By AMANDA DRANE

@amandadrane

AMHERST – For the first time in 10 years, the Western Massachusetts Writing Project had enough money for a one-day workshop this week that engaged 144 students in workshops ranging from songwriting to writing for social change.

Students in Grades 4 to 10 came from all over western Massachusetts to Bartlett Hall at the University of Massachusetts on Tuesday, said Bruce M. Penniman, site director for the writing project and an adjunct assistant professor of English at UMass.

Titled the “Youth Writing Adventure,” Tuesday’s event featured six workshops: songwriting, scriptwriting, writing for social change, short story-writing, writing with action, and social justice poetry. Each workshop was held twice during the day – once for students in Grades 8-10, and the second for younger students.

In the social justice poetry workshop for students in Grades 5 to 7, East Longmeadow teacher Heather Brown pointed to a photo of Amadou Diallo – an unarmed black man shot by police officers in New York City in 1999 – that hung on the chalkboard. “What do we know about him?”

A voice from the back of the room piped up: “Forty-one shots were fired.”

Brown nodded and turned around to write “41 shots fired” on the green board behind her. That piece of information, Brown told the students, was used in the title of the poem “Forty-One Bullets Off-Broadway,” which she read aloud to the class.

Six other portraits hung on the board, including those of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teen killed in Florida in 2012,  and Tamir Rice, the black 12-year-old shot by Cleveland police officers in 2014 while wielding a toy pistol. The students were quick to point out two underlying similarities  – none was armed when they were killed and all seven were black.

After reading two examples of social justice poetry, Brown told the students, “You’re going to have that opportunity today. To share those emotions and to inform the public.”

Brown said she hopes to empower young people to use their talents to effect change. “My nephew is African-American and I worry about him,” Brown added. “Because he’s a black boy in America.”

Brown gave the students about 15 minutes to put their thoughts on paper. “Don’t worry about spelling and punctuation and getting everything perfect,” Brown said.

Whispered working commenced. Students stared pensively at their papers as the sounds of scribbling filled the room.

Brown then asked willing students to read what they’d written. Hannah Wheeler, 13, of Herberg Middle School in Pittsfield, wrote a poem that connected the faces on the board with lost opportunities.

“Twelve years old; a future ahead,” Wheeler read from her written work. “No, not now, because he lies there dead.”

Drew names from hat

For the students from Holyoke in the workshop, this was an unprecedented opportunity, according to one teacher.

“We never get to go on field trips, so this was like a miracle that happened,” said Mary Hamel, a reading specialist at Maurice A. Donahue Elementary School in Holyoke. “All the kids wanted to come.”

Hamel added that there was so much interest in attending Tuesday’s writing workshop that administrators had to pull names from a hat in order to choose.

“Coming to something like this is eye-opening for my kids,” said Hamel. “We don’t get to do outside-of-the-box stuff like this. It blew their minds that there are social justice teachers at other schools.”

Alysha Izquierdo, 12, is a Donahue student who echoed that sentiment. “We’re learning things we have never learned before,” she said.

Penniman said Tuesday’s event was aimed at inspiring students and teachers.

“Our goals in doing this are to spur kids to be more interested in writing,” said Penniman. “And for teachers to be inspired to do this sort of thing at their own schools.”

Marian Parker, an upper elementary teacher at the Montessori School of Northampton, sat in on the social justice workshop to get ideas for a new program at her school. The Montessori civics and social engagement curriculum will cover social justice and civic movements, she said.

“These are important things for our students to be engaging with,” Parker said.

The free “Youth Writing Adventure” was financed through a “minute fund” campaign, which Penniman described as the UMass version of kickstarter. The day-long writing immersion program used to be held annually, said Penniman, but was dropped after the writing project lost state funding a decade ago.

“When we heard about the minute program we thought it would be a good way to try to revive it,” said Penniman.

The online campaign, which ran from September through January, raised $4,005.

Sharing their work

To cap Tuesday’s proceedings, the students gathered in the Bartlett Hall auditorium, where some shared stories, poems, and excerpts they had worked on throughout the day.

One group of four from Jeromie Whalen’s scriptwriting workshop for students in Grades 5 to 7 performed a short play based on the script they had written during the afternoon workshop. Acting out their roles with wigs and costumes from the prop closet at Northampton High School, the group got together to solve a spilled milk mystery.

Using props to drive the writing, the students followed a creative process Whalen described as a “bridge between writing and more visual mediums.”

“It’s kind of taking them out of their element as far as what they’ve grown up with,” said Whalen, a technology teacher at Northampton High School. “It’s translating emotion on the page to emotion that is seen.”

Students who participated Tuesday have until March 25 to polish off what they started for a publication the writing project is putting together. Penniman said each student will have at least one piece published.

Penniman said he is seeking sponsors to continue the event in future years. “We’d love to do it again,” he said. “The critical question is funding.”

Penniman said the six teachers who led the workshops received small stipends for their time, but most of the cost is lunch for 200 students and printing the publication the writing project compiles afterward.

Anyone interested in participating in future events – there will be two youth workshops this summer – or in donating to the Western Massachusetts Writing Project can email Penniman at wmwp@english.umass.edu.

Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.