Here’s what else we’ve been up to this month. If you are interested in bringing a community outreach program to your school or mission-based organization, email Meredith Z. Avakian, Director of Community Outreach & Engagement, at meredith@projectwritenow.org.
Recently, during one of our programs, I sat with a woman who was sharing her writing with me. She had crafted a moving story about grief, and I told her she had a gift—for creating nuanced, believable characters and for exploring such a complex topic with beauty and humor.
Her eyes filled with tears as she shared that she had not written creatively in more than 10 years before this program, ever since someone commented negatively on her writing, essentially shutting her down. She had loved crafting stories as a child but no longer believed she had any talent. So she stopped. For more than a decade.
It’s October 2017. Lights shine on me and nine other storytellers, sitting in folding chairs on Two River Theater’s stage. One by one, each performer walks up to the mic and shares their story as part of our annual fundraising event. All are people I know quite well—adult and teen writers at Project Write Now—but as they speak I see a new side of them. Each becomes more confident, more courageous. How can I follow them with my little story?
Here’s what else we’ve been up to this month. If you are interested in bringing a community outreach program to your school or mission-based organization, email Meredith Z. Avakian, Director of Community Outreach & Engagement, at meredith@projectwritenow.org.
On a hot Monday afternoon, a group of educators met at Crazy Story Books, Red Bank’s beautiful new Indie bookstore, for quiet reading and writing.
Surrounded by shelves full of books, we flipped through pages—reading and finding words and phrases that resonated—and then put pen to paper, capturing our thoughts and imaginations. Many of us had never met before, but in the two short hours, as we shared our stories, we created an immediate bond with one another.
Here’s what else we’ve been up to this month. If you are interested in bringing a community outreach program to your school or mission-based organization, email Meredith Z. Avakian, Director of Community Outreach & Engagement, at meredith@projectwritenow.org.
A yearlong creative writing program for 7th and 8th graders at Red Bank Middle School yielded striking results—95% of students felt more connected to peers, and students reported gains in confidence, emotional well-being, and even academic performance.
