September Community Outreach
Dear Friends of Project Write Now:
This month, poetry abounded in all of our programs in honor of National Poetry Month!
We had fun sharing our favorite poets and poems, but the true highlight was announcing the winners of our annual 2025 PWN Teen Voice & Verse writing contest!
Over the past few months, writers ages 12 to 18 from around the world submitted more than 100 original poetry and prose pieces. Our incredible PWN Teen ambassadors thoughtfully read each submission and then selected the final pieces—which was an incredibly challenging task given the depth, creativity, and heart in every piece.
We want to wish a huge CONGRATULATIONS to the winners and extend our gratitude to all the writers who submitted their work. It was an honor and a privilege to read your words!
Now more than ever, youth voices matter—and we’re proud to provide a platform for young writers to be heard.
You can read their winning pieces in this month’s issue of Bridge Ink, our online teen literary journal.
Poetry (ages 12-14)
FIRST PLACE: “Ghost” by Giovanni Jimenez-Luna, 13 (Red Bank, NJ)
SECOND PLACE: “Too Much to Say” by Daniela Rojas-Trejo, 14 (Red Bank, NJ)
THIRD PLACE: “Daylight Savings” by Robyn Joo Alberto, 12 (Red Bank, NJ)
HONORABLE MENTION: “Untitled” by Alex Jacinto España, 13 (Red Bank, NJ)
Poetry (ages 15-18)
FIRST PLACE: “How to Read a Clock” by Michael Chowning, 18 (Ocean Township, NJ)
SECOND PLACE: “Roots” by Ronan Brinkley, 18 (Philadelphia, PA)
THIRD PLACE: “The Subtle Art Of Being Perfectly Imperfect” by Anushka Ghosh, 17 (West Bengal, India)
HONORABLE MENTION: “Different Ways of Life” by Samantha Marie Chiaino, 16 (Middletown, NJ)
Prose (ages 12-14)
FIRST PLACE: “Art Gallery” by Valeria N. Lopez Lemus, 14 (Red Bank, NJ)
SECOND PLACE: “Noel: The Messenger of Jesus Christ” by Ritvikraj Singh, 14 (Karnataka, India)
THIRD PLACE: “Flower Season” by Zuleyka Soto-Carreon, 14 (Red Bank, NJ)
HONORABLE MENTION:“The Journal” by Natalie Acosta-Bonilla, 13 (Red Bank, NJ)
Prose (ages 15-18)
FIRST PLACE: “Moth to a Flame” by Easy Jack Portman, 18 (Red Bank, NJ)
SECOND PLACE: “Untitled” by Lucy Cho, 17 (San Diego, CA)
THIRD PLACE: “The Boy on the Train” by Cameron Montanye, 17 (Gilbert, AZ)
HONORABLE MENTION: “Into The Light” by Norah Park, 16 (Cresskill, NJ)
And if you’d like to hear their pieces, PWN Teen is hosting our Voice & Verse Celebration & Open Mic, which will be held Friday, May 16, beginning at 4 p.m. ET. The winners are invited to share their pieces and then we open the floor to other teen writers. All are welcome (adults too!) to hear the inspiring words of our young writers. Register here.
As always, we could not do this important work without YOU!
Whether you’ve taken a class, signed your child up for a class, participated in one of our events, or given a generous gift, YOU help us provide meaningful writing experiences that foster authenticity, connection, and empathy.
With love & gratitude,
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 Avakian, Director of Community Outreach & Engagement, at meredith@projectwritenow.org.
Art of Social Justice
We held our third Art of Social Justice EmpowHERment event in collaboration with the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center and the Two River Theater. We spent the morning at the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center being inspired by the revolutionary achievements of Shirley Chisolm, Pauli Murray, and Ida B. Wells. Then we gathered at the Two River Theater for an afternoon of connection—starting with delicious pizza from Urban Coalhouse—followed by an engaging conversation with Education Director Kate Cordaro and playwright Christina Pumariega, who discussed the themes of motherhood, culture, and revolution in the Two River Theater’s production of ¡VOS!. We closed the day with reflective writing, empowering us to take pride in our own stories. Our program continues this summer with the Art of Social Justice: EmpowerED Summer Studio, a three-day professional development workshop for educators. Read more and register here.
Blue Dot Community
The Blue Dot community celebrated National Poetry Month at the Asbury Book Cooperative this month with poems celebrating hope, peace, and new beginnings. At our first meeting, we read Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers” and then used our senses to write about what hope looks like, tastes like, and sounds like. At our second gathering, we read and talked about two poems by Sara Teasdale, “April” and “Peace,” and then wrote about the things in our lives that make our hearts sing, bring us calm, and encourage fresh starts, just like springtime. Both times, writers left feeling inspired, uplifted, and hopeful as they considered the possibilities of new beginnings.
