Teen Writers Return to Camp as Teachers

Gabi Lang and Janela Harris (left to right in photo) may officially be called “Teen Assistants” for the Young Women’s Summer Camp, but both will assure you that they are a vital part of a team! For two weeks over the summer, they will be facilitating Young Women’s writing circles, creating teaching agendas, and building relationships with up to 30 girls and teens.

Gabi, daughter of Todd and Donna Lang of Walnut Hills, signed up for her first Young Women’s Summer Writing Camp in 2004 and just kept coming back. “This is more than a summer camp,” Gabi says. “It’s learning for life, not just a week of fun. Somehow I knew that, after my first YW’s camp experience.” Gabi graduated from Walnut Hills High School in June and will be attending Bennington College in VT, where she hopes to study art history and literature.

Janela also began coming to Writing Camp in 2004. “I was excited after the first day of camp,” says Janela. “I felt comfortable right away, and that kept me coming back.” Janela learned about YWWfaC while a student at The Waldorf School. She will be a senior at Walnut Hills High School in the Fall, and hopes to study psychology in college. “I’ll probably change my major, but I will always put into practice what I’ve learned here at YWWfaC.”

Both young women have graduated from the Young Women’s Feminist Leadership Academy, sponsored by Women Writing for (a) Change Foundation. Gabi, who was certified in 2007, explains, “I wanted to learn how to create the same kind of welcoming space I experienced at YWWfaC – not just keep it to myself. This training taught me how to create space for other girls to find their voices.”

Janela took the YWFLA training and graduated in 2008. “I wanted to know more about why this WWfaC process works so well. I wanted to make others feel the ease I felt.” To receive certification in the training, YWFLA students attend training sessions, create writing circles in school and community settings, and assist in summer camps, sampler classes and workshops.

They both agree that one of the best things about being a teacher in the Young Women’s programs is getting positive feedback from the participants. “When I hear these young girls reading their writing for the first time – that’s really rewarding,” says Gabi. Adds Janela, “There’s nothing to compare to watching young women find their voices.”

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Introducing... Our Summer Intern

Grace Montgomery was twelve when she first learned about Women Writing for (a) Change. She attended a Young Women’s Summer Camp in 2000 and was hooked. Each summer after that – including semester workshops in between – Grace brought her creativity and her writing to the YWWfaC circle. In 2006 she left for Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. This summer, Grace has returned to her writing roots as a WWfaC Intern.

Over the past three years Grace has majored in English and minored in Art History. She plans to graduate from Guilford College with a BA in December 2009. She has sought out a variety of internships. Her work as a publishing intern for Eye Magazine took her to London during this past year. She has interned as a curator for an art gallery and community arts center in Greensboro, and assisted in the Quaker books collection of Guilford College’s Hege Library. During the summer of 2006, she was a Teen Apprentice for ArtWorks in Cincinnati.

This summer, Grace has been delving into WWfaC’s archive of young women’s writing anthologies, with a goal of assembling a representative collection of the writing produced by girls and teens in the Young Women Writing for (a) Change summer camps. She envisions a series of publications showcasing the dreams, ideas, musings and stories in the writings of hundreds of young women like her – from ten to twenty – who have found their voices at YWWfaC.

Grace says, “Like many other girls and young women, the nurturing environment at YWWfaC helped me to establish not just my writing voice but also my sense of self. The extraordinary community of young women here creates such strength in one another. I am so excited to be doing work again at WWfaC, and I hope that these collections of writing will fully show the growth and beauty of these young women and their words in their experiences at YWWfaC.”

Grace is the daughter of Leanne Montgomery and resides in Mt. Lookout.

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Kathy Wade teaches Master Class this Fall

WWfaC teacher and writer Kathy Wade offers a prose Master Class this fall.

Class meets every two weeks on Tuesday Evenings, 7 – 9:30 pm, September 1, 15, 29; October 13, 27; November 10

This CO-ED class is for men and women who have a body of writing they want to bring to completion. The focus will be craft-oriented and genres include novel, short story, memoir and personal essay. Stephen King's On Writing is the required text.

