share it. I was taught at a very young age to share with all my siblings. And I don’t mean to sound falsely humble here. I just get excited when art excites me. If I was altruistic, I would not get so angry when I do not feel that support reciprocated. So, there’s that. But for the most part, it is!!! Full circle. When you least expect it. 

I will say that I am able to sustain this Slow Lightning practice for others (January 12th will be two years, Mon-Fri) because it has been my personal practice for long before I began to share it with others. And because I am an improvisor at heart. Neuroplasticity is similar to any other physical training. Writers are really good at exercising the research side of the brain but often have not explored the skills cultivated by moving/dancing bodies. 

I think what sets any artist apart from any other is what happens to them and what they do with it. Contact Improvisation molded my young artistic practice, so did Stanislavsky, Kristen Linklater, Irene Forness, my licensing in Yoga Studies, interest in mystical traditions, and the work of every poet I’ve ever read. 

What I’m most proud of professionally, are the books I’ve helped bring into the world, mine and my mentees. Along with the small ways as a teaching artist and poet, that I have touched other writers and readers. But for specifics on that, you’d have to ask them. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.peggydobreer.com
• Instagram: @slowlightninglit. @pegsdobreer

Image Credits
Peggy Dobreer
Alexis Rhone Fancher
Dakota Raine
David J. Orr
David Francis
Steve Asmussen
Glass Lyre Press
Brendan Constantine