BookTowne (Manasquan)
For the third consecutive year, we are joining forces with BookTowne to host a Poetry Month Celebration at the Manasquan-based bookstore, featuring original works by the following five local poets: Meredith Z. Avakian, Kira Desomma, Blush Ellis, Jennifer Burger O’Brien, and Julie Temple. We are grateful for this annual staple in our poetry month celebrations!
Brookdale Community College GEAR UP
Through celebrating poetry, we wrapped up a two-month-long program of weekly workshops with middle school students from Asbury Park as part of the GEAR UP program at Brookdale Community College’s Wall Twp. campus. In honor of National Poetry Month and International Haiku Poetry Day, we wrote haikus in our journals and created haikus with magnetic words, which were displayed on the marker board. An informal poetry month celebration was a beautiful way to culminate our time together.
Communications High School (Mentorship Program)
We are so grateful to PWN Teen intern Chloe Scardino for choosing to complete her CHS mentorship program with us. Mentorship is a required marking period course for all CHS seniors, but PWN has never before been on the list of mentor opportunities. After having participated in our summer programs when she was younger, Chloe reached out and asked if she could do her mentorship with us. Of course, with the approval of the school, we enthusiastically said YES! Just a few of the amazing tasks Chloe has helped us with include … working with our RBMS AVID students, helping Shore House writers with their plays, creating content for our social media accounts, writing a blog for our PWN News, and helping out during CringeFest. We have been THRILLED to work so closely alongside Chloe through this program. And she has volunteered to stay on as an intern even though her mentorship program has come to a close, so don’t worry, she’s not leaving us yet! (Hopefully not ever!)
Communications High School
For the second time in one week, PWN spent time at Communications High School, this time to host a special writing workshop during National Poetry Month. Using prompts inspired by springtime, the students were all very eager to write; several openly shared the poems they’d just penned. It was an honor and pleasure to visit the school and spend time with its talented students again.
Keansburg High School
At Keansburg High School, we met with juniors to talk about how to approach the college essay. We discussed what makes a strong essay, spent time brainstorming topics, and talked about ways the essay can be structured. We love this process so much and want students to see the college essay writing process as an opportunity to tell a story that only they can tell—to share their authentic selves through writing.
Lunchtime Write-In
We are celebrating FIVE YEARS of Lunchtime Write-In, our Friday drop-in generative workshop! This month, we explored the themes: “Melt,” “Flower,” “Good,” and “Daisy.” In 2020 when the pandemic shut down in-person activities, Lunchtime Write-In was born—our very first weekly Zoom program. The idea was to keep writers feeling connected even when we had to social distance. But when that time ended, Lunchtime Write-In did not. It has continued to flourish as a supportive space for writers to explore the depths of their imaginations. Every Friday, we meet to write and share our stories. No matter where we Zoom in from, we all feel together in this space. We are thrilled to celebrate five years of Lunchtime Write-In and look forward to many more. Join us for our next Lunchtime Write-In to see what our upcoming themes will be!
Markham Place (Little Silver)
This spring, we are excited to return to write with our 8th graders at Markham Place in Little Silver through the Ink & Insight program funded by the Little Silver PTO. Through a series of in-school workshops, Ink & Insight guides students in discovering the power of self-expression and its positive impact on mental and emotional well-being. Students experience writing as a tool for self-reflection, stress-reduction, building resilience and coping skills crucial for navigating the challenges of adolescence and connecting to what is important to them through writing. By the end of our time together, every student creates a time capsule, a keepsake to honor their past, present, and future selves. We kicked off the program with an activity called a “Snapshot of Me,” using words and drawings that reflect our current hobbies, interests, personality traits, and values, while discussing the importance of capturing memories. This powerful activity gave students a visual and written reflection of who they are right now, bringing our time capsules to life. We then shifted into reflecting on the past, connecting our writing journey to their current English Language Arts reading of Night by Elie Wiesel, a powerful memoir of survival during the Holocaust. Students were challenged to consider how memories, both joyful and painful, shape our identity and legacy. Weekly writing prompts focused on unlocking childhood memories and early experiences, such as: “I remember” … “My favorite memory when I was younger” … “My favorite holiday traditions growing up” … Each week, students have the opportunity to celebrate their wins, share their stories with their peers, and open up discussions about personal growth and reflection. These moments build connection, empathy, and community within the classroom. Our amazing 8th grade teachers are an essential part of this journey, too, serving as cheerleaders, and supporting alongside the students as they dive into these personal stories and memories. Stay tuned as we continue capturing the voices, hearts, and journeys of our 8th graders as we move into the present and the future empowering students to envision who they are becoming and the dreams they are building as they enter high school.