Participants should have taken a WWfaC class previously.

CLICK HERE for all of the details!

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A little business

Back by popular demand, we are accepting credit card payments for some of our programs. Read the details here.

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WRITING CAMP: FUN, FRIENDS, SHARING

When twenty-one girls between the ages of nine and twelve descend on you, you’d better be ready! And our Young Women Writing for (a) Change teachers are. Lead teachers Andrea Rotter and Julia Mace have provided a fun-packed Summer Writing Camp (June 15-19). With trusty teen assistants Karen Bullock and Megan Stentz, here are just a few of the exciting and fun activities planned. Each girl is constructing a sort of “shrine to myself,” with drawings, pictures, objects from home, and writing – all of which tell something about what makes them unique. A walk in the park gives everyone time to take a closer look at nature, write about it, and share with the group. Small group get-togethers are an opportunity for the girls to read their writing and listen to others share their stories, poems, observations and dreams.

Skits, games, snacks, and lots of quiet time to write and reflect make for a rich and unique experience. On the last day of camp, parents and friends are invited to serve as audience, as the girls read aloud a piece of their favorite writing. These twenty-one budding writers will take home artistic pieces, a notebook of new writing, a deeper knowledge and appreciation of who they are, and a whole bunch of new best friends!


A few spaces still exist in the following camps:

Girls Full day 9am – 4 pm, June 29-July 3
Teens’s Half-day, 9am – 12:30 pm, July 6-10
Young Women’s Full-day, 9am-4pm, July 13-17

Visit our website for tuition fees and ages of camps: www.womenwriting.org

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Leading into....?

When you think of "leader" doesn't it conjure certain images? When I think of leader, I think of someone I can trust, someone who knows more than I do and most of all, someone who knows the way.

This past Friday, I joined a group of women so amazing that I feel completely humbled to call them my sisters -- I graduated from the Feminist Leadership Academy. Our class, the Class of 2009, self-named the (r)Evolutionaires, matriculated amidst chaos. Typically, FLA classes have involved three full weeks on retreat, at the Moye Spiritual Life Center. I have been interested in attending this program since its inception in 2004, but with two children at home and all associated busyness, I was never able to commit to that time frame. Sometime last summer, Mary Pierce Brosmer, founder of Women Writing for (a) Change and the Feminist Leadership Academy, decided to try a new model -- two extended weekend at our writing center in Cincinnati, and one week on retreat.

That schedule felt like a great (and very generous) compromise. So Mary began planning to gather her class last summer and the wheels started falling off. I went on my unexpected leave of absence and the economy crumbled. (edited to add: as far as I know, the economy crumbling and my leave of absence are totally unrelated)

But Mary sensed the need for this class and remained open and flexible to everyone's needs, and changing needs through time.

So our class had its first gathering in January this year, its second in March and we just finished up our week retreat on June 12th.

Everything about this has been new and emerging: our learning, how we define ourselves and the larger systems in which we live.

So that brings me back to the original question. What is a leader? I think of my Girl Scout leaders, leading us to through trails in the woods. I didn't have to pay any attention to where we were going since the leader is all-knowing.

Now that I am recognized as a leader, my definition has changed, mostly from definitive answers into nebulous questions... who do I lead, where are we going and WHERE THE HECK IS MY MAP??

I have learned quite a bit during my training sessions. Perhaps most importantly, I have learned that leaders don't have to have the answers, we just need to (1) acknowledge that we don't have all and answers and (2) set up places into which answers can emerge.

To put it another way, I have come to learn that it's the process that matters. Of course the product is important, but if the process is given its due, the quality of product will necessarily follow.

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Fifty Fifth Graders

I didn't know what to expect from fifty fifth graders.  I didn't know they were so short.  Didn't know that the boys still wore jean shorts while the girls, for the most part, would've fit in at my high school.  Two other girls and myself took circles into the classroom.  It was my first time working with kids this young, and more drastic: my first time working with boys.

