WritersCorps's Blog

The WritersCorps program is closed.

WritersCorps has changed from a direct service program to a teaching artist grants program. To read the complete announcement and find out more about this new grant, click here. Building on the incredible legacy of WritersCorps, the new grants strategy will enable the SFAC to support teaching artists in their work developing the literacy and creative writing skills of young people. The WritersCorps Teaching Artist in Residence (WCTAIR) grants model provides an exciting opportunity to retain the most important aspects of WritersCorps. This new grant will begin in the 2016-2017 academic year.

This website is an archive of the past work by WritersCorps youth, teaching artists, sites and staff.

Please feel free to browse our site where you’ll find links to our past events, programming, videos, audio recordings and photos. You can also click on the archived social media links below:

       

If you have any inquiries regarding the WritersCorps program (1994-2016), please contact Program Associate Gisela Insuaste at gisela.insuaste@sfgov.org.

If you have any questions about the WritersCorps Teaching Artist in Residence (WCTAIR) grant, please contact program officer Liz Ozol at liz.ozol@sfgov.org.

To subscribe to the San Francisco Arts Commission Newsletter, click here.

 

There are no current or upcoming WritersCorps events.

Please check out our past events:

Past events (2007-2016)
Poetry Projection Project (2011-2013)
This Place Called Poetry (15th WritersCorps Anniversary)
20 Years of Youth Voices (20th WritersCorps Anniversary)

What You Don’t See – April 28, 2016 performance

During the 2015-2016 academic year, students from Hilltop Special Services Center participated in a collaborative poetry/theater workshop led by teaching artists Annie Rovzar of WritersCorps and Tristan Cunningham of A.C.T.. Students explored the issues and stigmas facing teen moms.

The final performance,”What You Don’t See”  premiered at the A.C.T. Costume Shop in San Francisco on April 28, 2016. It includes poems, monologues, and scenes written and performed by Hilltop students. Hilltop Special Services Center is a school for pregnant and parenting teens located in San Francisco’s Mission District

What You Don’t See – Behind the scenes

In this short behind the scenes documentary, students reflect on their personal journeys before and after the performance of “What You Don’t See.”

Directed by: Annie Rovzar, WritersCorps teaching artist & Tristan Cunningham, A.C.T. teaching artist

Photography, videography, and editing by: Seng Chen

Performance footage courtesy of A.C.T.

What You Don’t See: Poems by Teen Moms

After the performance on April 29, Hilltop also unveiled the accompanying chapbook filled with some of the poems performed on stage. Check out the link to this amazing chapbook that takes us on an intimate journey of their everyday lives and what it means to be a teen mom navigating childcare, relationships, school, friendships, and family.

Check out our 2016 WritersCorps publications created by students from Sanchez Elementary School, International Studies Academy, The Mix at the San Francisco Public Library, College Track-San Francisco, Hilltop School, Oasis for Girls, Aptos Middle School, and the Juvenile Justice Center. We unveiled these amazing publications at our 2016 year-end event, WritersCorps WordStorm 2016: A Celebration of Student Writing.

Our 2016 collection of publications by our youth in San Francisco. All photos by Andria Lo.

WritersCorps participants from the Oasis For Girls CREATE Fall 2015 program share their poems in this wonderful zine. Includes links to the audio clips of students reading their poems recorded by Women’s Audio Mission.
Teaching artist: Roseli Ilano

A beautiful anthology of poems by WritersCorps students at Hilltop High School. Students students explored the issues and stigmas facing teen moms.
Teaching artist: Annie Rovzar

In this zine, WritersCorps participants in the Spring 2016 CREATE Program at Oasis For Girls explored what it meant to be a young woman in San Francisco with open hearts and curious minds, using the written word and creative self-expression as tools for imagining what is possible. How does it feel to be a sister daughter, or friend, forging a path shaped by history, gender, and culture, but not define by it?
Teaching artist: Roseli Ilano

A colorful booklet that highlights the writing and art-making process by WritersCorps participants at International Studies Academy.
Teaching artist: Sandra Garcia Rivera

A beautifully illustrated graphic poetry zine that captures the ideas, narratives, and imaginings of incarcerated youth. This publication celebrates the fact that youth’s super-strength lies in their incessant urge to use creativity to process emotions, imagine, and dream up a more forgiving world.
Teaching artist: Maddy Clifford

This year’s College Track student publication was a poetic calendar. Each month features an excerpt from a poem written by a WritersCorps participant at College Track SF and visually interpreted by artist Lexx Valdez. We hope this calendar can be a tool for youth to help them with goal-setting and time management skills. Students are encouraged to use it to track their passions, cultural pride, and dreams for a better world!
Teaching artist: Maddy Clifford

