Greetings all!  I hope everyone is getting excited for the end of the semester.  Frankly, all I'm feeling is panic...and a teensy tiny bit overwhelmed.  I'm sure as things wind down I'll be air-guitaring through campus with joy!  (Lisa, fellow graduate…join me?)

We are hiring new interns!  Applications are due May 1^st.  So far, 11 people have asked for applications by email…I'm not sure if they have inquired at the English Department or elsewhere.  I will check that out soon and hang some apps on our door.  It sounds like some great people will be replacing Lisa and I!

The SpeakOut workshop last night was really a fun one.  We had over 20 women…22 I think.  Everyone was very energetic, but it didn't get too chaotic. 

Laura got us going with a little intro of Baca's bio to get them excited about the visit.  We want to bring in some of his work to write with next week so that they are a bit more familiar with him.    

We started writing with an excerpt from Ntozake Shange's choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.  The poem described different individuals within the speaker and the power/elation that came with uniting them.  Sarah described this in a few different ways because some of the women were a bit confused.  We suggested that they either list and personify their different traits, write about what happens when they come together, or both.  It took a while, but eventually everyone was writing and the results were great. 

At that point, we shared other writing, too.  WOW!  I think this is such a great length for a workshop…I really had the sense that they are becoming-and feeling like-writers.  Newcomers are feeding off of their enthusiasm and getting comfortable with writing more quickly.  Everyone should get excited about this publication because its going to be amazing.

Next, Laura did a fun prompt with magazine cut-outs of phrases and images.  I got "what the billy goat said."  Well, never mind.  Anyway, the results ranged from really sad and serious to hilarious.  I LOVE it when everyone can't wait to share their writing, too. 

We were running out of time, so we added my prompt to the "not homework."  I was wearing my Take Back the Night tee (Be the prompt.  I am the prompt.  Getting into this a little too much?).  I asked them to write down the quote on the back, "Your silence will not protect you" (Audre Lorde).  They also wanted to write on "Take Back the Night," which was exciting.  I think the results on those should be really great.

The other not homework was:

-Examine an object for at least ten minutes.  It could be a pencil, a knuckle, a sock…anything you have around.  Write an extremely detailed description of how it looks and try to include how it smells, feels, tastes, and sounds too. 

-Take a well-known story or fairy tale and rewrite it from a different point of view…for example, Cinderella from the point of view of one of the stepsisters; the first Thanksgiving from a native's point of view; Rapunzel's thoughts during her imprisonment in the tower. 

I am looking forward to all the excitement coming up at LCDC…

Otherwise, not too much going on around here.  I am trying to get "exited" in time from AmeriCorps and I am working on a guide for future workshops.

Have a lovely week!

Hello, everyone! 

Just wanted to give a long-overdue update on all sorts of shtuff. 

This is exciting…I am finished with my hours!  But I will still be working the same hours…just with no pay.  Ok, not a big difference.  Anyway, Lisa asked me to insert some things into the Internship Handbook, which looks amazing!  We changed the official acronym to CCL so things wouldn't be so confusing for future generations of interns.  I have been putting a "Places to Publish" sheet together for the women in the Speak Out workshops…I am still looking for places, if anyone has ideas.  Also, I am working on a handbook for working out at LCDC and the workshop tasks.  I also got some materials together for Jimmy Santiago Baca's visit in May…I'm so excited!  Our website is pending…I really hope it is up before the time I graduate.  That is all I really want out of life.  Best graduation present ever. 

Last night's workshop went pretty well.  We didn't have very good attendance, which was sort of discouraging…only about 13 women.  We also don't have too many returning people…or at least, less than last time.  Oh well!  The group we had was great.

We did introductions and business stuff for what seemed like forever…I don't know why.  We had to wait for about 100 pencils to get sharpened and there was general chaos like always.

We started with the Joy Harjo poem "Alive."  I will post this in a separate blog because it's so fantastic.  I was a little nervous about this one!  There were references about knives and "this woman can cross any line."  Once again, my fears were unnecessary.  They really got excited about this…everyone was writing furiously.  There were some beautiful pieces read afterward, too.

We moved into Laura's prompt with about 10 minutes to go, which was really unfortunate.  She did a mini-lesson on flash fiction (sudden fiction).  The women seemed really interested in it…it is a form many of them take on without knowing it.  I think everyone got some good starts and we asked them to finish something for next week.

Then suddenly we were out of time.  We really have to get going at 6:30, but it never seems to happen.  On the other hand, they were a bit more antsy than usual, so it was probably for the best.

One reason it went so fast was that so many women had things to share!  Over and over last night, my responses to the writing was, "Wow."  We have some really fantastic stuff being written!  I can't wait for the book to take shape and for the women to see their work, printed and honored.  Several of them have been working really hard and writing tons and tons of good stuff.  Hooray! 

See you next week in blogland!

Sorry for the long, long blank empty space in my blog.  I am such a pathetic blogger! 

