Programs
The D.C. Creative
Writing Workshop, based at Charles Hart Middle School in Southeast
D.C., has united parents, teachers and students to create a literary
renaissance in this often ignored part of the city. Since 1995,
when Hart became the first school in Washington to have an extra-curricular
creative writing program, the Workshop’s writers-in-residence
have introduced thousands of students to the joys of self-expression
and the written word, opening for them a world of opportunity that
exists outside of the historically neglected area in which they
live. Hart students have attended readings, plays, and other literary
events, won dozens of writing awards, and enjoyed a wealth of new
experiences not otherwise available to young people in Ward 8.
In September
2004, the Workshop expanded its programs to Hart's nearby feeder
schools Simon Elementary and Ballou Senior High. Now, working in
a public-private partnership with the schools, the Workshop offers
over 600 hours of programming annually, both in class and after
school, to more than 600 students who attend Simon, Hart, and Ballou.
With the schools providing office space, utilities, and management
support, administrative costs are kept unusually low, allowing over
95% of the budget to be spent on the Workshop’s mission of
transforming the lives of youth.
Select a link
below to read more about one of our programs. You can scroll down
to view all of them.
In-Class
Instruction
After-School Programs
Teaching Tolerance Through
Literature
Reading Resource Center
Young Writers-in-residence
In-Class
Instruction
The D.C. Creative
Writing Workshop’s writers-in-residence work with teachers
in grades 4-12 to provide intensive literary instruction to students.
Each student keeps a personal creative writing portfolio to document
his or her progress throughout the year.
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After-School
Programs
After-school
programs are based at Hart and are open to all students, ages 5-18,
in the surrounding neighborhood. Participants in the Workshop’s
extra-curricular activities have the option of attending up to three
days a week of activities.
The
Writing Club
Students
work on a variety of projects throughout the year, writing poems,
short stories, essays and journals about art, photography, history,
society, and their identities.
Since the Writing
Club’s inception, Hart Middle School has developed a city-wide
reputation for artistic excellence, consistently fielding winners
in the Parkmont Poetry Contest, the Larry Neal Awards, the District
Lines Poetry on Metro Competition, and the Junior League Teen Poetry
Contest.
Many Writing Club graduates
have continued on to the prestigious Literary Media program at Duke
Ellington High School for the Arts.
Drama
Program
Each
year, students read and discuss a work of Greek drama, selecting
from among such classics as Euripides’ “Medea”
and Sophocles’ “Antigone.” The students then interpret
the play in their own words, updating it to create an original adaptation.
The D.C. Creative Writing Workshop hires a professional director
to assist the students in their production, and after months of
writing, memorizing lines, and rehearsals, the students perform
their work for their friends, their parents, and the surrounding
community.
Students see
up to eight plays each year at the Arena Stage and as many as three
productions by the Shakespeare Theatre. Participants have also seen
plays at the Studio Theater, the Source Theater, and the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and they receive regular
visits from theater professionals and educators.
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Literary
Magazine Program
Hart
students publish hArtworks, the nation’s only inner-city
public middle school literary magazine. hArtworks is featured
in the 2006 Poet’s Market as “an outstanding
example of what a literary journal can be (for anyone of any age).”
Each year, students produce three issues of hArtworks,
distributing over three hundred copies of each to classmates, teachers,
parents, and other members of the community. To celebrate the publication
of each issue, students give a reading at a local bookstore, offering
signed copies of their work for sale to audience members. Further,
students interview a published author for each issue of the magazine.
Featured writers have included Cornelius Eady, Alan Cheuse, Arnost
Lustig, Toi Derricotte, and Nikki Giovanni.
May 2005 marked
the debut of two new offerings from our Literary Magazine Program,
Simon Says, a literary magazine featuring the works of
students at Simon Elementary, and Voice of the Knight,
a literary magazine devoted to the writings from Ballou Senior High.
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Teaching
Tolerance Through Literature
Taking advantage
of a range of opportunities offered by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum, the D.C. Creative Writing Workshop has developed a six-week
unit of Holocaust studies that involves 100 students from Hart and
Ballou each year. Throughout this period of study, the students
work on their own creative responses to the moral and ethical issues
raised, which they then compile into a special issue of hArtworks,
“Reflections on the Holocaust.”
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Reading
Resource Center
With thousands
of books to choose, students are learning that reading doesn’t
have to be a chore. D.C. Creative Writing Workshop members have
found that reading can actually be fun! Students can choose any
selection from the Workshop’s library, including a variety
of popular children’s books, as well as biographies, sports
books, and young adult novels. There is no time limit for borrowed
books. Each child keeps a book for as long as necessary to enjoy
it fully. Then, after finishing a book, the student can return it
in trade for a new one. At the end of the school year, each participant
in our after-school programs may choose one book to keep permanently.
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Young
Writers-in-residence Program
Through our
Young Writer-in-residence Program, which we launched in October
2005, our target population is involved in implementing our work.
We hire motivated Ballou students, who are graduates of Hart and
the Workshop’s programs, to work three days per week at our
Hart after-school Writing Club, teaching and mentoring students.
The Ballou students also receive mentoring from Workshop staff,
build their writing portfolio, and develop career aspirations.

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