An anthology of student writing by WritersCorps participants at Aptos Middle School. In this book, 7th and 8th graders find the best way to voice their thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams. This is a diverse collection of voices that recognizes students’ experiences as legit, regardless of age.
Teaching artist: Harold Terezón

Word Acts is a project to spark the actions we want to see in the world. WritersCorps students at Sanchez Elementary wrote poems and on kindness, affirmation, wisdom, and gratitude. On the back of each card, there is a writing prompt and space for you write your own Word Act and share it with others.
Teaching artist: Annie Rovzar

  

Part literary carnival, part open mic, WordStorm is our year-end celebration of all the amazing work our students have done over the past year. WordStorm is a place for all of our amazing youth to share their inspiring work, have fun, and rock the mic!

Students of all ages are invited to craft, write, and share their year-end work with one another in a fun, pizza-filled event.

WHAT: WritersCorps WordStorm: A Celebration of New Writing

WHERE: San Francisco Main Public Library, Lower Level

100 Larkin Street at Grove Street

WHEN: May 2, 3:315- 6:00 p.m.

3:15 – 4:45 p.m. - Workshops and activities @ Latino Hispanic Room

4:45 – 6:00 p.m. - Open Mic @ Koret Auditorium

COST: Free!

Visit our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/547369672110192/

PUBLIC TRANSIT: Muni Lines 5, 19, 21, 43, 49; Civic Center BART and Muni Metro

 

Dear WritersCorps Community,

The WritersCorps Teaching Artist in Residence  grant application and guidelines are now posted on the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) website.

About the WritersCorps Teaching Artist in Residence grant

The WritersCorps Teaching Artist in Residence (WCTAIR) grant is a three year grant, renewed annually, that provides support to individual teaching artists to offer free, long-term, in-depth literacy–focused arts workshops to youth at San Francisco community sites. Sites may include in-school or after-school classes and must include complementary programming with a neighborhood branch of the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL). The communities prioritized by the grant may include, but are not limited to, youth who are low-income, impacted by the justice system, pregnant or parenting teens, and/or English language learners.

The WritersCorps Teaching Artist in Residence (WCTAIR) grant will support teaching artists with a proven track record of working with the proposed youth population to deliver high quality programming. The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) will provide a multiyear grant award to cultivate a deep collaboration between a literary teaching artist and a community-based organization or school. The SFAC will provide technical assistance and professional development for the teaching artist. These activities will include periodic meetings with the grantee cohort and occasional learning institutes for mutual support and shared learning. The grant prioritizes funding for teaching artists with experience to be effective in the community they propose to serve.

Click here to read more about the WCTAIR grant and download the FY2015-2016 WritersCorps Application & Guidelines.

Click here to read SFAC’s letter to the community about WritersCorps changing from a direct service program to a teaching artist grants program.

Applications are due via email by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, May 23, 2016.

For any specific questions about the WCTAIR grant, contact Community Investments Program Officer Liz Ozol at liz.ozol@sfgov.org or 415-252-2231.

 

Dear WritersCorps Community,

The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is pleased to announce that WritersCorps will be changing from a direct service program to a teaching artist grants program in response to the San Francisco Arts Commission’s strategic plan. The SFAC convened key stakeholders to consider how best to honor and retain the legacy of WritersCorps; it was critical to us that we uphold and maintain the values that the program has embodied as it evolves into its next iteration.

The WritersCorps Teaching Artist in Residence grants model provides an exciting opportunity to retain the most important aspects of WritersCorps. The grant will include support for livable wages for teaching artists, cohort learning, and community-centered residencies for in- and after-school sites and libraries in San Francisco. The grants will also offer three-year commitments to provide the long-term, in-depth programming that is the cornerstone of the WritersCorps model. WritersCorps’ City funding partners—Department of Children, Youth and Their Families and the San Francisco Public Library—have a sustained commitment to and enthusiastically support the program’s new design.

Building on the incredible legacy of WritersCorps, the new grants strategy will enable the San Francisco Arts Commission to support teaching artists in their work developing the literacy and creative writing skills of young people.

Please stay tuned as SFAC will be posting grant guidelines in March 2016. For the time being, the WritersCorps website will continue to provide program updates. For more information about the San Francisco Arts Commission, click here. If you have any questions, please contact SFAC’s Community Investments Program Director Judy Nemzoff at judy.nemzoff@sfgov.org or 415-252-2227.

Thank you so much for your continued interest and support of WritersCorps.

 

Dear WritersCorps Community,

The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is pleased to announce that WritersCorps will be changing from a direct service program to a teaching artist grants program in response to the San Francisco Arts Commission’s strategic plan. The SFAC convened key stakeholders to consider how best to honor and retain the legacy of WritersCorps; it was critical to us that we uphold and maintain the values that the program has embodied as it evolves into its next iteration.