Workshop #4 was unfortunately postponed a week because of a lockdown, adding to the choppy nature of the workshops.  There was a knife missing from the kitchen which was around the corner from us.  Not a bad reason to go on lockdown, I guess.

I shouldn't be writing this because it will probably jinx us, but I had this terrible dream that the men were sabotaging our workshops.  They were angry because they didn't get to come and they were stealing knives, getting in fights...anything that would get lockdown on Wednesday night....it would be kind of a cool story...a little "we demand writing workshop!" riot sequence...but I would rather they didn't. 

Aside from my neurosis, workshop #4 the next week went very well.  It was one of the larger attendences we'd had so far.  After getting the ball rolling with introductions and such, we made a plug about the publication.  It seems like many of the women have revision in mind and I have seen several drafts of some things.

We began with a very popular fortune cookie prompt by Tobi.  We wrote about whatever our fortunes were.  The fun thing about this was that the responses were really diverse.  Some were sad, some were serious, and some were hilarious.  I hope we see some of them in the book. 

To be continued in a few hours...sorry!

Here's what we used for "not homework":

-What five images paint a perfect picture of a pleasant winter day to you?  Put those five images together in a piece of writing.

-Write about your proudest moment.

-Write about:

1.  The person I admire

2.  If I could live anywhere in the world... 

And a few more thoughts based on the sign in sheet ideas/questions/comments sheet...we need to start including more non-white work, especially Latino or Native American.  I was thinking Lorna Dee Cervantes, Joy Harjo...other ideas?  And someone noted that they hate poetry.  Which I sort of interpret as maybe we should try some prompts that are more suggestive of fiction? 

Here are some other responses:  "Lovin it!," "I feel like we are creating a family in writing" and "Thanks for giving me the courage to write!"  Very encouraging!

My poor blog has suffered so…

My apologies…I suffered from pre-spring break craziness.

The first item of business for me during the last few weeks was the website, which finally reached its webmaster destination on Friday before spring break.  I did a happy dance! 

Next, my research is going very well!  I had the opportunity to meet with the director of the literacy center in Alamosa last weekend.  She was EXTREMELY helpful.  I have finished a near-final annotated bibliography and am beginning to work on some drafts for the final product.

As for SpeakOut!, the second workshop was held on March 8^th.  This time, we had 15 participants.  Not too bad.  Many were new, and some of our long-term participants were released or not feeling well.  After welcoming and reviewing the workshop info with new participants, we asked for volunteers to share work they had done over the past two weeks.  There were actually quite a few responses to "not homework" prompts as well as some free writing. 

Next was Sarah's first prompt, which turned out really well.  We read "Jabberwocky" which everyone really liked.  Next we just tried to generate some nonsense words for the board.  We only got a few, but it was a really fun way to loosen everyone up.  There was better luck once we started writing using the words.  Many of the women took off and made up whole entire paragraphs (one in alien language) or used funny made up words in their other work.

I tried the prompt "Describe the most interesting conversation you had today."  To loosen it a bit, I asked them to use any conversation…it didn't have to be funny, sad, or shocking, and it just had to be recent.  I also asked for lots of details…how someone's expression changed as they said something or what the surroundings were.  This seemed like  a good exercise for participants who had mentioned that they were interested in creative writing.  It was also open to any sort of subject or feeling they wanted to write about.  The results were pretty varied and good.

Next, Tobi described International Women's Day, which was conveniently on March 8^th.  She asked participants to write "Women of the World:" at the top of their sheet and go from there.  This prompt had some really interesting results.  I was surprised how often "mother" came up from this prompt.         

We distributed the "not homework" prompts, listed below.

• What's a daily activity you must do that's not one of your favorite activities?  Be specific.  Once you have it, write a piece called 'Ten things that are worse than (whatever activity you thought of).'

• What does March feel like?  Write about weather, memories, holidays, seasons, favorite days, the color of this month…anything that you associate with March.  If you enjoy this prompt, try writing about the other months.  Do you feel hesitant during October?  Blissful in April?  Does December remind you of Cadillacs?

They added two prompts from our "Ideas to get you writing" sheet.  We collected work and returned the women to their pods. 

Our spring break workshop on the 15^th was cancelled.  The inmates are apparently getting wristbands to expedite release and program paperwork.  I can't decide if that's neat or good or weird or scary.  We will resume on the 22^nd. 

That's all the news for now!  Will update next week, I promise!

Hello friends!  Sorry about the missed week…there was not much going on the week before last.  As for last week, though…wow!  Lots of excitement…work and craziness, but mostly excitement at the CLC.

First of all, the website is basically completed.  I am waiting for the final word from Tobi, then we can send it off!  I’m so excited to see it up and running!  Once that is ready to go, I’ll be creating the volunteer forms for the CLC and the SpeakOut! year report. 

