September Community Outreach
Dear Friends of Project Write Now:
Over the past decade, Project Write Now has had the privilege of partnering with more than 100 organizations to inspire and support more than 10,000 youth, teens, and adults as they explore the power of writing to foster self-discovery, build empathy, and create meaningful connections with others.
These incredible partnerships are at the very heart of who we are today!
As we celebrate 10 years, we invite you to join us in honoring the community partners who have been essential to our journey and growth.
Project Write Now’s 10th Anniversary Community Celebration
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
5 to 8 p.m.
Two River Theater, Red Bank
This is a FREE community event for all ages!
The evening begins with a welcoming reception in the lobby, featuring live music and the opportunity to connect with several of our amazing community partners—including Lunch Break, The SOURCE at Red Bank Regional High School, the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, Shore House, and the Asbury Book Cooperative, to name a few. Enjoy light refreshments and creative interactive activities!
Then, join us in the theater for a commemorative showcase featuring performances from our talented writers and a special awards presentation. (Stay tuned for an exciting announcement!) We’ll wrap up the evening with a celebratory toast and, of course, CAKE!
We are so grateful to the Two River Theater for sponsoring this event and helping us create an unforgettable evening of celebration, love, and community.
With love & gratitude,
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.
Asbury Park High School Spoken Word Project
We were so excited to return to Asbury Park High School! Our Spoken Word Project kicked off with some poetry and journaling. We were purrrr-ticularly focused on National Cat Day, watching a teen spoken word “Cat Poem” performance, coming up with words to describe cats and then writing about how we would choose to live life if we were felines. Students shared why they’d live as stray cats, hunting their own food, coming and going as they please, as well as why they’d want to be domesticated cats, having access to food, accommodations and companionship, or a hybrid of the two options. It was a purrrrfect way to celebrate National Cat Day!
Bridge Ink 8.6
We are THRILL(ER)ED to release our latest issue of Bridge Ink—‘TIS THE SCREAMSON, a Halloween-themed issue with pieces that are sure to haunt your dreams. We’ve got stories and poems from writers from different cities in New York, Maryland, and New Jersey. Check it out today!
EmpowHERment – The Art of Social Justice
Wow! What an inspiring day we shared with educators at The Art of Social Justice: EmpowHERment professional development event created in partnership with the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center and Two River Theater. Our day began at the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, where we delved into the influential lives of trailblazers Shirley Chisholm and Ethel Payne, exploring how their legacies can be woven into our teaching to empower students. We then headed down the street to the Two River Theater, where we discussed the evolving roles of women from the 1950s to the 1970s and beyond, with the theater’s current production of American Mariachi as a backdrop. To bring it all together, we read Maya Angelou’s powerful poem “Alone,” drawing inspiration from her words to reflect and write our own stories. It was a day filled with learning, reflection, and renewed energy to bring the stories of remarkable women into our classrooms.
Firefly: Stories Out Loud
Fireflies shined bright this month! We are so grateful to everyone who joined us for our Firefly: Stories Out Loud event at Basie Center Cinemas. The theme was “SPIRITS” and the stories soared beyond expectation. Congratulations to Christine DeMarsico for winning the storytelling slam. Big kudos to all of the storytellers who participated. As one of the attendees noted: “I really was moved by all the stories. I think with the topic of spirits, everyone had this sense of vulnerability to their stories, which was really beautiful to watch and to listen to. It created such an intimate space and I got goosebumps more than once! The courage to share and be open these storytellers had!” Thanks to our guest judges as well as everyone who attended to show support and hear these incredible stories. And a special shout out to baby Hudson for attending his first-ever live event!
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 explored the themes: “10-4,” “National Coming Out Day,” “Comeback,” and “Spell.” 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!
Poetry & Plants
Poetry & Plants never disappoints! On a sunny Sunday Funday, we gathered in the greenhouse at Kula Urban Farm in Asbury Park to lean into autumn with some writing, community, and our plant allies. We want to send a special thanks to local herbalist Michele from Mot Mot Collective for sharing her remarkable passion, knowledge, and wisdom with us! She led an educational medicinal herbal tea tasting, which helped inspire some of our writing prompts. We also used Jane Hirshfield’s “The Heat of Autumn” as writing inspiration, and then wrote and shared our new poems before switching gears to our open mic portion. Attendees also were given paper and asked to write down one thing they’d like to let go of this fall. Then we dug a hole, placed them all in, and buried them together, releasing them to the earth. Congratulations to all of the raffle prize winners! May you enjoy your plant, mug, and herbal tea, respectively!
PWN India (Adults)
Our journaling group in India wrote in response to the poem “Small Kindnesses,” by Danusha Lameris. We focused on how small gestures and moments can make a big, lasting impact on us. We also talked about our respective upcoming holidays, Halloween and Diwali, and how they are happening on the same day! We also shared how much we love finding small ways to celebrate.