We split the kids into three groups: an all boys group, and two smaller girls groups.  Gabi Lang and Emma Heldman (graduates of the 2007 Young Women's Feminist Leadership Academy) led the girls' groups.  Their responses were typical.  Emma was moved by her girls' understanding of the practices, while Gabi remembered how hard it is for girls to share their writing aloud.  Their soul cards (our way of reflecting anonymously on the time spent in circle; gifts and challenges of the time) were positive.

Here are some of Gabi's, exactly how they appear on the notecard...

"I really liked this activtey it was fun enjoyable.  I liked how I could write what I wanted to write.  Thank you for coming it showed writing in a different way and I loved it.  thank again :)"

"I thought it was great!  I finally feel a lot better about myself and I feel now.  I think I will go to a writing camp this summer.  I feel great about myself and I don't feel a boxed in now.  THANK YOU!!"

"I liked that we did the fast write because it helped me let go of my feelings."

"I liked how it didn't matter what you wrote.  I liked how there was a poem to get us started.  I liked how it was confidental."

Certainly this is positive feedback, and a testament to the process.  My experience was a little different.  All the boys wrote about how they pass time.  Almost all of them mentioned basketball and a window.  Every one of them turned to me when it was their turn to read.  They loved giving each other read back lines.  However, one of my soul cards was a little strange:  "I imagine I'm in a movie with powers."

While that's not exactly a gift or a challenge of the time we spent together, the card made me smile.  It doesn't matter what kind of feedback this boy gave.  He shared, and what he wrote on that card was probably the most honest thing he'd written all day.  And that's what our work is about.

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Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

I don't remember how long this book has been on my list to read. There is something about the genuine, friendly way Ms. Lamott writes that is so encouraging. You can do it! (write, that is) But you have to . . . well, do it. Don't get stuck in the forest, describe the scene 'tree by tree.' (my metaphor ala 'bird by bird').

I am seriously considering taking the fall quarter 'Master Class' where you focus on writing a longer work. What would that be, though? I have started -- and stopped -- my memoir (childhood and dysfunctional family life) and my memoir (spiritual evolution). I have written tons of poetry and I have written impressionistic essays about my trip to India. A certain friend who I started to fall in love with, "S," [not in wwfac] has her share of magical renderings. I know I have a book in me! If anyone can coax it out of me, it'd be Kathy Wade (teacher of the Master Class).

But what would Anne Lamott say? She would say things like "The development of relationship creates plot." She would give John Gardner credit for his wisdom: "The writer is creating a dream into which he or she invites the reader, and that dream must be vivid and continuous." And "Each writer will come up with his or her own description of what love and life are all about." Isn't she inspiring? She makes me excited, she reminds me that I have stories to share.

So I just need to do it. Face that blank computer screen. Look inside, write it down. In some big ways, my blog is giving me a reason to be disciplined. I have committed to writing a three line poem every day for 108 days. I just wrote #67 last night. It isn't that difficult once you set your mind to it. I am hoping that writing a longer piece, a novel, if you will, will capture all my senses and compel me to face the blank screen of my mind, engage my heart, and write as if my story depends upon it. For it does.

~ Phebe (Karen) Beiser ~

Note: The Master Class will be every other Tuesday evening beginning September 1st.
Phebe's blog is listed to the right on wwfac's blogroll--The Goddess Babe.

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Publishing Opportunity

A great opportunity from today's mail:

My name is Gregory Flannery, and I am editor of Streetvibes, a monthly newspaper published by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

I am writing to see if your organization might consider informing your members of the possibility of writing for Streetvibes. In the past year, since becoming editor, I have sought to broaden the topics covered by Streetvibes, including issues pertaining to the environment, sexual equality, workers' rights, health and spirituality.

Because we are a small non-profit organization, Streetvibes has no budget for compensating writers and photographers. If you are familiar with our paper, however, you know that some of Greater Cincinnati's finest writers and photographers contribute their work, so your members would be in good company.

In the past year, demand from readers has led us to increase our monthly print run, and effective July 1 we will publish two issues a month. Streetvibes recently received a prestigious award from the International Network of Street Papers, another indication of our success at giving readers compelling stories and effective writing.