To update, the Women’s Conference was a big success!  I didn’t

Next, our spring SpeakOut! workshop at started out with a bang!  Twenty-nine women attended…about 30% of the women at LCDC!  Four facilitators and 29 women made me a bit nervous at first.  However, my nervousness quickly subsided in the first few minutes when I saw how excited everyone was to be there.  During our introductions, we asked the women to give us their name, why they came to the workshop, and what they enjoyed writing.  Apparently, the publication from last fall had been circulating around the pods, because many women who did not attend the first workshop had read it.  Also, many women who attended our celebration decided to attend when they saw how successful it had been.  The women named a wide variety of writing interests, including poetry, short fiction, journaling, science fiction, and letters.

We went through our workshop guidelines, then started writing.

We started with an acrostic poem.  This time, we tried doing sentences, like

R ambunctiously

A cting

N early

D elirious and

I   nsane!

Okay, dorky, but how else do you describe an acrostic poem??

Next, we read Sandra Cisneros’s “My Name” from the House on Mango Street and “Beginning:  August 1920” by Karen Hesse.  Since we haven’t used that poem in previous workshops, it’s a little hard to find, and it was such a successful prompt,  I’ve included it here:

Beginning:  August 1920

As summer wheat came ripe,

so did I,

born at home, on the kitchen floor.

Ma crouched,

barefoot, bare bottomed

over the swept boards,

because that’s where Daddy said it’d be best.

I came too fast for the doctor,

bawling as soon as Daddy wiped his hand around

inside my mouth.

To hear Ma tell it,

I hollered myself red the day I was born.

Red’s the color I’ve stayed ever since.

Daddy named me Billie Jo.

He wanted a boy.

Instead,

he got a long-legged girl

with a wide mouth

and cheekbones like bicycle handles.

He got a redheaded, freckle-faced, narrow-hipped girl

with a fondness for apples

and a hunger for playing fierce piano.

-Karen Hesse

From those two texts, we offered the women a choice between two prompts.  They could begin with either “My Name” or “Beginning:  (Month) (Year).  We wrote on this for about 15 minutes, and then we shared what we had written.  There were some great responses.

During writing, Skip came in and informed us that the murals in the auditorium were going to be taken down because someone had complained.  That was sad news.  They are huge maps…one of Larimer County, one of Colorado, one of the United States, one of the world, and one of the universe.  They also are basically the only thing in the prison that isn’t white or grey or dark grey. 

So, we did an impromptu “Ode to the Mural” writing exercise.  The women were apparently not as sad as I was, which, I suppose, is good, since they have to be there more than me.  It was a pretty fun prompt!  (Kudos to Tobi for “prompt on the fly”) 

Next, we split into two smaller groups.  We wanted to experiment a bit with the large group and small group.  Personally, I like mixing it up.  The dynamic with smaller groups is a little more conducive to more people sharing, especially those who are shy.  The larger group, though, is also really fun and seemed more community-building.  I hope we are able to use a large space like the auditorium that we used last week during the upcoming workshops.

In the small groups, we started with “choose your favorite sound.”  We wrote about what we liked about the sound, images associated with it, and so on.  I thought this exercise was going to be on the generic side, but it generated some really interesting and surprising writing.  One woman wrote about trains (my least favorite sound!) because they reminded her of her son.  Others wrote about deputies yelling, rain, and birds.  Tobi mentioned some other really great responses from her group, too.

Next, we did “Four times I’ve been surprised.”  I really liked the specificity of this prompt; however, it didn’t yield as much as I thought it might.  Most of them were “When I/ someone else got pregnant” or “when I got arrested.”  So not too exciting…

If the big group is going to remain a possibility, I would like to keep doing it.  I like the idea of working with small groups and large groups.  We didn’t get too many things to type up, but I expect that, like last time, we will begin getting more and more once they see that our comments aren’t scary.

Well, since this is maybe the longest blog ever, I will sign off.  Hope everyone has a lovely week…two weeks till spring break!

Not too much big news here this week…

We have decided that the first workshop at LCDC will be February 22^nd.  We have a new volunteer from Tobi’s Prison Literature class.  Sara is a senior English major, and she seems excited to join us.  Skip thought that one large group would be fine.  Since we may have to leave some women out more often, Tobi suggested that we make the Writing Mentor program available to LCDC women as well.  Additionally, I think the one, large, longer workshop is certainly worth a shot.  There is a better chance with more, longer workshops that we will get some more in-depth writing.  Most of our workshop material last semester was short, several sentences at the most.  Additionally, women may be more committed to it since it seems more serious.  It will be good to get going again.  We visited Sasha Steenson’s letter press on Thursday.  We may be able to use it and try some new things with our spring publication.  An exciting possibility…

Tobi, Laura and I planned our Women’s Conference Presentation.  We will be discussing our workshop, a short history of women in prison, and the applications of feminist theory to our work.  I hope everyone can make it!  We will be presenting at 11 a.m. next Saturday. 

The website is nearing completion.  There were a few loose ends to work on, then I have two additional interviews this week, and I should have a next-to-final draft for everyone early next week in the writing studio folder (probably Monday).  Please return any comments you have to me by email by Friday.  I am hoping to have the whole shebang to Mike by Monday, February 20^th.  Yay!

