March Community Outreach

Dear Friends of Project Write Now:

At Project Write Now, we believe in the transformative power of writing not just for students but for teachers, as well.

This month, we celebrated all the incredible work teachers do at our annual Writing on the River retreat, which was held at the beautiful Oyster Point Hotel in Red Bank. This year’s theme was “Be You!” and teachers came from all over the state to unwind, reflect, and connect with their inner artistic selves.

As one teacher shared after the event: “I am so lucky I had the opportunity to be a part of the group and to recognize the power that comes when you BE YOU!”

We are so grateful to our presenters, Shatiera Porte’e, Meredith Avakian, and Colleen Doogan, for inspiring and invigorating us, to our team for helping put this event together, and to the Oyster Point Hotel for their gorgeous views and generous hospitality.

Also this month, we provided professional development to two groups of teachers in two different school districts. On Friday, March 22, we spent the morning at Red Bank Regional High School’s Creative Writing Academy Articulation, writing with teachers from various middle school sending districts. During the afternoon, we headed over to Long Branch High School, where we launched the first in a series of writing workshops for the English Language Arts team.

Our professional development for educators looks and feels different. We nurture teachers’ writer identities rather than tell teachers how to teach writing. And the teachers loved it! At the end of one session, a teacher asked if we could give her a job. Another said she wants to do more creative writing. And we were told it was “unlike anything they’ve ever participated in before.”

We are so grateful to the schools for inviting us in and to all of these teachers who are willing to open up and explore their authentic selves through writing and sharing their stories.

If you would like to bring our professional development program to your teachers (grades K-12), please email Colleen Doogan at colleen@projectwritenow.org for more information. 

With love & gratitude,

The Project Write Now Team

Here’s what else we’ve been up to this month. If you are interested in bringing a program to your school or organization, email executive director Jennifer Chauhan at jennifer@projectwritenow.org.

Academy Charter High School (Lake Como)

We’re thrilled to announce that we launched our first-ever sessions with Academy Charter High School in Lake Como. Throughout March, we’ve been providing weekly enrichment programming for a group of students who are interested in writing. The students participated in a write-around, celebrated World Poetry Day, set intentions for the springtime, and wrote and shared some of what’s been on their hearts and minds. We are grateful for this new partnership!

Asbury Park High School

• 11th Grade Dream Academy
  In honor of Women’s History Month, we looked at poetry from Naomi Shihab Nye (“Kindness”) and Yesenia Montilla (“Maps”). We explored finding the “poem within the poem” by highlighting the words and phrases that spoke to us and coloring out the rest (Blackout Poetry). We also began looking at story ideas in preparation for drafting essays that can be used in college and scholarship applications.

• Values & Vision
  The 12th grade students shared their vision maps, which included their affirmations, values, and vision destinations (or domains). We are now transitioning into conversations about their immediate futures, including college, trade school, military, etc. Students will learn how to do a productive search in alignment with who they are. We discussed feelings and each student contributed to what they are thinking about the future. We plan to create a poem using these thoughts.

• The Spoken Word Project
  Students marched into March by writing about their favorite special days in the month, participating in their first “word circle,” writing about the women who inspire them in honor of Women’s History Month, setting their intentions for the springtime, celebrating World Poetry Day, and hearing some live spoken word poetry.

Big Brothers Big Sisters 

We shared our love of poetry and springtime with Big Brothers Big Sisters mentors and mentees at Long Branch Middle School and Colonia Middle School. Sessions focused on celebrating words and poetry, as well as setting some of our intentions for the season. We are loving how this program has expanded into surrounding counties.

Count Basie’s Critical Conversation: Book Banning and the Freedom of Expression Writing Contest

Our executive director, Jennifer Chauhan, was invited to host Count Basie’s Critical Conversation: Book Banning and the Freedom of Expression event, which was held Saturday, March 23. In addition to a panel discussion led by Jonathan Friedman from PEN America, the event also included readings by several winners of the Freedom of Expressions contest, run by PWN.

Writers ages 12 to 18 submitted original prose and poetry pieces reflecting the theme FREEDOM. We received so many incredible responses and it was challenging for our judges to narrow it down to four winners in each category! Congratulations to the winners and to all the students who submitted their work. You’ll be able to read these pieces soon in an upcoming issue of Bridge Ink. 

