Written by Bianca Turetsky, Director Of Programs and the Brooklyn Region
On Tuesday evening, a small but mighty group of young writers and their loved ones battled subway delays, spring break plans, and joined together in the basement community room of the Park Slope Library to celebrate the end of the winter trimester with a reading. It was so exciting that writers from different Brooklyn workshops, Lolli, Maya, Cora, Uliana, and Naomi, were able to come together for this event.
As an introvert who grew up terrified to share their work with anyone aside from their cat, (shout out to Bernard), the courage these young writers showed getting up onstage, stepping up to the microphone, and proudly reading an excerpt from the pieces they have been working hard on in their workshop always inspires and moves me. They say bravery is being afraid and doing it anyway, and all of these writers smashed it out of the park, and according to one parent, left feeling more confident than ever before.
During the Q&A where we got to ask each Writopian about their inspiration and writing process, many of the writers spoke about how they love the freedom and possibilities that come with writing. They spoke about how they can get an idea from a tv show and turn it into something new and uniquely their own. How there is not one way to do it, the options are endless. And they made it clear that writing is just plain fun. That was apparent in our group poem where all of our kids and parents and guardians wrote a line to create a collaborative piece that was both hilarious and heartwarming to round out our program.
As I said at the end of the show, let’s do it again this spring! And I look forward to seeing these writers and many new ones share their beautiful stories with our community on June 2nd for our spring celebration. We hope you join us then.