That’s all for now, hopefully everything will get more exciting when we begin workshops and start getting Writing Mentor submissions.  Have a great week, everyone!

Whew, well I put off the first blog of the year for a little longer than possible…my apologies!

I’m pretty excited about 2006 at the Center for Community Literacy.  The Intergenerational Literacy Project looks like it will be AMAZING and Lisa and Holly have done an amazing job…kudos, you geniuses!

SpeakOut! is gearing up for some very exciting projects.  First of all, we are jumping back into workshops with the women, probably on a Wednesday night.  We had an idea about doing one group for an hour and a half…it would be so wonderful.  But I got to thinking that some of those groups last year, for only one pod, were pretty much the maximum we could handle.  It would be really nice, but I feel like we would have to leave many more women out.  So I suppose we will be doing the 2 back-to-back workshops again.  I’m so excited! 

Additionally, we are kicking off a Men’s Writing Mentor Project very soon with Volunteer Aaron Leff’s help.  We felt like this would be great since we don’t really have the human power to get the workshops in the air at Turning Point, LCDC Men’s, or Community Corrections yet, but we would really like to get some writers going there in the mean time.  We have decided to make the deadline February 20^th.  Depending on how many participants we get, we will set up “pen pals” for the writers as soon as we get the submissions.  If we have lots of submissions (I hope so!) we may be able to get some students from Tobi’s Capstone class, Prison Literature and Writing since it has a service component.  (That class is AMAZING, by the way!)  Please look in the SpeakOut! file in a few days for the kick-off flyer.  I will be sending it to our community partners as soon as its revised.  This sounds so great!  I hope it works out well…

I should be finishing up the website in the next several weeks…looks great! 

Oh yes…I changed my office hours a bit…they are now Monday 12-3 and Wednesday 12-3.  

Thats all for now!  Have a lovely week...  

Oops, it’s been a while since my last blog!  Apologies…the last few weeks have been very, very busy at the CLC and elsewhere.  We completed our SpeakOut! Workshop at LCDC; it went beautifully!

Last week, we had a two-hour group and worked on two writing prompts, revisions and computer work. 

We started with a “When I look outside my window” prompt.  Because of the computers and who knows what else, everyone was really distracted, but the prompt did generate some really nice stuff for the book…

Next we tried to write a bunch of phrases on the board like “Don’t cry over spilled milk” and “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”  We put them all in a hat, and everyone had to choose one and write about.  That was less successful, and everyone was really distracted by that time, so we decided to get to the computers. 

The writers decided on “Releasing Locked up Emotions” for a title.  One woman did some beautiful illustrations for the cover.  They also did some of their own formatting for the work. 

Next time, I really hope that we have two revision workshops…one similar to last week’s, then one the week after with a publication manuscript to look over.  There were several mistakes, and page numbers would have been great.  One woman’s poem was incomplete…I had missed a few lines of it, and I felt really bad about that.  Getting their feedback before printing and the celebration would have been really helpful.

Our celebration was incredible.  We brought cake, ice cream, root beer floats, pizza, soda, and chips on their request.  There were about 25 women in the audience and 8 writers.  We would like to do a more formal setup next time, but they were impressed this time…they sat at a long table facing the audience, and I think it helped them see that their work was important and worth hearing…

The reading was very good.  Everyone was loud and clear for the most part…the audience was very encouraging, polite, and appreciative.   The two shyest readers eventually read several pieces.  By the end, I was a bit frazzled by the chaos of that many people, but really excited, too.  Everyone was so interested in the workshops and the women’s writing.  It was a great way to end my semester…

After the audience returned to the pod, Tobi, Laura, and I lead the happy, proud writers back.  In the hallway, though, a pretty vindictive deputy put the last four women in line on restriction (a fairly serious punishment, especially for women involved in programs) for something like…one woman…imitated a gesture an inmate made towards us to her friend…or something like that.  He was a very fair-minded, secure individual. 

So that put a damper on things, but it was a big success anyway.  Skip was enormously helpful Tuesday night (and every night we were there).  He is also very excited to start again.

We are thinking of beginning again, this time with an 8-week workshop, giving us an extra writing day and an extra revision day.  I think that will be a much easier time frame.  Also, women who are in long-term who attend will get much more out of it…we are thinking of doing some sort of reward for those who attend most-all of the workshops.  There will be some other small changes and I think it will be even better than last time!

Interns and Volunteers for the CLC were treated to a delicious dinner last night at Tobi’s house...It was really fun to chat with one another.  Lisa performed some really amazing air guitar for everyone…then we brought out a children’s pretend guitar and spent half an hour or so with that amazing thing…I’m heading to Target to get one, I think, very, very soon.  What else am I going to do on break!  Oh yeah…I’m going to work on my research…yikes.  Will be writing more on that soon. 

