Writing for Change Skypes with Northwestern High School

From Justin Lohr:

 

English 292/388C: Writing for Change is a collaborative partnership between students in our department (and others) and the students in Timothy Ghazzawi's (an alum of the department, class of 2011) ninth-grade English class at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville.  The class focuses on the intersections of literacy, dialect, and power within the education system and society at large.  We put the theory and scholarship we read into practice by way of this collaboration, in which the college students mentor the high school students and help them develop performance pieces about a pressing community issue.  (The pieces are then performed here on campus.)  This year's performance is themed around Unheard Voices and explores the marginalization of different voices, presenting those voices and also exploring the processes that led to these voices being marginalized.

 

Yesterday, our college students were Skyping with their respective groups over at Northwestern; during the session, the groups were deciding which voice they wanted to represent and also negotiating the choice of which genre they wanted to perform in.  (Past performances have included a variety of genres: monologue, scenes, spoken word, documentary, song, dance, singing competitions, game shows, and more.)  Normally, we work face-to-face with the students, but we are waiting for fingerprinting and background clearance before we can return to the school, so we did a virtual visit instead.