More important, Streetvibes helps people who are homeless or formerly homeless earn income to support themselves. Our vendors earn 75 cents for every $1 copy they sell. Writing for Streetvibes is therefore a way to contribute to a good cause.

If any of your members would like to discuss the possibility of contributing to our paper, I can be reached at this e-mail address or at 513-421-7803, ext. 12.

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Giving Voice Breakfast

Hello everyone. My name is Sami Schalk. Some of you might have seen me around at public readings or in conjunction with the Young Women's Program. I'm joining the blog as a satellite member of Women Writing. While I am originally from the Cincinnati area, I am currently living in South Bend, IN for school. Recently, I was honored to speak at a WWfaC fundraiser called Giving Voice. The following is the talk I gave there which tells my story of coming to Women Writing. This first post will hopefully let you know where I'm coming from and in the future I hope to write more about continuing Women Writing's work in South Bend as well as my experiences teaching this summer back at the writing hall and finishing my MFA this year. I hope this post finds everyone well. Love -Sami

Giving Voice Talk:
I first came to Women Writing for (a) Change at age thirteen. The community I found here embraced me and my writing in a way I had never experienced before. I was surrounded by women and girls who listened, spoke honestly about the same issues I was dealing with and inspired me to speak my own truths. Through Women Writing I had the opportunity to read my poetry aloud both in a public readaround and on the radio. As a result, I began to consider myself a real writer. This is a poem I wrote in that first class.

The Mirror
In the mirror I see eyes-
Dark, brown eyes,
The color of the earth,
Overflowing with innocence,
And shielded by oval shaped glasses.
In the mirror I see hands-
Soft, brown hands,
Bronzed by the summer sun,
So willing to please,
But afraid to try.
In the mirror I see lips-
Rich, full lips,
Colored in a dark red hue,
Perfectly able to talk,
With no confidence to speak their mind.
In the mirror I see hair-
Thick, black hair,
The color of midnight,
Cut and styled like the rest,
Too timid to be different.
In the mirror I see beauty,
Deep inner beauty-
Filled with self esteem and bravery,
Originality and strength,
Fighting to get to the surface.

Throughout high school I continued to take classes at Women Writing as well as be a teen assistant for the girls’ classes. Then it came time to leave for college and my transition to Miami University turned out to be detrimental to my writing and my sense of self. As a Creative Writing major in the Honors Program, I was being challenged, but not supported. I didn’t have the community or the self-care skills I needed to adapt and by my sophomore year I was ready to give up.
Two things saved me. First, I discovered the Women’s Studies program and began to learn a language of feminism. Second, I applied to Miami’s Urban Internship program. While many people applied to the program and then searched for an internship, the only place I wanted to work was Women Writing for (a) Change. As a result of my Women’s Studies classes, I realized that Women Writing had given me my first taste of feminism. I wanted to go back to rediscover the girl I was there and hopefully find the woman I wanted to be.
That summer working as Jenn Reid’s intern was truly a life changing experience. I confronted many of my issues and found a new positive and hopeful energy. I found a way to incorporate my two loves (feminism and poetry) into something that could potentially one day be a real job. Still two years from graduation, I knew somehow, someway, I had to be a part of Women Writing permanently. For the rest of my time at Miami I worked as a facilitator of summer and semester classes, as well as the assistant facilitator of the Young Feminist Leadership Academy. These experiences were some of the best parts of my college career and definitely contributed to my growth as a feminist-activist-poet.
Today, I am 22 and still a part of the WWfaC community. I am currently working on my Master of Fine Arts degree in Poetry at Notre Dame and lead my own circles in South Bend at the Center for the Homeless, the Juvenile Correctional Facility and St. Margaret’s House (a day center for women and children in poverty). Recently, I was awarded the Africana Studies Book Award for Community Spirit and Service in recognition for this work, work which is only made possible through the support, training and encouragement I have received and continue to receive from everyone at Women Writing for (a) Change. I’d like to close with one of my more recent poems…

It isn’t the Monsters that Scare Me
Throughout the street Barbie-bodied babies
of the ‘tween Disney movement wear
Hannah Montana wigs and Cinderella slippers.