I think, after a couple of website revisions, I am done.  Done!  Yipee! 

I wish everyone the happiest of holidays!

During Thanksgiving, I did one thing that included my brain…I learned about trytophan, the evil stuff in turkey that makes me so…very…sleepy.  And I ate a lot of turkey.  And I’m hoping I can blame my continuing lethargy on Turkey Day…cause I’m still a little slow. 

That’s life though…and we have plenty to do in the Literacy Center to keep me busy and relatively alert!

Our workshop is beginning to wind down.  We will have one more workshop next week and do some revising and decision making about the publication.  Then on December 13^th, we will have  a reading and celebration of our work!  I’m very excited.  It sounds like it will be limited to us, the participants, jail employees, and the other women at LCDC, but that will be great.  A lot of the work that’s come out of our workshop has been very focused on the community within the women’s pods at LCDC.  They often totally transcend the stereotype of conflict within prison, offering each other emotional support, advice, laughter, motivation, even help with spelling or reading… It’s a great thing to observe to shake off the stereotypes I had about incarcerated individuals.

Yesterday was really fun.  We had two small groups of six and four, all of whom had participated at least once before.  Everyone was pretty comfortable, and nearly everyone shared their work.  We started with a fun onomatopoeia exercise, where we wrote a bunch of words—zap, pitter-patter, etc.—on the board and then wrote with those words.  The results were hilarious…

Next we used the Listen Up! prompt.  We started by having people read “Listen” by Ray Houghton, “Listening to my Daughter” by M.A. Mohanraj, and “Listening to the Rain on Day 2 of the War on Iraq” by Brandywine.  Next, we had everyone write “Listen Up!” on the top of their page.  The results were great…especially, I think, because the writers are such a massively quieted or ignored population.  They are women, often from low income families, often minorities, and that is all compounded by their incarceration.  This exercise, I hope, unleashed a lot of power for the women. 

In one group, we had time for an exercise in which we write in the voice of a family member about the relationship we have with that person.  I wrote, for example, about my relationship with my father from his perspective.  It seemed that several people either didn’t want to participate in this one for personal reasons or that they didn’t want to use another voice.  It didn’t work as well as the others, but there were a few neat results. 

I’m getting pretty good at finding my way around that labyrinth, but it is still way nerve racking.  The deputies in there are none too pleased in general, I think, so when they see us, they get even grouchier.  When we brought our second group back to the pod, for example, they were on lockdown, and the deputy didn’t seem happy to have us barging in on it.  I have no idea.  Still kinda confused about the whole thing. 

Meanwhile…the website stuff is done!  I think.  Anyway, we will being going over it briefly early (early!) Thursday a.m. at the meeting, then we will be sending it off.  And we ought to have some sort of ritual when we do that, I think.  Any thoughts? 

Hope everyone has a fantastic week.  Remember, we are getting there!  I like to think of a semester as climbing a fourteener…by this time, we are sweaty, shaky, crazy from pure adrenaline with no energy and altitude, but we make it, and the view from the top is worth it! 

I’m ridiculous, forgive me.

This is my entry for last week...I got a bit behind! 

Our meeting last week was interesting.  It sounds like IGLP is facing some new challenges.  I think everyone will be able to help out a bit more with the SpeakOut! workshops ending soon.  Hang in there and good luck!  Turning Point’s reading will be this weekend at the Alley Cat.  It sounded like it ended well, and the book is beautiful.  Good work, Amy and Molly!

Last week was an exciting website week.  I was really happy about our meeting.  Everything is almost done, and everyone was eager to volunteer to get the rest done.  Yippee! We decided on a nice scheme that Amy created by editing our graphic.  The colors are green, navy, and tan (ok different than that, but I can’t explain them).  We took some lovely pictures, too, so those are ready. 

Last week’s workshop went really well.  Our first group was enormous, and it was all different, new women except for one.  Since this group is from a pod that typically has shorter sentenced women, we decided to plan working with them as more of a one-time thing.  We just need to make sure we aren’t repeating anything in case anyone has been before.

There were several women who had written something they wanted to share.  One woman wrote a long, beautiful poem while she was in lockdown.  It was really exciting to hear, since she had been to all three workshops and it seemed like she was getting pretty excited about all of it.

We tried the Lucille Clifton exercise since we only got to try it with the last group last week.  It went much better, I think.  I was able to ease some of the confusion the participants had before by making the prompts a little less open. This time we asked them to start with “I know…”  It went really well. 

Laura tried an exercise that I really liked.  She read from Dorothy Allison:  “Behind the story I tell is the one I don’t tell.  Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear.”  Next she prompted, “what is a story you want to tell?  What is a story that must be heard.”  We had some excellent responses.

Our prompt for the week was Tobi’s “who do you want to be famous for?” prompt (she passed out Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem). 

Our next group was a bit less crowded and most had already been in the workshops.  Many people shared there work, which was really exciting.  Sharing “my most embarrassing moment” was especially fun.  We also got a big stack for comments! 