The WritersCorps Teaching Artist-in-Residence grants model provides an exciting opportunity to retain the most important aspects of WritersCorps. The grant will include support for livable wages for teaching artists, cohort learning, and community-centered residencies for in- and after-school sites and libraries in San Francisco. The grants will also offer three-year commitments to provide the long-term, in-depth programming that is the cornerstone of the WritersCorps model. WritersCorps’ City funding partners—Department of Children, Youth and Their Families and the San Francisco Public Library—have a sustained commitment to and enthusiastically support the program’s new design.

Building on the incredible legacy of WritersCorps, the new grants strategy will enable the San Francisco Arts Commission to support teaching artists in their work developing the literacy and creative writing skills of young people.

Please stay tuned as we will be posting grant guidelines in March 2016. For the time being, the WritersCorps website will continue to provide program updates. For more information about the San Francisco Arts Commission, click here. If you have any questions, please contact SFAC’s Community Investments Program Director Judy Nemzoff at judy.nemzoff@sfgov.org or 415-252-2227.

Thank you so much for your continued interest and support of WritersCorps.

WritersCorps presents WritersCorps Live at The CJM, in partnership with The Contemporary Jewish Museum. WritersCorps youth and teaching artists will share the stage with author Chinaka Hodge.

Who: Chinaka Hodge, Maddy Clifford, Annie Rovzar, and WritersCorps youth from:

Sanchez Elementary

Hilltop School

International Studies Academy

Oasis For Girls

San Francisco Public Library

College Track

Woodside Learning Center at Juvenile Hall

When: Thursday, March 10, 2016, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Where: Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission Street (between 3rd and 4th streets)

Cost: This event is FREE and open to the public

Visit our FB invite: 

Chinaka Hodge is a poet, educator, playwright and screenwriter. Originally from Oakland, California, she graduated from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in May of 2006, and was honored to be the student speaker at the 174 th Commencement exercise. In 2010, Chinaka received USC’s prestigious Annenberg Fellowship to continue her studies at its School of Cinematic Arts. She received her MFA in screenwriting, in 2012. In the Fall of that year, she received the San Francisco Foundation’s Phelan Literary Award for emerging Bay Area talent. Chinaka was a 2012 Artist in Residence at The Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, CA. In early 2013, Hodge was a Sundance Feature Film lab Fellow for her script, 700th&Int’l. Since its early days, Chinaka has served in various capacities at Youth Speaks/The Living Word Project, the nation’s leading literary arts non­profit. During her tenure there, Hodge served as Program Director, Associate Artistic Director, and worked directly with Youth Speaks’ core population ­­ as a teaching artist and poet mentor. When not educating or writing for page, Chinaka rocks mics as a founding member of a collaborative Hip Hop ensemble, The Getback. Her poems, editorials, interviews and prose have been featured in Newsweek, San Francisco Magazine, Believer Magazine, PBS, NPR, CNN, C­Span, and in two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry.

 

Maddy Clifford, teaching artist at College Track SF, The Mix@SFPL, and juvenile hall.

 

 

 

 

 

Annie Rovzar, teaching artist at Hilltop and Sanchez Elementary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starting in January 2016, join us for a free workshop and open mic series at The Mix at the SFPL! Please share this amazing opportunity!

 

WRITERSCORPS PRESENTS

Free Me Fast: OPEN MIC & SPOKEN WORD WORKSHOPS
January 12- May 17, 2016
Tuesdays, 4:30-6 p.m.

The Mix @ SFPL (2nd Floor)

100 Larkin Street

SF, CA 94102

Facebook post:

Open to ages 13-18

Weekly Free Me Fast Spoken Word Workshops are facilitated by teaching artists and accomplished performance poets Maddy Clifford and Sandra García Rivera. Students will generate creative writing, poems, and learn microphone and performance skills to stand up confidently to any microphone in the Bay Area and beyond.

First-timers and experienced poets welcome. Bring new or old poems to the workshop, or just bring a willingness to write, and step up to the mic.

MONTHLY FREE ME FAST OPEN MIC WILL BE HELD ON THE LAST TUESDAY OF THE MONTH:

JAN. 26TH | FEB. 23RD | MAR. 22ND | APR. 26TH | MAY 24TH

*NO OPEN MIC DURING SPRING BREAK

The Open Mic will be hosted by students and guest artists, and each reader/performer can share up to two pieces.

SIGN-UP AT THE MIX AT 4:15 P.M.

 

Any questions? Email hello@writerscorps.org or call 415-252-2221.