I ask one what she is, as I put the candy in her bag—
candy she won’t eat on her middle school diet,
a twelve year old top model who fears the fat of
pubescent hips and breasts—she tells me she is
Britney or Beyonce or some other twenty-something
celebrity mindless marketing the
‘less is more’ brand upon her very flesh.

I cringe to hear the girlish giggles chasing boys
down the street, through darkening alleys,
trick-or-treating hours fading into their 9 o’clock bedtimes.

This is the truly terrifying, when five year old cousin,
who once swore she was a rockstar and loved
blocks and balls as much as dolls, tells me
for Halloween she wants to be a pretty pink princess
and asks if I’ll let her wear my lipstick because
her mother drew the line at the pre-schooler’s
halter top dress and baby-sized heels sold
for $10.99 at Wal-Mart, the last on the shelf.

Thank you all for taking the time to be here today and listen to my story of how WWfaC has affected my life. Mine is just one of many and I am honored to represent the hundreds of women and girls, as well as the growing number of men and boys, who have been given the space to tell the truth of their lives. I’d be happy to talk to anyone further at the end of the event today and I will have a copy of the writing coming from the circles I facilitate in South Bend if you’d like to take a look. Thanks again.

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My Inbox

NEW: WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS? Tuesday June 9th and Wednesday June 10th

As part of the CWC Summer Doc Fest, don't miss: WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS? At the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center -With a discussion FEATURING our own MARY PIERCE BROSMER.

An inspiring and important documentary about Women, Art and Life Choices, that explores some of the most pressing balancing-act issues of our time -- parenting and work, partnering and independence, economics. After the film, Cincinnati area women will discuss their own life journeys, balancing their passion for art and love of family, featuring Maggie Barnes, Mary Pierce Brosmer, Kay Hurley and Aymie Majerski.

THE HEALING POWER OF STORY WORKSHOP: Saturday, June 6th and Sunday, June 7th

Renowned author and dream expert, Robert Moss, will be leading his weekend workshop - The Healing Power of Story - on site at WWf(a)C, June 6 and 7.

Anni Gibson, FLA graduate and owner of our Michigan affiliate is featured in THIS BLOG.

WEEK LONG WRITING RETREAT: July 12-18

Register now for this summer’s weeklong retreat in Knob’s Haven, Kentucky!

CREATIVE WRITING SAMPLER – Saturday, June 13th -- 1:00-2:30 P.M.

Treat a friend or family member to “a taste” of Women Writing for (a) Change. This sampler is FREE and is open to both women and men. RSVP: Bron at (513) 272-1171, or www.womenwriting.org .

2009 SUMMER SCHEDULE: FOR ADULTS

There are still a few spaces available in the summer camps for girls, teens and young women.


GEORGE PACKER AT MERCANTILE LIBRARY

On Thursday, June 11 at 7:00 p.m., the Mercantile Library’s 7th annual Harriet Beecher Stowe Lecture will feature New Yorker staff writer George Packer. Packer’s work exemplifies the theme of the Stowe Lecture: writing to change the world. He will speak about his reportage of the Iraq War and the November 2008 presidential election.


WOMEN’S POETRY AND PERFORMANCE RETREAT: Hope Springs Institute in Peebles, Ohio

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I love this job

In case you didn't know this, my work schedule generally ends up revolving around my health care issues. This week is no exception. I can't think of another job where I can report my schedule for the week in verse..

My Schedule
(in honor of read around week)
By Katie Ford Hall

Coming in
Tuesday --
sweaty from
aerobics, about
11 to 2.

Wednesday --
10 A.M,
hospital, nuclear
medicine:
injected
once,

wait

then again
with radioactive
materials kept in
under lock
and key
in a titanium
jar

(terrorist deterrent,
I suppose)

wait

then
lie still for 30
minutes
under dim lights and
the hum and clicks
of a bronze
alien.

Multi
Gated
Acquisition
Scan

Check for
heart damage
every three
months.

I'll glow
my way
in
after;
to the
steady
rhythm like tires
driving on
over a bridge
on a warm
summer night

thump-thump
thump-thump.

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