I started out with a quick freewriting exercise writing about our earliest memories.  Next, Laura repeated the story exercise, and this time there seemed to be less confusion. 

For next time, we are doing “if I could change the world, I’d…” and “The most interesting person I’ve ever met.”

For kicks, I decided to lock my keys in my car.  After the workshops, I kept Tobi and Skip there for an hour or so while I tried to get in it or get a hold of one single locksmith place.  Finally I just got a ride home and returned once I found someone.  He set off my car alarm.  If your life is boring, set off a car alarm outside a prison at 12:30 at night.  Ha.

On Wednesday night, we attended the volunteer training.  Somehow this program can no longer be four hours long.  That said, it was very helpful.  Joan, the Volunteer Coordinator, is fantastic.  She was extremely fair-minded and talked about the inmates completely respectfully.  We watched the video that you have to watch when you arrive there.  We also looked over the inmate handbook.  Next, we went through contraband procedures, safety concerns and protocol, and other guidelines.  We took a tour which may have better acquainted me with the directions in there.  It also may have confused me even more.  I guess we will see this week.  All in all, though, it was helpful and informative. 

Next week, Tobi will not be there so we need to get organized for that.  The website is nearly ready to send out.  Everything is getting a bit chaotic, but its going pretty good considering!

Sleepy…so sleepy…want to sleepy…Oh!  I’m writing a blog.

Does anyone else feel like they just hit that big brick wall hidden in the middle of the semester?  I, for one, was cruising along pretty fast and then BAM!  Owie!

But so it goes.  There has been plenty of energizing, exciting things to fuel me at the Literacy Center. 

First off, we had our second workshop at LCDC last night, and it was very successful.  Skip had us go with him up to the “pod” because once we finish our volunteer training next Wednesday, we will be able to go get the participants ourselves.  This was a learning experience for me…except directions.  That place is so confusing, I feel like I will never get from one end to the other without someone going “Randi, right.  Now left…no, left…”

Our first group was a bit smaller than last week, and we only had two returning members.  Several had been released, and left work to be included in the final publication.  I will not complain about that!  We also had three new participants, which was great…

No one had written anything she wanted to share during the week, so we got started with a freewrite about “things that really bother me.”  These were great…some funny, some serious, but everyone was responsive. 

Next, we did another freewrite…”write about a place that is important to you.”    This was even better.  We could hardly get them to stop writing.  Once we began to read, most people had written about home or someone at home, and some lovely, poignant writing emerged.  We had to get out a new box of Kleenex.  The images in the writing were specific and imaginative.  It was a good exercise for generating specifics, especially since it was a freewrite.   

Next we introduced brainstorming as another writing technique to get “unstuck.”  We chose “seven things you don’t know about me.”  This was fun, and it gave us a chance to get to know everyone a little better.  We ended with the “I believe” exercise used in previous Turning Point workshops.  I think the resulting collaborative poem will be really cool…we will read it next week.  Week writing activities are “Qualities that I look for in a friend” and “Three wishes.”

We had, I think,  15 people signed up to participate for the next one!  Skip didn’t want to try that, so he only allowed the women who had been there last week to come.  We will, however, be able to include them in the smaller group next week.  We ended up with 10 participants for this group.  We started out asking if anyone had written anything and we got piles of paper!  Whoo-hoo!  That was really, really encouraging!  We introduced free writing, and this time, with the important place exercise, we used the board and came up with some places together.  That yielded a porcelain, hot pink, claw foot bathtub with gold gilding as well as some other fun things.  Next we did the 7 things you don’t know about me exercise, which everyone had fun with. 

So, website...During the meeting this morning I volunteered to get this thing DONE, so I'll be mean for a while....

We need several things on the Program Description list.  It sounds like Lisa got that contact info for Kids at Work, so that will be done soon.  I find this hilarious, but IGLP is a bit short since its on our website...SpeakOut is not done at all...oops!  I will work on the SpeakOut! description and maybe Holly or Lisa can think about adding a bit (maybe you wont be able to until after pilot).  We also need Writng @ CSU k-12 project description.  As far as interviews go, Coke is missing, and some weren't too connected to literacy, so maybe that could be a continuing thing...collecting interviews as people become involved as well as collecting some quotes for Defining Community Literacy and Tips and Barriers...speaking of that could be embellished as well...is anyone comfortable with creating their own?  Should we have our definition of community literacy somewhere (should we make one??)  Also, do we want to start thinking about expanding that soon...perhaps we can go around campus, ask some other professors, community partners...maybe even places like 826 Valencia...and ask about literacy definition, tips, and barriers?

Next is choosing a graphic and a color scheme.  There are two documents at CLC where we are collecting anything anyone likes, and hopefully by Friday we can choose something.  Can everyone please contribute to these docs?

I am in the process of turning my research into a thesis.  I am also reducing it, most likely to Barriers to Latina literacy or something close to that.  It is a pretty interesting topic.  I need to start paring down my sources.

