Finding their voices, writing the future
For the past five summers, 92Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center has brought high school students from all over the country together in New York City for three weeks to flex their creativity in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. Through small groups with expert teachers and celebrated guest authors, the workshops have effectively helped a new generation find their collective voice and articulate truths that will carry them into adulthood.
The pandemic meant that the workshops couldn’t meet in person this month. But Unterberg Poetry Center Managing Director Ricardo Maldonado and Senior Program Coordinator Sophie Herron, who run the program, worked with faculty and staff to continue the workshops online. And this summer has been the program’s most successful yet, with record numbers of high school students enrolling from all over the country, and a sold-out workshop for middle school students ages 12-14.
“These students are serious writers — some of them won awards through Scholastic, some were recommended to the program by their teachers. They know that writing is something they want to embrace,” says Ricky, “and that there is a version of these kids as writers in the future. The level of talent in the group is remarkable, but what I love about this program — more, even, than the sense of surprise and energy and discovery that emerges as the students start digging into the course and engaging with the teachers — what I love is the way the groups start working together and create meaning together.”
Over the course of the three weeks, the students explored the work of writers like the novelist / memoirist Anelyse Chen, the poet José Olivares, and New York Times culture writer Jenna Wortham, before joining the authors for discussions over Zoom. They focused on the big issues that we’re grappling with right now: equality, equity, race — as well as universal topics like love, death, feeling like they’re being seen or understood, home (a group of friends or family members who ‘get’ them) — the big themes of life. And the community that sprung up in the classes — the same intimate, trusting, considerate community that Ricky and Sophie see emerge in all their writing programs — gave the students a safe place as they explored through writing who they are and how they respond to the world.
“The kids who come here know deep within that writing will replenish them, after what has been a seriously anxious couple of months,” says Ricky. “These students are part of a generation that is being forced to rethink how we live in the world, and how we react to it. What is writing if not a tool for that?”