Thank You @FairfieldUAM & @UNLOADUSA - Your Vision Became Our Vision. We Are Better Because Of It

In the Spring of 2018 Allison Fallon, a middle school teacher at Central Middle School in Greenwich, called me and asked, "Would you like to run a program for 120 middle school youth?" We brainstormed some, and after meeting with Carey Mack Weber (I love our walk and talks) I thought it might be a good idea to invite Allison's middle school to do a writing activity around Guns in the Hands of Artists at the Walsh Gallery located in Fairfield University's Quick Center.

Biting our nails that day we realized that the exhibit, coupled with writing activities, was truly a remarkable experience for adolescent writers. It was the perfect exhibit for initiating conversation, not only locally, but globally.

Fast forward some. I was aware that the Saugatuck Story Fest would be occurring in October, and that on the 12th the last day of the art exhibit will occur on our campus. Knowing that we were bringing Nic Stone and Jason Reynolds to campus, I began thinking of ways to include their writing with this summer's CWP workshops, but also for professional development to be conducted in schools. The result was designing a workshop opportunity for our summering youth, our participating teachers in the invitational institute, teachers from across the state, and colleagues from the College of Arts and Sciences who are interested in collaborating with K-12 schools.

52 youth, 20 teachers, 10 University colleagues, and 6 special guests = 88 individuals working together to deconstruct violence in young adult literature, but more importantly, to take our thinking and turn it into written outcomes.

I can't be the instructor I am without the incredible texts written by the writers we read. This included - for today, anyway - the classic The Things They Carried and the new books, Rebound by Kwame Alexander, Long Way Down by Jason Alexander, The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, and Dear Martin by Nic Stone. We read passages from each of these texts, after participating in a workshop in deconstructing violence in our lives (and in literature). We questioned the cultural, historical, structural and direct influences of a violent culture in our lives. From the model texts, teachers and youth were able to write and compose rather quickly.

Of great importance, however, was the fact that our young people, our teachers, our faculty, and most importantly, our youth, were able to walk through the gallery of Unload: Guns in the Hands of Artists. I am grateful that so many stellar minds, visionaries, and doers came together to make the exhibit happen - it was a perfect backdrop for the work we are doing with the Writing Project this summer, especially Project Citizen, who have spent the last two weeks writing politically about their worlds.

I wish I could tap the brilliant readings by teacher Allison Fallon and her student, Skyler, who shared pieces written in their classroom this spring as a result of the artwork. I wish, too, I could capture the line up of students from Project Citizen who wanted to share their views on the exhibit, their reading of great YA novels, and the news as it infiltrates their adolescent minds. That is hard to capture.

What I can carry with me, however, is the beauty of a National Writing Project workshop - one that unites the brilliant minds of colleagues like Peter McDermott and Dr. Beth Boquet, activists like Mary Hime, a teacher like Allison Fallon, and the lived experience of Abu Bility - all to work with kids and teachers to think critically about how violence affects our lives and the books we read.

I'm proud of all of them. The day - despite the downpours and last-minute challenges - turned out to be an incredible success. I love my Connecticut Writing Project network.

I am, because we are.