They can write about anything.

"Write everyday. Regaining momentum takes three times as much energy as sustaining momentum." - Daniel H. Pink (via @AdviceToWriters)

I'm going to try and make writing my priority this semester. Really, really, really. It makes me so sad when I can't. Or that last semester I couldn't as much as I wanted to. For now, I'll just post another excerpt from my final story (which got an A, btw! I picked it up from my professor a couple of days ago). I ran into Cedric Bolton today, actually, and he said he found my blog during break, which I didn't expect, lol. I guess all it takes, though, is a Google search of "Verbal Blend" and "college." I'll be following up with him soon to learn about their plans for this semester. Anyway, another excerpt. At this rate, I should just post my whole story, right?

Within the past year, Bolton and Verbal Blend members have traveled to local schools to conduct similar workshops and provide a forum for young students to express themselves. Bolton collaborates with Marcelle Haddix, an assistant professor in the School of Education with a Ph.D. in literacy, language, and learning. Haddix moved to Syracuse three years ago and immediately decided to commit her time to community work. “One of the things I noticed right away was that there was a need for writing,” she says. “Parents and community members were really concerned with writing achievement, particularly of African American youth.” In response, Haddix created the “Writing Our Lives” project, an annual writers’ conference open to middle school and high school students.

This year, students and Verbal Blend poets rose early one sunny Saturday morning in November to go to Hughes Elementary School, a magnet school in the Syracuse city school district. The second annual “Writing Our Lives” conference attracted more than 120 students in the sixth to 12^th grades. Workshops provided guidance in topics such as journalism, comics, and fiction writing. Older students registered for “Writing the College Essay.” Bolton led “Discovering your Voice,” with four Verbal Blend poets, including Hawkins. “I always had a passion for the public education system because I grew up in it, so I know that everything isn’t always as it should be,” she says.

Bolton prepares large sheets of white paper on the stage. Time to brainstorm. “What are the things you want to give voice to in your communities?” he asks the shy students who sit around the red octagonal tables of the cafetorium. He waits. He sighs. “It’s going to be a long morning,” he says, when the students hesitate to answer. Slowly, they gain confidence and begin to raise their hands. Vandalism, gangs, racism, violence, teenage pregnancy, hip hop, bullying, hatred, drugs, single parent homes, sports, love, multiculturalism. They can write about anything, even the kind of men and women they want to be in ten years. Professor, Grammy winner, architect, business owner, forensic scientist, surgeon, lawyer, mother, father, responsible, independent, strong, happy.

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To put the excerpt in perspective, the city of Syracuse currently not only suffers from poverty, crime, and underdevelopment, but from, like many cities in the US, a poor education system! This recent study, A Call for Change: The Social and Educational Factors Contributing to the Outcomes of Black Males in Urban Schools, applies; many African-American families live in the city. Many children from those families (and children who represent other minority groups) attend Fowler High School, recently reported to have the worst graduation rate in New York State--an astounding 33 percent, according to the Post-Standard. Lately, local groups and initiatives have dedicated themselves to mentoring and tutoring students in the nearby neighborhoods--including a few from Syracuse University. Verbal Blend is one of those groups. And though they can't fix the system, small gestures such as the one described above prove meaningful and worthwhile.