Otherwise, I have been working on workshop preparation...the meeting went well this morning, and I am ready to dive into a lot of things at the same time! 

Have a great week, everyone.

Last night, Tuesday, October 25, 2005, Dr. Jacobi, Laura VanEtten and I went out to the prison for our first workshop.  We planned some fun introductory writing prompts, including an acrostic name poem, reading “My Name” from the House on Mango Street, writing about names, writing about color, and writing “7 things you don’t know about me.”  We also needed to do introductions and go over the plan for the class. 

As we arrived, Skip told us there was only 9 women interested…5 for one group and 4 for the other.  However, the first group totaled 8 women.  Everyone was warm and pretty high-energy.  We circled the room, introduced ourselves, talked about what we liked to read and write, and talked about why we came.  Some women were pretty reserved during the beginning.  Others were very vocal right from the start.  It was evident immediately that there were some great stories to be told be each participant. 

As we went through the plan, everyone was paying attention and asking questions…wow!  I haven’t seen anyone in college pay attention on the first day.  I was scared we might lose their attention right away, but we didn’t much at all.  I should take note…

The name exercises went well.  I think everyone was writing.  Once we started sharing writing, I was surprised because the people who I had already tagged as the shyest were some of the first to share!  That was great.  I think they are pretty comfortable with each other and even the shy individuals feel fine reading. 

We had to rush a bit through the color exercise, but maybe its something we can use later.  There were some really great responses to it until we had to wind it down.  The two prompts we would like to work on this week are:  “The Strangest Dream I Ever Had” and “The Things That Really Bother Me.” 

The only real problem during the first hour was that the door has a tall piece of glass.  Male inmates are being moved back and forth during the hour, and the women facing the door were distracted by them.  Skip is fine with covering it with paper or something. 

The next group was much larger at 11 women.  They had a bit more energy that the previous group.  Also, there were a few cliques, but the entire group was very involved with each other.  These women have formed a sort of community, which I thought was pretty neat.  There were some matronly figures and a lot of laughter and compliments.  There was bickering too, but not much.  In this group, the writing folders caused a few problems(we were told they would get notebooks, but no dice…in the end they got some folders with loose leaf paper.)  Some people weren’t happy with their folder color, so it took a few minutes to get that arranged.  We got through the schedule with no problems, and got to start the naming exercise, but really only the acrostic.  Everyone was pretty into the writing…we even whipped out a dictionary.  The last part was rushed and didn’t go very well because of that, but we decided on some prompts for next week…I think one was “The Meaning of Freedom”…I can’t remember the other, but I will get it up next week.  I hope they realize that we will have lots more writing time next time!

I felt like both workshops were really successful.  Skip commented that both groups of participants were very positive and planned on returning.  I hope so!  (I was even sort of upset that the ones who were getting out were leaving…I felt pretty selfish for that, but they were so great!)  Next week we are going to see if anyone wrote on the prompts, then try Laura’s 7 things exercise, then a few new prompts.   

Hooray...we had a big success last week in getting the writing workshop(s) at Larimer County Detention Center set up! 

So far, the plan is that we will have two different groups of women for an hour each every week.  Its possible that the groups will combine after a while.  I didn’t really understand why they couldn’t…I think the two separate groups have different sentence lengths.  So I’m not sure what the consequences will be of mixing them.  Oh well, though, provided that we have enough interest, two groups will be great. 

As soon as we get our Volunteer training, which we will be doing Wednesday, November 2^nd, we will be able to be alone as a group rather than having Skip or someone else in the room the whole time.  I am very excited that we can get around this.  I think it will be much easier to generate discussion and openness without him there.  I think, though, that we will have to have someone there for the first workshop since it is before the training.

Speaking of the first workshop, it will be October 25^th, one at 7pm and one at 8pm.  I predict lots of success! 

Meanwhile, I looked at website colors.  I like the bold-colored schemes with one bright color…they weren’t too serious but professional.  There is a list in the office if anyone wants to cast a vote for that.  I added “Defining Community Literacy” and “Tips and Barriers” to the website folder as well, and we need to start adding things from interviews and research.  I think the site will be really great soon.

Otherwise, it looks like it will be a busy but fun next few weeks as we get rolling on this!  Hope everyone has a great week.

Hello all!  I have been practicing our proper name and I think I have it down pretty well.  It does sound much fancier and way better on correspondence. Still a tounge-tier orally, though! 

I did not write last week in anticipation of something progressing over at the detention center.  However, we have not had our meeting with Skip Wells.  It is scheduled for this Thursday.  He is the Education Coordinator at the detention center, and I hope we get a project underway.  I am getting very antsy for some actual field work!

