“I suck at advertising,” was one of Drew Lamm’s opening lines last night to the group of assembled women. I could tell this was going to be a special event by the energy outside her purple front door. Women were pulling their cars onto Drew’s quaint, narrow street in the village of Rowayton and bustling up the purple stairs into her home. I overheard excited chatter among classmates seeing each other again after having shared intimate thoughts they’d written under the gentle, constructive guidance of their teacher Drew.

My thought after experiencing this special night was that she advertises extremely well. Word of mouth had filled the room. There is no finer testimonial than bodies filling seats, worthy readings and hearty applause. I’m not even in the market for a writing class and I wanted to sign up!

It was a grown up recital, much like those old piano class days, of students demonstrating their talents for the assembled masses. Drew gave an admittedly extemporaneous opening modeling her belief that when you’re in the company of creative women and the space is safe, the muses will inform you as they certainly did Drew. She spoke eloquently from the heart about the sacredness of the practice she preaches. One by one, her disciples read their drafts to us, smiling at the unexpected laughter they engendered, touched by the applause when they completed their reading.

“You’re hearing rough,” Drew explained, but it hardly felt so. These were wonderfully tender, meaningful and well-crafted essays and poems by a disparate group of women.The topics ranged from collecting lightning bugs to breastfeeding to cursing matriarchs to what to be buried in (naked on satin sheets was the request). Drew had promised a break during the readings, but read the mood of the room and kept the pace going. We were enthralled. An intermission would have disrupted the flow.

Drew made a gentle pitch at the end of the program for her upcoming workshops offered this summer. Based on the obvious success, support and affection that happens in this kind of environment, I don’t think she’ll have any trouble filling her sessions. For more information, visit her website.

Her house is eclectic and she invited us to visit her particularly magical bathroom located behind the star/beaded curtains. I was intrigued and captured a few images. The one above is the mirror in that room. There are many inspiring quotes hanging framed on the walls there. This was my favorite. It’s hard to read, so here’s the translation: There are two things in the world–life and death. ‘Art’ is life. ‘Not Art’ is death. ~Stuart Davis