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PROJECT
The Project: Each week, a group of 10 to 15 girls and young women will gather to: 1) discuss the work of women writers and become informed (through these writings and through conversation among themselves) about issues they identify as important to their lives; 2) express their own angle(s) on these issues by writing original poetry and prose; and 3) bring their ideas and perspectives into the public sphere. The 18-week semester will be split in to three six-week segments to cover each of these components. The project will serve high school-aged girls and young women in Tucson. Participants will be recruited from City High and Tucson High, two schools where Kore Press has already established relationships with teachers and administrators. Any young woman aged 14 to 18 is welcome to participate, regardless of where or whether she is a student. The project will serve 10 to 15 students per semester, for 2 semesters. Because some participants are likely to carry through from the first semester to the next, we estimate the program will serve 20 to 25 (unduplicated) students over the course of the year. Sessions will be held in the library at Casa Libre en la Solana, a nonprofit writers’ retreat center on 4th Avenue. Casa Libre is located just blocks from Tucson High and within walking distance of City High. This historic building was converted into a writers’ retreat and inn two years ago and is currently booked months in advance. Our choice of this writers’ retreat space as the workshop location for the pilot project proved to be an excellent one: participants liked very much the out-of-school location and the literary environment of the Casa Libre library. In our pilot phase, participants reacted most positively to audio essays by Tucson’s disability/immigration/poverty/peace activist Nancy Mairs; poetry by the Tohono O’odham poet and language preservationist Ofelia Zepeda; and the Kore Press First Book Award Winner Deborah Fries, who writes about mothers and daughters. Materials not published by Kore Press were also (and will continue to be) used: readings from Jamaica Kinkaid’s Girl at the Bottom of the River produced some of the best writing of the project. We realized early on that to bring these participants too quickly to the activism phase of the project would be a mistake. The process of reading others’ work and finding their own voices was critical, and, we think, not to be rushed. In the pilot phase, we learned the importance of clarity regarding the “literary activism” component of the program: some participants thought that activism meant they’d be required to stand up in front of groups of people, which for many was a terrifying prospect. This time around, during the recruitment process we will be sure to outline the many different ways a person can be an activist. We also learned that it will be critical to prepare the group by discussing what “literary activism” means to each one of us, and to listen carefully to each participant as she finds and expresses her activism at whatever level and/or strategy works best for her. Our own definition of literary activism: public expression by a writer or group of writers on a social issue through the use of written or spoken language. At least one session per semester will be devoted to the process of printing and book production, including layout, design, and bookmaking fundamentals. Each participant will have the opportunity to create a poster-sized broadside of a chosen piece of their work, and will produce a limited edition print run. At the end of the semester, Kore Press will host a show and (voluntary) public reading in our lovely outdoor reading and performance space. Ensuring Youth Voices are Heard: Participants will be required to find a way to exercise their voices in the public sphere. This component of the project is inspired by activist foremothers such as the Guerilla Girls, the New York City-based band of artists whose creative street activism inspired a shift in the way women artists are represented in museums and the media (unlike the Guerilla Girls, however, our young participants’ activism will remain within the boundaries of the law!). The participants will develop their own unique strategies, but as an example these activities might include distributing snippets of poetry in public places to passers-by; projecting their writing onto downtown buildings at night with a digital projector; publishing a ‘zine; and/or holding public, impromptu spoken-word performances in unexpected places. At the end of the pilot project, Kore Press hosted a public reading at Casa Libre in which each participant read from her original writing, followed by a reading by Nancy Mairs. The participants told us they were especially thrilled by Ms. Mairs’ appearance and support. The full-phase project will continue this tradition by inviting another Kore Press author to read with the participants at the end of each semester. Staff and Management: The project will be managed by Lisa Bowden, the co-founder and Artistic Director of Kore Press. Workshops will be facilitated by Debra Gregerman, one of the designers of the program and the pilot project facilitator. Ms. Gregerman is a Kore Press author, a visual artist and poet with more than 15 years experience as a teacher in the arts. She currently teaches poetry writing at the University of Arizona. Eve Rifkin, Humanities teacher at City High, will oversee curriculum development and all pedagogical matters. Adult facilitators will select works of literature to discuss; facilitate conversations; teach creative writing fundamentals; listen carefully; and offer guidance to individual participants as they decide which issues and strategies to adopt. Adults will not lecture participants on literature and/or social change issues; direct conversation toward a particular social agenda; or exert pressure to choose one publication strategy over another. Creating Change through the Voices of Youth: The Grrrls Literary Activism Project seeks to bring about changes in attitudes and consciousness. The very nature of literary activism is to affect the individual who experiences the publication (again, by publication we mean public expression in any form) of an author’s perspective. Whether the individual is a decision-maker or an average citizen, the goal is to open the recipient’s eyes to another point of view. That the author, in this case, is a young woman insisting that her voice be given equal air time, print space or aural opportunity brings another level of importance and power to the act of publication. While the issues themselves are very important, this project is more concerned with providing the structure and support for each young author to find her own topic on which to write and publish. The creation of literature is a solitary endeavor, requiring a personal and often intimate expression of whatever issues drive the author. As such, the topic cannot possibly be dictated by an outside authority without compromising artistic integrity. |