I have been able to get some website descriptions and interviews finished.  On Friday, I interviewed Pattie Cowell, who should be our neighbor, but unfortunately has to work over at the Foreign Language Department this year.  Anyway, she is the inventor of "Word Shops" which is a really great program that integrates service learning into undergraduate courses.  She is not able to teach this year, so the program is on hold for a bit.  However, in the past, she has had students doing projects like tutoring at Turning Point and elsewhere, collecting reading material for homebound people, reading or collecting stories at Columbine, and many others.  I think the fact that it is integrated into the class brings literacy awareness (ok, sort of forced awareness!) to a wider group of students than many projects.  She said that, of course, they grumbled about it, and by the end were very happy and rewarded for the work they had done.  She thought that many of them go on perform more service in the future.  She is also doing a pedagogical project on collecting stories, similiar to oral histories, all over the Northwest.  I can't wait for this to come out, it sounds so interesting!  We had a conversation on the applicability of collecting these stories to literacy and that encouraging the ability to tell stories to others is an important component of literacy.  Very cool idea...

I have been putting together some bibliographies and looking at what is out there for my research.  I am focusing right now on Mexican-American literacy and will likely be narrowing it down according to geography and maybe to gender.  I am sort of considering a thesis-type of end product for it. 

Otherwise I finished some descriptions, so perhaps if anyone needs some help with theirs, I could do it.  I will be updating my blog on Thursday once we have a meeting with Skip Wells.  See everyone Wednesday!

Last week, the CLC had a pretty progressive meeting.  We set some deadlines, got a more concrete idea of the research we will be doing, and got a bit more organized.  I think we can really get things rolling now.

I tried a grant!  They are pretty frustrating.  Its kind of (for me at least) a language set that I've never really gotten to use.  I think one thing that will really help is to just read a bunch of them that Dr. Jacobi has written. I am also looking forward to the grant workshop on October 4th.  That should be really helpful.  I also need to do some reading. 

It looks like Crossroads will probably not work out this semester.  I am exploring some other options.  The Women's Resource Center really only deals with health; specifically, STD prevention and treatment, breast cancer, and dental stuff.  I don’t think they are an option at this point.  The grant I attempted to write (no worries, Dr. Jacobi and Dr. Langstraat will fix it) was not gender-specific.  If we get money from them, we could start at the Turning Point Boy's house or some other places.  We'll see...I think I'll probably focus on getting something off the ground this week. 

Meanwhile, the Intergenerational Literacy and the Turning Point Girls projects sound like they are coming around great!  Keep up the good work.

I will be going to the AmeriCorps meeting this Tuesday, if anyone is interested.  It will be 5-6.  Have a fantastic week, everyone!

Last week I met with Dr Jacobi, Amy, Molly, and Laura about Speak Out!.  I am getting very excited about this project.  Right now, it sounds like Laura and I will be trying out a bi-weekly workshop at Crossroads.  We also may read the book they are reading for their Monday night group and perhaps contribute some writing or discussion ideas.  I hope we are able to get a schedule worked out, but if we dont get to work there just yet, it would also be great to work on some other Speak Out projects and maybe give us a better platform to begin Crossroads.  Either way, I think it will be a great place to implement some writing and will eventually be really sucessful and helpful.

Meanwhile, I have been doing a bit of research on writing workshops.  I watched "What I Want My Words to do to You," the workshop that Eve Ensler did.  I reccomend it...it is very focused on voice...the importance of having one...bringing one out to the open.  Also, it was nice to just see that type of workshop in action.  It made me even more excited to see Dr. Jacobi's group's reading, too!  Of course, though, Dr. Jacobi had some great points.  Ensler was a little bit threatening, I thought...not so encouraging.  And I really disliked the fact that the women didn't get to read their own work.  One woman was mouthing hers and smiling...looking like she would have done anything to read it herself.  Yuck.  Oh well...I liked when they expirimented with switching races while reading.  That was pretty effective.  I have otherwise been searching for writing exersizes and information on domestic violence/writing as therapy...that sort of thing. 

In the office, I finished formatting the SpeakOut curriculum, did some research on grants, and as it is Sunday night, I honestly cant remember what other things I did.  I will tack on a bit tomorrow regarding that so we can all keep sort of on the same page about all of that. 

That is all for now!

Yesterday I visited the CLC office and met with Dr. Jacobi, Amy, Lisa, and Holly.  I was very excited to learn about the past, current, and future projects and goals of the literacy project.  Everything sounds amazing...I think this experience will exceed my high expectations.  Good to meet all of you!

As I said in class, I am excited about nearly everything that I've heard about.  If I had to narrow it down though...

I'm especially interested in the relationship between women and literacy...whether its from an economic, linguistic, racial, or other perspective...the effects of violence, war, and patriarchy on women's ability to learn the basic academic skills like reading and writing.  I will be writing my thesis on women's writing and feminist theory (don't ask for details; there aren't any yet!) and I am involved in Women's Programs and Studies...soon, the Campus Feminist Alliance as well...So I predict that I will be involved with the program geared toward women and literacy.  I was especially interested in working with women of low economic statuses.  I think I am interested in field work, researching, and writing about this particular area especially. 

However, everything sounds really, really fantastic and I look forward to working with everyone in the near future!