Kindle Farm welcomes Kathe Izzo and the Great River Arts Institute for student writing workshops
Kindle Farm welcomed writer and performance artist Kathe Izzo back to campus for our second year of VOICES teen radio writing workshops. Students participated in four two-hour workshops, each focusing on a different topic. This year's topics included "freedom", "control", "I remember", "psychic powers", and "change", among others. Led by Kathe, students spent long chunks of time writing, followed by reading their work to each other. More impressive than the writing itself was the positive support offered to those reading: classmates who read their work would immediately be met by applause and positive and constructive comments on their work. Every student who participated was chosen to record their work for public broadcast on WOOL FM this summer. You can check out the VOICES website and listen to our students under "season 2". All of their work has also been displayed on a blog of the workshops.
Here are a few samples:
"As time goes by, our bodies grow.
With time, our attitudes change and then we react differently.
Then everything else changes.
Everything is made up of cells. Cells multiply and die.
Change happens in everything. We are made of change."
-From "Change", written by Kyle J.
"I remember that day.
The day with the girl.
I remember her dirty-blonde hair.
I remember her hazel green eyes.
I remember her.
She was a girl; the girl who I stayed up with and the night felt different.
Not like what you would expect from a person like me.
I remember her hanging on me.
I remember that feeling that had died in me."
- From "I Remember", written by Chris Y.
"If you don't fight for your rights,
you will always be kicked around and bullied.
And you don't want to be bullied your whole life.
So when you’re being pushed around, show your superior intellect.
Because most bullies are stupid Neanderthals.
Fighting back with your fists won't solve any of your problems."
- From "Change", written by Jared L.
