I'm pleased to say that, after too long of a drought, I'm finally engaging again with writing as a shared experience, in community, through two fantastic programs.
I traveled two hours north this afternoon to meet an eighteen-year-old girl who I'm mentoring through the Linkage program of the Prison Creative Arts Project. She stays at a halfway house and she writes. We'll spend our time together writing and reading, working on her poems, and I'll do what I can to connect her to creative arts opportunities in the community as she moves through the difficult re-entry process.
I must say, it was a fight to get this to happen. I started trying to connect with her last April. Months and months of unreturned phone calls ensued, as well as scheduling and mis-scheduling of times to meet. I had about had it and was beginning to ask about finding someone else who I might partner with, or to join a workshop in one of the prisons. But just last month, this girl was transferred to a new facility... and this one is so much more on the ball. Easy as you please, we arranged yesterday's meeting. And it was such fun. This girl... let me call her by a pseudonym, Nina... she was waiting for me on the curb when I drove up. She was wearing high heels that she couldn't walk in very well. She welcomed me like a gracious hostess, introducing me to the others in the house, showing me to the restroom, offering me a drink. After lingering for awhile, she and I took a walk--in a gorgeous, shimmering autumn afternoon--to the library. We shuffled loudly through the fallen leaves; she had changed into sneakers. This was particularly liberating for me. In my past experience doing PCAP workshops or mentorships, we were confined to whatever room in the prison or detention center that was allotted for us. With Nina, we were free to leave and come back whenever we needed. My heart did a little dance at how much more fun we will have together, when we can choose our space.
Mostly, we got to know each other today. Nina is a chatty, energetic gal, who describes herself as friendly and caring and working on managing her anger. She was remarkably charming ... we talked a lot about pop culture (Michael Jackson, Chris Brown & Rihanna) and families (she is adopted, one of eleven kids, she is a new auntie, she considers the community she spent five years with at a detention center to be her family). And we wrote together. I had brought a couple of magazines to give her, copies of The Sun and Yes!. She picked out a photo in The Sun that struck her--one of a seemingly abandoned swingset--and we wrote stories about it. Mine had ghosts in it. Hers spoke of happiness and childhood.
I'll see Nina next week, and we'll see what happens next.
Speaking of writing and young people ... I'm happy to now be associated with The Imagine Company, a Kenyan multimedia organization of social entrepreneurs. They facilitate classes, groups, and workshops that help young writers participate in the public conversation. For example, one of their current classes in Nairobi is focused on arts journalism: students are reviewing plays and museum exhibitions.
I now have the perhaps inflated title of "Chief Developmental Editor" with The Imagine Company. This means that I'll be editing the young people's work and helping to "develop" them as writers (thank you, technology, for making this possible when I live so far away). I'll also help to design curriculum and create content for the organization's various platforms, such as KenyaImagine.com. It is an honor to be part of the very passionate editorial team. And as many of you know, I've long been smitten with Kenya's literary tradition, both writing from there and inspired by there (note the name of this website). I'm so interested in how this young country--less than fifty years old as a nation, and with forty-one percent of its population aged 14 and under--is carving out its literary canon. I approach my role with The Imagine Company humbly and with a desire to understand and learn.
As an added bonus: I get to edit with British English, correcting the spelling of, say, "color" to "colour." This is ridiculously fun.
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