Middletown Public Library
We ran a teen poetry workshop at the Middletown Public Library to celebrate National Poetry Month. We read “Valentine for Ernest Mann” by Naomi Shihab Nye and wrote about where poems hide and where we find them. We read “What Does Poetry Save You From” by Linda Pastan and wrote about what poetry saves us from. And we wrote about what poetry is in our own words. We loved writing together and can’t wait to be back for more workshops in the future!
Poetry & Plants
We welcomed back this seasonal favorite with a special gathering in the greenhouse at Kula Urban Farm in Asbury Park, to celebrate and culminate National Poetry Month. The program kicked off with a writing workshop and concluded with an open mic, with some celebratory surprises in between—including vegan ice cream and birthday cake from Cookman Creamery (thanks, Jimmy!). Featured musicians included Kristin OBrien and Space.
PWN India (Children)
We kicked off a new session with 8th graders in India this month, reading “We Are of a Tribe” by Alberto Ríos and opening a discussion about what unifies us vs. what makes us different. We wrote in response to introspective prompts inviting us to think about our feelings, hopes, dreams, and favorite things. We listened for connections and found that we all shared more things in common than we realized. In honor of National Poetry Month, we read “Valentine for Ernest Mann” by Naomi Shihab Nye and looked for the stories in and around us by focusing on our senses, writing down five things we see, four things we hear, three things we feel, two things we smell, and one thing we taste. From our lists, we chose one idea to free write off of, seeing where our imaginations took us. We look forward to continuing to write with them over the next couple of weeks.
Red Bank Middle School 7th & 8th Grade AVID (in-school)
We celebrated PWN Teen intern Chloe’s last day working in Red Bank Middle School by doing some art journaling, eating lollipops, and signing a surprise card for Chloe. We are so grateful for Chloe’s assistance with our 7th & 8th grade AVID program—she has been integral in helping with revisions and inspiring the students to embrace their unique ideas. We also read “Valentine for Ernest Mann” by Naomi Shihab Nye and talked about poetry, asking ourselves these questions: Where do poems hide? Where can you find them? Where have you found poetry before? How do you recognize a poem? What does it look like? What is poetry to you? What is your relationship with poetry? What poem (or story) might be living inside you right now? It was a great way to celebrate National Poetry Month! And we’ve begun putting the final touches on our end-of-year anthology pieces.
Red Bank Middle School 6th Grade AVID (in-school)
We worked with another cycle of Red Bank Middle School’s 6th grade AVID students doing ekphrastic writing (writing inspired by art). We read Dorit d’Scarlett’s “The Creak of Loneliness” and looked to the art that inspired the poem—“Etching with Chine Colle III” by Michael Thompson. We used the same art to inspire our own writing, making lists of what we saw and felt to help guide our stories. We read “Starry Night” by Tupac Shakur and made a list of our own ideas when we looked at what inspired the poem—“Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh. Each time, we used our lists to come up with new imaginative stories of our own. We loved what the students came up with!
Red Bank Middle School 4th/5th Grade AVID (in-school)
Our 4th and 5th grade AVID students have been writing letters to people who have shown them kindness. In honor of National Poetry Month, we read the poem “Others” by Unknown and then we made lists of times when we have been kind to others or others have been kind to us. We each chose one person to write a letter to thank them for their act of kindness. The students decorated their letters and envelopes and took a lot of pride in their writing because it was being sent out into the world. When writing has a real life purpose, magic happens. Students value their writing, they take pride in it, and they imagine their audience. Letter writing is a true authentic way to have students express themselves on paper. We are proud of the 4th and 5th graders at Red Bank Middle School!
Shore House
We put the finishing touches on our plays at Shore House and then gathered in celebration at our Community Playmaking Showcase, which was held at Long Branch Art & Culture Center. It was incredible to see the plays come to life in the hands and voices of the professional actors! This program is a collaboration between the Two River Theater, Project Write Now, and partnering nonprofits. The team at the Two River Theater casts the plays, which are directed by TRT’s Education Director Kate Cordaro. We are so honored to be a part of this incredible program. Stay tuned for the next Community Playmaking collaboration, to be announced soon.
Scholarship Seats
Through our mission as a nonprofit organization, we remove barriers to participating in our fee-based classes by providing full and partial scholarship seats as well as payment plans. Since 2020, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the need for financial assistance and therefore have met that need by offering more scholarship seats. For 2024, we provided 59 seats totaling $14,342.50. So far this year, we’ve provided 24 seats totaling $8,254. For information about our scholarship program or to become a valuable donor providing these seats, please email Jennifer Chauhan at jennifer@projectwritenow.org.
Write Out Loud
Inspired by the seasonal shift to springtime and our recent workshop with Blue Dot Community, we used the poem “Today” by Billy Collins as well as several spring-related prompts to celebrate the start of nature’s new cycle and National Poetry Month. Join us in May for our next Write Out Loud!
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