New York Writers Coalition

Writing Aloud Benefit for NYWC a huge success!

audience-for-benefit-reading-oct-2009 Thanks to everyone who came out to hear our amazing workshop leaders read at the October 19th Writing Aloud Benefit for NYWC. Leaders Matt Everett, Julia M. Morris, Derek Loosvelt, Idrissa Simmonds, Elizabeth Keenan, and Avra Wing read their poetry and prose to a large, enthusiastic crowd in the beautiful Great Room at South Oxford Space. One of the many highlights: Elizabeth Keenan read an incredibly moving letter from a participant in her group at Serendipity (a drug and alcohol treatment facility for women in Brooklyn) about how much the workshop meant to her. All funds raised at the event help support the NYWC’s workshops and publications for under served populations throughout NYC.

November 16th Writing Aloud continues as a free event!

Readers include author Elna Baker (Regional Morman Singles Halloween Dance), Kevin Townley, Julia Schaffer, Sarah Dohrmann, Dinah Adames. Curated by Shaina Feinberg.

When: Monday, November 16, 7:00 PM
Where: South Oxford Space
The Great Room
138 South Oxford Street
(between Atlantic and Hanson Place)
Second Floor
Fort Greene, Brooklyn

Ridge Kids Book Release Party

On September 3rd, a party was held at the Brooklyn Public Library, Bay Ridge Branch to celebrate the release of the latest NYWC publication, Ridge Kids 2009. Parents, friends, library staff, and local Council Member Vincent Gentile cheered on the brave and talented young writers as they read their work aloud to a packed room. Congratulations to NYWC leader Barbara Cassidy and the amazing Ridge Kids on a fabulous book and a great party!

Barbara Cassidy, Aaron Zimmerman, Council Member Gentile and the Ridge Kids

Barbara Cassidy, Aaron Zimmerman, Council Member Vincent Gentile and the Ridge Kids

Purchase Ridge Girls 2009 here.

2009 Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival

laurie_ftgreene Saturday, August 22nd, marked the Fifth Annual Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival. The crowd gathered under ominous skies, hoping that the rain would hold off long enough so that the show, featuring literary stars Touré, Staceyann Chin, and Colson Whitehead reading along with the kids and teens from the Fort Greene Park Summer Creative Writing Workshops, could go on.

****

kora_player But then, Master of Ceremonies Laurie Cumbo taught us the “sunshine dance,” and the clouds moved on.

The Lit Fest began with a beautiful performance by master kora player, Yacouba Sissoko.** **

There were lots of smiles and tons of applause as the writers from the 2009 Fort Greene Park Summer Youth Creative Writing Workshops kicked off the reading portion of the program.

****

Tayon Regist, Age 6

****

***

Our youngest writer, Tayon Regist (age 6) read his poem ” My Heart.”

My heart is red

My heart is a toy

My heart is beeping

My heart is love.

L to R: Najaya Royal (age 12) and Annaliese Treitmeier-McCarthy (age 13)

Left to right: Najaya Royal (age 12) and Annaliese Treitmeier-McCarthy (age 13)

Two veterans of the Fort Greene Park Workshops and Literary Festivals, Annaliese Treitmeier-McCarthy (age 13) and Najaya Royal (age 12) , condemned prejudice and social injustice in their powerful pieces.

****

From left to right: Toure, Stacyanne Chin and Colson Whitehead

From left to right: Toure, Staceyann Chin and Colson Whitehead

****

After a short snack break (tasty milk & cookies for the crowd, generously donated by the popular Fort Greene restaurant, Rice) another local favorite took the stage. Author, journalist, and CNN correspondent Touré read a farcical tale about a superhero with a magic afro fighting racism on the very real streets of Brooklyn.

Staceyann Chin electrified the crowd with a reading of two pieces from her recently released memoir, The Other Side of Paradise.

Another Fort Greene local, the amazing Colson Whitehead treated the crowd to two pieces – a brilliantly comical tribute to T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and an equally hilarious and poignant excerpt from his novel, Sag Harbor.

Fort Greene Lit Fest Writers

Colson Whitehead, MC Laurie Cumbo, Staceyann Chin, and Touré pose with some of our young writers. It was a magical day, filled with impossibly beautiful music, poetry and prose, milk and cookies, and plenty of sunshine!

Photos : Melissa Cahill, Melanie Votaw and Leanne Stahnke

About the Festival

The Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival was presented by NY Writers Coalition, Akashic Books, GTHQ and the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, with additional support from The Walt Whitman Project.

Sponsors include State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Time Warner, the Hot Topic Foundation, Independence Community Foundation, the Valentine Perry Snyder Fund, and the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation.

Some coverage of the Lit Fest:

NY Times

Dumbo Books of Brooklyn

Photo Gallery:

****

Anwen Burns

Samori Covington

Staceyann Chin

Karen Marks

****

Our young writers

Toure & our young writers

Toure and Colson Whitehead

Ft. Greene Summer Literary Festival 2009

****

News from the NYWC Community

Organizational News:

August 21 marked the 6th Annual Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival. Hundreds gathered on what turned out to be the last nice afternoon before days of downpour to hear Kwame Dawes, Willie Perdomo, Gregory Pardlo, Patricia Smith, Carl Hancock Rux and Cheryl Boyce-Taylor read alongside young writers from our summer writing workshops in Fort Greene Park. The workshops and the Festival were both covered by The New York Times blog. Check out writing and video from the Times blog, and pictures by Melanie Votaw and Mosiac Literary Magazine from the Festival.

NYWC’s online literary journal, Dig Deep, released Issue V: Summer 2010 in July. It features fourteen pieces from eight NYWC workshops, including The 14th Street Y, Bayview Correctional Institute, Brooklyn Public Library Bedstuy Branch, Brooklyn Public Library Sunset Park Branch, CIDNY, The Creative Center, Imani House, and Prime Time workshops. You can read Dig Deep, Issue V and archived issues, here.

Workshop Leaders in the Limelight:

Charles Austin has three poems in Ganymede Unfinished, an anthology dedicated to the memory of John Stahl, the editor of Ganymede magazine. The anthology was released on 8/17/2010 by Sibling Rivalry Press. He also has one poem in the July/August issue on this zine, an online journal.

Tamiko Beyer had two poems published in Lantern Review, two poems in Poets for Living Waters, a poem and interview in the Collagist, and a poem in Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, edited by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman.

Barbara Cassidy will start a residency at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace in September to work on her new play, Anthropology of a Book Club.

Scenes from Judy Chicurel’s play/screenplay, A Better Place, will be included in the International Center for Women Playwrights’ Diversity Scenes Anthology.

Clarissa Cummings recently won first place in the H.O.W. Journal literary journal contest, judged by Susan Minot.

Community News:

Friend of NYWC Iris Lee recently had a book of poetry published by NYQBooks. You can visit her website for more information.

Dance/Theater Production Blood Dazzler, based on the National Book Award Finalist book by NYWC friend Patricia Smith,will debut September 23 at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse. For tickets or more information, click here.