DC Creative Writing Workshop
WISH LIST: $100: sponsors 1 class of students to participate in a local poetry reading at a featured venue; $500: supplies a stipend for a Young Writer-in-Residence $1500: covers production costs for one entire issue of Simon Says, hArtworks, or Voice of the Knights--the literary magazines of the Simon, Hart and Ballou schools
Look at the Simon Elementary, Hart Middle, and Ballou High schools, and you would never guess that, thirteen years ago, they were just three failing DC schools with low test scores and lower attendance. But that was "before." Now they are in the midst of a literary renaissance. Forging critical partnerships with the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, the Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Stage, and the US Memorial Holocaust Museum, the DC Creative Writing Workshop helps teachers and offers opportunities unavailable at other schools. Every week, sixteen English classes meet with professional writers to talk about the greats: Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot, and Chinua Achebe. After school, students take field trips to cultural institutions; the Drama Club produces original works; and students publish the nation's first inner-city middle school literary magazine, acclaimed by Poet's Market as "an outstanding example of what a literary journal can be (for anyone of any age)." Students have been winners of prestigious poetry contests, and several graduates have gone on to the Literary Media program at the Ellington School for the Arts. Motivated Ballou students work at the after-school Writing Club while they build their portfolios and develop college and career aspirations. Discipline problems are down, scores are up, and in 2007 the executive director was selected for the Mayor's Office of Partnerships and Grants "Strengthening Partners Initiative" for emerging non-profits. Isn't it time to put your own creative powers--and creative philanthropy--to work?
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