Friday, August 3, 2018

Dylan's Blog Post

Change
Dylan Henry

We sat at this little table in this little café: me, my mom, my dad, my brother and sister, and we ate breakfast together. I realized that in just a week, this little hole in the wall would be closed forever, and that was a big deal. We didn't visit often, but I could remember all the particular times that I sat in that little cafe over my lifetime. 

It means much more to other people then it does to me. Workers will lose their jobs and many senior citizens will lose their Sunday mass brunch spot, but it’s more than a cafe closing, it’s a change. Little by little, everything around me is changing. The houses, the stores, the people, and me. Little by little, I grow and watch the world grow too, although I’ve grown for the better. The closer I get to being an adult, the more things from my childhood have disappeared. Like the little restaurant down the street from the café. In the summer after eighth grade, me and my best friends basically lived there. Our weekly visits included salad eating, shit talking, TV show obsessing, and, mostly, worrying about the future. For that hour or two or three or the whole night together, we could forget that we'd all be starting over at new schools, and all we needed was each other in that moment in time. 

What we didn't realize was that we kinda needed the place, too. It was closed in the beginning of our sophomore year. We still hang out, and when we do, we walk past the old closed down restaurant and reminisce about what was and talk about what is. Now life is harder, so it's nice to be in the past for an hour or two or the whole night. We are starting to learn things like how to drive and spend money carefully, when we used to spend our money on salads and breakfast at the cafe after pulling an all-nighter. Me and my friends have always hated where we lived; anywhere seemed better and I've always felt trapped because sometimes it didn't seem like enough. It has been changing with us, this town and my friends and me. From starting to explore this place, being 12 and walking around, to being 16 and thinking about leaving. I’m sad that it’s changing; I’m gonna miss having the comfort of knowing they're there, the cafe, the restaurant, my friends, mom, dad, my brother and sister. I've spent my whole life hating it, but I never want it to change. It's what formed me. It the sole reason I am who I am. The concrete sidewalks that scraped my knees, the red bricked houses are the only thing I know. The walls that heard my singing and the floors that felt my dancing. I don't want it to change, because if one day I look in the mirror and I don't recognize myself, if I look different, if I ever feel lost and can’t remember who I am, then I’ll visit the sidewalks, the narrow streets, and that little café and maybe I'll remember. 

Final Pantoum Poems

When we began our time together during the Project Write summer camp, we started with a pantoum poem exercise that asked students to combine overheard conversation fragments with printed texts from the Liberty Bell Center. As we wrapped up our 2-week summer program, students composed a final pantoum poem, this time combining lines from famous readings (including the Declaration of Independence, Abigail Adams' letters to her husband regarding women's rights, Frederick Douglass' speech "What to the slave is the 4th of July?," Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech, literary works by Edgar Allen Poe, and others) with lines from their own writing during their time in Project Write. I think you'll agree that the resulting pantoum poems are pretty amazing!

Gabriela’s Final Pantoum

We will never forget
To love and be loved
We are all human
Beautiful in all ways

To love and be loved
All men and women are created equal
Beautiful in all ways
The pleasure of Almighty God

All men and women are created equal
No turning back
The pleasure of Almighty God
God is forgotten

No turning back
We are all human
God is forgotten
We will never forget

Iris’ Final Pantoum

That quiet that prevails is awful
Each part of this path stays alone
Feelings of disgust into hatred
It continues to be more

Each part of this path stays alone
Turning your world upside down
It continues to be more
The destruction prevails

Turning your world upside down:
Justice demands it
The destruction prevails
But someone will be listening

Justice demands it
Feelings of disgust and betrayal
But someone will be listening
The quiet that prevails is awful

Christo’s Final Pantoum

All men are created equal
Here is a nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to a proposition of human equality
We hold these truths to be self-evident
I am the only one he even wants to hunt

Here is a nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to a proposition of human equality
I have a dream today
I am the only one he even wants to hunt
Let the freedom ring from north through south

I have a dream today
If you do good, know for whom you are doing it
Let the freedom ring from north through south
Beyond this many things lie hidden

If you do good, know for whom you are doing it
We hold these truths to be self-evident
Beyond this many things lie hidden
All men are created equal

Dylan’s Final Pantoum

I doubt myself when you commend yourself so proudly
A man is always seen more highly
I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong
My mother always told me women sing a stronger song

A man is always seem more highly
We are obligated to go fair and softly
My mother always told me women sing a stronger song
Treated like the lesser for a lifetime too long

We are obligated to go fair and softly
You’re just as tough, my nana taught me
Treated like the lesser for a lifetime too long
We are sick of being told that we’re always wrong

You’re just as tough, my nana taught me
I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong
We are sick of being told we’re always wrong
I doubt myself when you commend yourself so proudly

Emily’s Final Pantoum

She wanted to be free
At the thoughts of this my blood is made to run cold
The pursuit of happiness
But what if tomorrow is my last?

