WriteGirl Takes on San Diego
/On Saturday, March 21, 2015, WriteGirl partnered with The LiveWell Project (http://www.thelivewellproject.org) on a dynamic one-day event for at-risk teens in San Diego. WriteGirl donated journals and WriteGirl books for all the girls, but we also took WriteGirl on the road to help support San Diego teens.
WriteGirl Curriculum Director, Kirsten Giles is pictured here on the left with WriteGirl volunteers Jody Cohan-French, Joanna Nelius and Bryanne Salazar. We thank them, as well as Heidi Carson, for traveling to San Diego for this event to help inspire girls to write!
Executive Director Keren Taylor & Curriculum Manager Kirsten Giles led creative writing workshops for 300 girls and guided 50 volunteers to assist. On the roof of the YMCA, under the SoCal sun, girls responded to the writing activities passionately, sometimes quietly writing, sometimes laughing and sharing their ideas out loud, and we mean LOUD. Girls wrote poignant stories and poems about themselves, their families and their communities.
Here is one stand-out, written by Reina, age 16. But she asked us to tell you, “Keep in mind that I wrote this ‘story’ in 5 minutes."
WriteGirl WRITING A POEM
WISE
I’ve been through it
Loss, struggle
I've learned and I've grown
I've disrespected and I have respected
I've shown weakness and I have shown strength
No longer will I be the female afraid of love and struggle
My laugh is one unknown!
It is piercing, it shows rain and rainbows
My hair is the waves, the intervening waves in the ocean
My eyes are are the end result of blooming flowers
My voice is equivalent to the four directions
You can hear strength and you can hear sorrow
But most of all, me
My smile is the sunset and the stars
My attitude is salt and pepper
The sweet and the cries
I am me and I won’t ever change
My only options are up:
GROW
If you like this poem get your own here.
IT'S ON! 2015 WriteGirl Poetry Drive. BUY A POEM. HELP A GIRL.