Poetry ages 12-14
1st Place: Valeria N. Lopez Lemus & Daniela Rojas-Trejo
2nd Place: Ava Santos
3rd Place: Michelle Zhang
Honorable Mention: Arely Carrillo

Poetry ages 15-18
1st Place: Toby Gui
2nd Place: Harper Robinson
3rd Place: Eleanor Violet Dragonetti
Honorable Mention: Sydnee Bowden

Prose ages 12-14
1st Place: Oliver Tiro-Linares
2nd Place: Manuela Russo
3rd Place: Gabriel Kelterborn-Johnson
Honorable Mention: James Tiro-Ciriaco

Prose ages 15-18
1st Place: Michael V. Fontanetta
2nd Place: Sarah Pair
3rd Place: Marowh Juma
Honorable Mention: Sloane Massey

Firefly: Stories Out Loud

We hosted our “luckiest” Firefly: Stories Out Loud yet! We want to give a huge thank you to all of the storytellers who competed in our live storytelling slam at Basie Center Cinemas! We welcomed thirteen people on the mic, including our three featured storytellers, Gregory Andrus, Alison Lubar, and RAsheda Young, who kicked off the show; nine storytellers from our community whose names were picked out of a black top hat; and a closing story by our host, Meredith Avakian. Congratulations to RAsheda Young for winning the slam! This gets her a slot in our annual Writer’s Showcase in December, as well as an opportunity to audition for Cringefest 2025. Thanks also to our guest judges for your participation! It was amazing to experience such a sense of community connection and fellowship.

Little Silver – Markham Place

We are excited to launch a new partnership with the Little Silver District, providing four-session writing programs to the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. We began with 8th grade and our Ink & Insight program, which shows students how to use writing as a tool for self-reflection, stress-reduction, and building resilience and coping skills crucial for navigating the challenges of adolescence. We created “time capsules” out of our journals, writing about our past memories, exploring our present feelings, and dreaming about our futures. At the end of the session, we wrapped our journals in ribbon and picked a date for us to open and read in the future. We LOVE the feedback we received from the students: 

✏️I really enjoyed this. It helped me become comfortable talking in public to my classmates. I learned how to be a better writer.

✏️I really enjoyed Ms. Shatiera’s energy every Monday morning. It gave me something to be excited for. I think we all knew our time was coming to a close but we didn’t want to believe it. You helped us express our emotions while also being excited for the future. 

✏️Dear Project Write Now, I just wanted to say good job with all the work you guys do. Thank you for such a good time.

We are so grateful to the Little Silver school district for inviting us in and to the PTO for sponsoring our program. Next month, we will be providing our Your Voice Matters program to 7th graders.

Lunch Break

• Alliance for Success
  We had fun with our writers at AFS this month! With the high school seniors, we read a story from The Moth and wrote in response to prompts. Students thought about a time they felt underestimated and had a lot to say about a time they felt surprised to befriend someone who was different from them. With the AFS high school juniors, it’s never too early to start thinking about college essays. We introduced the process and began brainstorming ideas. Over the next few months, we look forward to helping students craft their best essays as they get ready to apply to college.

• Womyn’s Worth
  We loved being back writing with the women of Womyn’s Worth. We provided a Saturday morning workshop during which we celebrated Women’s History Month by writing in response to poetry by Naomi Shihab Nye, Joy Harjo, and Maya Angelou. We were so moved by all of the stories shared but the biggest win was when one of the women said that from now on she is going to say with confidence that she is a writer and poet!

Lunchtime Write-In

On Fridays, we host a one-hour writing workshop on Zoom during which we write in response to themed prompts. This month, we celebrated FOUR YEARS of Lunchtime Write-In! We explored the themes “Green,” “Leg,” and “Sacrifice.” Though writers never have to share, we always enjoy hearing one another’s pieces and have formed an incredible, supportive community. Join us for our next Lunchtime Write-In to see what our upcoming themes will be!

Monmouth Arts: Teen Arts 

We had an incredible time at this year’s Teen Arts Festival, a two-day event sponsored by Monmouth Arts that gives teens ages 13-19 opportunities to experience professional critiques in their artistic disciplines. Our executive director, Jennifer Chauhan, and program coordinator, Lisa Hartsgrove, together adjudicated more than 100 pieces of writing from teens from all over Monmouth County. This year’s theme was “Art Without Limits,” and we were so moved by all of the pieces we read, opening our minds and hearts to new possibilities. We are in awe of these young, brave writers who trusted us with their words and creative imaginations. We were also thrilled to get to spend even more time with them during eight different writing workshops we hosted alongside adjudications. And as an extra bonus, we bumped into two other PWN team members—Mar, who is an intern and teaching assistant in our after-school programs, and Mimi Cross, our resident songwriting instructor. We love how this event brings artists together in community to celebrate our unique voices and talents!

Monmouth Stars

Last summer, we collaborated with STEAMpark and the Monmouth County Vocational School District to provide a four-week, full-day summer camp with more than 40 4th through 7th graders at Red Bank Middle School. On Saturday, March 14, we held our fifth school-year meetup. It was so great to reconnect with our students for math, book club, and writing. For the writing portion, we used all of the events that take place in March (Women’s History Month, March Madness, National Write Down Your Story Day, etc.) as inspiration for  We can’t wait to see the students again next month.

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (Asbury Park) 

We wrapped up our 10-week after-school program with middle school students at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, which culminated on World Poetry Day with a celebration of words.   Thanks to all of the students who have been writing with us, sharing your time, energy, and stories!