Red Bank Middle School
- 7th & 8th Grades (in-school)
We are so happy to be back at Red Bank Middle School! With both the 7th & 8th grade AVID classes, we invited students to write us personal letters to start the school year together. On our second day, we read “We Are of a Tribe” by Alberto Ríos, then we decorated our notebooks. On our third day, we read “The Gulf of California” by Anita Endrezze to continue the celebration of Indigenous People’s Day. Then we wrote about our own ancestors—what we know about our families, assumptions we can make, and questions we have. On our fourth day, we read “Ghost” by Cynthia Huntington, and then we wrote our own ghost stories. And on our fifth day, we read “Finding the Cat in a Spring Field at Midnight” by Pattiann Rogers to celebrate National Cat Day! The 8th graders are now working on their personal statements for academy applications.
- 6th Grade (in-school)
We had so much fun with our first cycle of 6th grade AVID students this month! We learned about ekphrastic writing—writing inspired by art. We read “Brushscape” by Samuel Ertelt as an example, and then we used the same art that inspired Ertelt (“Forage” by Tammy Nara) to inspire our own works. We made a list of words that the art evoked from us—what we saw, felt, and imagined—and then used that list as a writing prompt. When we returned for our second class, we each used our own individual pieces of art as inspiration. We loved hearing how different every story came out!
- 4th & 5th Grades (in-school)
We began working with the 4th and 5th grade AVID students this month with the theme of RESPECT for National Respect Week. We read “Respect,” by David Harris and then we jotted notes on Post-Its about what respect means to us. Students had the choice to write an acrostic poem or a story/narrative. We had so much fun!
- 6th, 7th & 8th Grades (after-school)
We kicked off our after-school PWN Quest Club, and we are so thrilled to have a packed room! We each made our notebooks our own with stickers and drawings. Every week, we invite students to jot questions down on Post-Its and add them to our Quest Bag for later discussion. We have talked about what it means to go on a “quest.” We read “Quest” by Carrie Williams Clifford and we wrote our own quest stories. We celebrated Indigenous People’s Day by reading “Remember” by Joy Harjo. We wrote lists of our own favorite memories and moments we don’t want to forget. We celebrated teaching assistant Bethaney’s birthday with a reading of “won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton. We focused on questions and how they cause us not only to search for answers, but also inspire other questions, ideas, and even stories! And we end every session by pulling questions from our Quest Bag and having open-ended discussions around them.
- 4th & 5th Grades (after-school)
This month, we learned about Indigenous People’s Day. We decorated our notebooks and we shared things about ourselves and what we care about. We read “Autumn” by Alexander Posey, an indigenous person, and talked about what it meant to us. It was centered around using our five senses to describe a scene or moment. We then transitioned into writing about the weather using our five senses.
Shore House
We had a blast at Shore House! We wrote our own semicolon poetry, reminding ourselves about the power of a pause. Then we read “Coffee with the Universe” by Donna Ashworth and one of our Shore House writers led us into a haiku-writing activity. We also read the poem “Colors Passing Through Us” by Marge Piercy and completed a collaborative writing exercise that focused on our own experiences with a chosen color. Finally, we spent time reflecting on October and intentionally planning November investments that feel important to our brains, our hearts, and our bodies.
Teacher Writing Collaborative
We love that we get to meet and write with our group of teachers once a month. For October, we read the poem “Poem in Which I Only Use Vowels” by Paolo Capó-Garcia and either picked one line to write more on or wrote our own list of “Poems in which I …” After sharing, we all agreed that we needed this hour to take a breath, write creatively, and connect with one another. Our next TWC is Wednesday, November 13. All are welcome to join at any time! Register here.
Teen Writing Space
We are off to a great start with our teen writers! In our first class, teen leader Alex led us with a lesson around ekphrastic writing. We used a piece from Rattle to inspire us and then made a plan to submit our works for a chance at publication. Teen leader Josh ran our second class with a lesson around activism. We wrote about topics we care about deeply and then tried seeing things from the opposite POV. Teen leader Skyla introduced found poetry in our third class, having us each pick a book and turn to random pages, counting and capturing words to use in our own works. We also leaned into the Halloween season, reading “Halloween Party” by Kenn Nesbitt looking at Halloween-themed art to inspire our own spooky pieces. We are looking forward to our fourth class on November 7. You can still join us anytime!
Wall High School
We were back visiting Wall High School’s Creative Writing Club. Administrators and students alike participated in some writing prompts and group sharing. In honor of its being “spooky season,” everyone was encouraged to write about a time they were “ghosted” or “haunted.” It was wonderful to return to Wall High School. Special thanks to our PWN Teen Ambassador Skyla Bicca of WHS for making it happen!
Write Out Loud
We were happy to welcome some new faces and our regulars alike at Write Out Loud this month at the Asbury Book Cooperative. We read Thomas Hardy’s “The Haunter” and discussed a variety of different interpretations before using it as a writing prompt. Some of the alternative prompts included writing about communicating with spirits, a spirited conversation, or a time someone ghosted you. We are so grateful to all who joined us and participated! Join us for our next Write Out Loud in November!
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 2024, we have already provided 47 seats totaling $11,165. For information about our scholarship program or to become a valuable donor providing these seats, please email Jennifer Chauhan at jennifer@projectwritenow.org.
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