By Robin Reagler When Hurricane Harvey struck Houston, Texas at the end of the summer, Writers in the Schools (WITS) in Houston immediately mobilized for a volunteer effort at the main shelter for those displaced by the storm. In the four linked pieces here, WITS Executive Director Robin Reagler and WITS staff writers Cait Weiss…
By Cait Weiss Orcutt I signed up to volunteer at the George R. Brown (GRB) Convention Center with Writers in the Schools right after Harvey hit Houston because I knew enough to know I would feel better at least attempting to help others. In a way, I volunteered as much (if not more) out of my…
By Nancy Barnhart Serenity was her name. She was five years old and named after the Serenity Prayer, words I imagine countless Houstonians recited as a daily, sometimes hourly, mantra as we faced epic flooding in our city: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I…
By Joshua Nguyen I originally came back to Houston the weekend Hurricane Harvey hit because of a Coldplay concert. I was planning to surprise my partner with the tickets, but the concert was soon cancelled when the storm began to bear down on the city. I was staying at my partner’s apartment near the Museum District,…
By Nicole Callihan I was twenty-two, and I was finally in New York City. I remember walking up Broadway and smiling at people: the deli guy arranging roses in green buckets, the line cook taking a smoke on his lunchbreak, a young woman with a bun and legwarmers, clearly rushing to rehearse Swan Lake, the…
By Leonore Gordon “Poetry is so hot, it makes June butterflies/party in my stomach.” —From a fifth-/sixth-grade class poem at PS 156 Yes! I celebrate Teachers & Writers’ 50th birthday with all of the gratefulness of a child witnessing his or her first poem published in a book, an event I’ve had the privilege of…
By Sheryl Noethe Teachers & Writers Collaborative is turning 50 years old this fall. To celebrate this milestone, we asked people who have been part of T&W’s work over the last five decades to tell their stories. In this 50th story, poet Sheryl Noethe writes about becoming a T&W teaching artist and receiving the gift…
By Jeffrey Pflaum Teachers & Writers Collaborative will turn 50 years old in fall 2017. To celebrate this milestone, we asked people who have been part of T&W’s work over the last five decades to tell their stories. Jeffrey Pflaum reflects on how T&W books and writers have inspired his own teaching and writing. …
T&W teaching artists Alba Delia Hernandez and Samantha LoCoco conducted a 20-session residency at PS 457, Young Leadership Academy, in the Bronx with second-grade gifted and talented students. The students learned about figurative language and poetic structure and examined a range of diverse authors such as Sandra Cisneros, Willie Perdomo, Pablo Neruda, Kwame Dawes, and…
By Nancy Larson Shapiro Teachers & Writers Collaborative is turning 50 years old in 2017. To celebrate this milestone, we asked people who have been part of T&W’s work over the last five decades to tell their stories. Nancy Larson Shapiro, long-time T&W staff director and now chair of the T&W Board of Directors, shares…