Red Bank Regional High School 

• Outside the Box: Art and Journaling Club
  In our Outside the Box: Journaling and Art Club, we use fun prompts to inspire writing and art by getting our thoughts out and down on the page, creating a story, poem, or escaping into our own imaginative worlds through arts and crafts. During the month of March in honor of Women’s History Month, we created our “Women in HERstory Picture Cards.” We designed homemade greeting cards using pictures only to celebrate and express the women in our lives who have been impactful. Now you give it a try. Can you decode this?: 👁️❤️📝

• RBR Dreamers
  We were invited to attend one of the Dreamers after-school meetings and provided a freewrite using Alberto Rios’ “A House Called Tomorrow.” After reading the poem, we selected lines or phrases that were resonating and wrote off of them. There were a lot of connections to the themes of family and the generations that came before us. We hope to do more writing with this group in the future!

Red Bank Middle School

• 7th & 8th Grade AVID (in-school)
  We are so proud that SIX of our 7th & 8th grade AVID students at Red Bank Middle School have been chosen as winners in Count Basie’s Freedom of Expression writing contest! While we’ve been waiting for results of PWN Teen’s Voice & Verse contest (to be announced April 1), we’ve continued on our writing journeys. Writing instructor Lisa Hartsgrove shared a bit of her own journey on college and career day, reading one of her first published poems, “Elephants are the only mammals that can’t jump,” and talking about how that poem helped launch her into a career of creative writing. We then took the same idea that inspired Lisa’s poem and created a list of random facts to use as inspiration for new works. We loved how enthusiastic the students were to try something new!

• 6th Grade AVID (in-school)
  We worked with another cycle of 6th grade AVID students at Red Bank Middle School. We did ekphrastic writing (writing inspired by art) and began by reading “Flying Back to England That First Time,” by Rose Lennard. Next we looked at the art that inspired the poem—“Aerial II,” by Scott Wiggerman—and made a list of all of the things that the art evoked for us. We used that list to inspire new original stories and poems. We loved hearing what the students came up with!

• PWN Quest Club (6th-8th Grades)
  Our Quest Club students explored the power of questions (the “5 W’s” to be exact: Who? What? When? Where? Why?) by playing a game called Quest Worlds. Each level of the game addressed a different question and challenged the students to create defining characters, settings, and plots. There’s only one way to win: write a story by answering all of the questions, and everyone won since the students loved the game and were eager to create (and share) their stories! Next, we used prompts in the form of questions to inspire expressive writing. In response to: “What’s something in nature that’s beautiful to you?” one student made a dual drawing of the sunset and night-time sky and wrote about how they loved watching the sunrise and the stars and moon in the sky at night. Lastly, we revisited the Quest Club box to end with one of the students’ favorite activities: speed writing, where the students answer questions from the quest box in 2-3 minutes, aiming to answer about 5 or 6 questions in a 15-minute span. The students love the fast-paced activity and sharing their out-of-the-box responses.

• PWN Writing Club (4th/5th Grades)
  Last we reported, the 4th and 5th graders in Red Bank Middle School were working on picture collage stories. The students finished the stories and the outcomes were creative and included a variety of ideas. Most of the students choose to create fiction while a few told about real events. The students were engaged the whole time and genuinely seemed to enjoy building a story using the picture collage method. Our favorite part of this activity was that every level of writer was able to create a story independently!

Shore House (Long Branch)

At Shore House, March was dedicated to expanding our scope of practice by trying some new writing techniques to add to the idea of hope! This began with Bingo Board writing where participants tried to fill a complete row of writing prompts. This varied from song lyrics to haikus, movie reviews and even fictional stories. We also enjoyed our close reading of Emily Dickinson’s, “Hope Is The Thing With Feathers.” We used her work as a model for our own stanzas about what might symbolize hope in our own lives.

STEAMpark

We’ve been “marching into March” with STEAMpark, using expressive writing, positive self-talk, team building, peer discussions, arts and crafts for character building, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-awareness and self-exploration/identity. During our courageous conversations, each student celebrated identifying things they are doing well in and things they are working on. We also celebrated Women’s History Month by celebrating women in our lives that have impacted us in a special way. We designed a special note to show our appreciation and shared among our peers.

Write Out Loud

We are so grateful to everyone who attended and participated in our Write Out Loud event this month. Led by instructor Lizzie Finn, we recited the poem “Spring” by Gerard Manley Hopkins and then offered the first line of that poem as a prompt: “Nothing is so beautiful as …” After writers shared their responses to the prompt, several read original pieces and noted some upcoming events. The next Write Out Loud will be held on April 9. We look forward to seeing you there!

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 2023, we awarded 48 seats totaling $17,205. For 2023, we have already provided 25 seats totaling $8,328.50. For information about our scholarship program or to become a valuable donor providing these seats, please email Jennifer Chauhan at jennifer@projectwritenow.org.