Continuing The Church's series of writers' spoken word, now called WORD, we invite you to join us for the second iteration, WORD: On Transformation, this summer. The Inaugural program in February 2023, Love is a Verb, offered vibrant, wide-ranging readings to a standing-room-only audience.

WORD features writers, storytellers, and performers; confirmed writers for July include Reverend Holly Haile Davis, Candace Hill, Pacifique Irankunda, Kristen Santori, and Ella Engel-Snow. Reflecting on the program's theme, Irankunda proved a quote from Good Prose, where authors Richard Todd and Tracy Kidder discuss Irankunda's essays and write, "For the writer, the ultimate reward of memoir may be to produce a work in which the facts are preserved, the experience is transformed."

When speaking on Juy's theme being transformation, the program's curator, Talena Mascali, states, "We're inviting writers to engage with the enormous, trepidatious theme of transformation. What I find most interesting is that transformation is ongoing, sometimes imperceptible, sometimes dramatic, and often recognized when change is visible. For me, the underbelly, the heart of the storm, the long road with no end in sight, is where transformation lives. It's in leaving the comfort of your current self, often with no choice, forced to discover whom you can become." 

The evening will explore the written word in varied forms: poetry, prose, fiction, essays, spoken word, etc. Concluding with a casual and intimate conversation engendering a lively dialogue between the presenters and the people present. At The Church, one of our core missions is to honor Sag Harbor as the Maker Village; the WORD series is meant to honor Sag Harbor as a welcoming home for artists, writers, and creatives while celebrating the power and range of the written and spoken word. The reading will be held in The Church's Studio/Ground Floor, with café table seats (limited tables available that seat up to 4 guests), regular seating, and light refreshments.