At the thoughts of this my  blood is made to run cold
You’re you until you’re not
But what if tomorrow is my last?
My original soul seemed to take its flight from my body

You’re you until you’re not
Lead your own legacy
My original soul seemed to take its flight from my body
Daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain

Lead your own legacy
The pursuit of happiness
Daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain
She wanted to be free

Talia’s Final Pantoum

Why am I called upon to speak here to-day?
Woman is yet a slave
Between the body of the prison and the outer wall, there is a spacious garden
No one has heard of me

Woman is yet a slave
I am a woman
No one has heard of me
I was not there.

I am a woman
But we loved with a love that was more than love
I was not there
We are your friends

But we loved with a love that was more than love
Between the body of the prison and the outer wall, there is a spacious garden
We are your friends
Why am I called upon to speak here to-day?

Thank you to ALL the students who made Project Write such a success, and to all the families who support these talented young writers every day! Here is a link to some of the pictures that we took throughout the last two weeks. Enjoy!

Project Write photos on Flickr

Check out photos of our 2018 Project Write adventures on Flickr.  There are even more photos to come, including today's AWESOME graduation ceremony.

Georgicus Clarence Bartholome III Esquire, Esquire


Project Write campers collaborated on creating a back story for our 5 gallon water jug.  His name is Georgicus Clarence Bartholome III Esquire, Esquire.  His story will move you.

Georgicus Clarence Bartholome III Esquire, Esquire was born into privilege, carrying on his time-honored family name and expected to carry on the time-honored family tradition of working in high class, white collar law.  His parents were so committed to this tradition that they included 'esquire' on his birth certificate.  A child prodigy, Georgicus graduated from high school at age 14 and enrolled immediately at Harvard University, where he completed both his undergraduate and law degrees by the time he was just 21 years old, thus becoming Georgicus Clarence Bartholome III Esquire, Esquire (or Esquire squared for short).

Upon graduating from Harvard, Georgicus opted to defy his family and embarked on a career in the public defenders office in New York City, providing legal representation to impoverished men and women accused of violent crimes.  His social justice work and 100% winning trial record caused him to consider himself a superhero.  Perhaps it was this heroic confidence that enabled him to woo and win his bride, a human woman from LA, with whom he enjoyed long walks on the beach and Pop-tarts.  They married when he was just 25 years old.  Georgicus' parents were furious that he married outside the pool of eminently qualified water cooler candidates that they had pre-screened for him, and they disowned and disinherited him.  His sister, however, took pity on his lovestruck soul and continued to sneak him money to support him.

Georgicus and his bride then moved to Los Angeles, where they continue their long walks on the beach, and they enjoy organic, gluten-free Pop-tarts.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Blog Post - Gabriela Petit

You may not be able to see,
But the light within me shines bright. 
And though you can't see through me 
There is definitely a light. 

It was bright before,
But as I grew, the light dimmed. 
Look close within the door,
You'll see how much it's thinned. 

There is such a trail 
That shows me where to go. 
I hope to find the rest, to prevail, 
And live my life with its beautiful glow.

Blog Post - Ife Islam

The Tree Runner

I had wished a thousand times
that I could heal your mind. that I could change your life
But I
didn’t know that you. wanted to heal me too
there’s no room left to move

I knew a boy
that kept
everything he owned inside a backpack.
He’d run
run from the rising sun and from the smoke n guns
He ran

ran right into me
and tried to get me to follow him
Well I didn’t know
where he came from
or where
he was going.
But I knew that he was hurting himself and that he’d hurt me too

I had wished a thousand times
that I could heal your mind. that I could change your life
But I
didn’t know that you. wanted to heal me too
there’s no room left to move

I slowed him down
he sped me up
we got so close
and we broke up
I loved his eyes
and he loved mine
and I still want to save his life
but he won’t listen, he says I
will need to move and need to fight
and I say he needs to be still
and to allow himself to feel
and I hit him and he hit me
and I still don’t know who broke the mirror.

I still don’t know, who broke the mirror.

I loved him
I did
and I’m sure he loved me too
but he’s runner
I’ve got roots
and still I want to save his life

I think of him
I think of her backpack.
I think of the mirror.
I still think he’ll come back.
I hope he’s got his things together
I just hope that he’s alright

I had wished a thousand times
that I could heal your mind. that I could change your life
But I
didn’t know that you. wanted to heal me too
there’s no room left to move