This past Thursday, April 22, English 409 Creative Writing in the Community held a reading at Cornerstone Center for the Arts. Throughout the semester, English 409 students collaborated with clients in a variety of organizations in Delaware County, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Heritage Retirement Village, Hilcroft Services, Inc., and Motivate Our Minds. This is the eighth year of Creative Writing in the Community, taught by Barbara Bogue.
As a member of the audience, listening to the excerpts was inspiring. As writers, it’s essential to look for new experiences and different points of view to spark the creation of a piece or to give insight of an existing piece. For me, personally, it would be fascinating to work with a member of a retirement home. To collaborate with someone of a completely different generation who experienced a completely different lifestyle would provide a new way to learn history. How was life during World War II, or the Cold War, or Vietnam? Or even to hear about reactions toward the colored TV or the transition from records to 8 tracks to cassettes to CD’s. It would create such a personal perspective rather than relying on history textbooks.
So to members of the audience, what was it that stood out during the reading? What inspired you?
To students in English 409, what were the best moments of the class? How has it changed your perspective?
Mia Hanneken, Undergraduate of Creative Writing
Comments:
As a reader and participant in the class it was a good chance to see how exited our partners were–granted mine wasn’t there. The reading seemed to collect all of the nervous tendencies and enthusiasm my classmates and I had been going through during the semester of being paired with unique individuals and then being given the opportunity to write about and share their experiences–or personalities at least.
Tomorrow (27 April) we will also be doing a private presentation of the publication to our partners and/or the organizations that they are apart of. Yet another opportunity to express gratitude for the experience, share more stories, and sadly–for most of us–bid farewell to those we grew close to over the semester.