Mary proposes a writing workshop for the survivors of domestic abuse. This workshop aims to provide a safe, non-violent space for survivors of abuse to discover the voice within that may have been silenced due to a pattern of ill-treatment. Participants explore questions of identity, the weight of the past, and the promise of the future.
Naomi will lead the Oakhill Prison Russian Literature Reading Group. She seeks to enhance inmates’ critical communication skills through the reading and discussing of 19th and 20th century Russian short stories. These stories will provide an opportunity for the inmates to exchange ideas about life, art and experience.
Michael aims to combine history and civics through a multidisciplinary curriculum that focuses on corruption in Wisconsin. He emphasizes a hands-on approach to history in which students research a topic of their choice, collaborate with one another, and present their project to a public audience. Michael hopes that by practicing the craft of history through the theme of corruption, students will also improve their critical thinking, writing, and public speaking skills. Ultimately, the goal of his project is to help a younger generation to realize their role as citizens in promoting a healthy democracy.
The “Telling Our Stories” project is intended to mentor youth to discuss and creatively write about their parents’ history and how they came to Madison, Wisconsin. The project intends to discuss what daily challenges and rewards the youth experience growing up, and creates a space to share their future aspirations and goals. Stories, poetry, photographs and sound clips that will emerge from the writing workshops facilitated by campus graduate students and community educators. The Telling Our Stories Committee is comprised of Dinh Le, Aline Lo, Vanessa Merina, Mytoan Nguyen, Hong Tran and many other contributors.
Kristina aims to foster both interpersonal and textual dialogues in a safe and open environment for all members of Madison’s LGBTQ community. Participants in Reading Writing and Relating LGBTQ Narratives will exchange ideas about LGBTQ-authored literary texts, produce personal narratives in oral and/or written forms and engage in conversations about our lived experiences as LGBTQ people. This workshop will provide a space for both the reading and writing of LGBTQ narratives while foregrounding the importance of relating to each other without obscuring our differences.
Djurdja Trajkovic will lead a workshop with high school students at Goodman Community Center on how to make and publish cheap books out of recycle materials such as cardboard. The culmination of project is creating an alternative publishing house that will reflect students’ ideas expressed in the manifest written during the workshops.
Community partner: A community partner for this project is yet to be determined
Hilary Virtanen will work with Nuestro Mundo Community School in Madison’s East Side on curricular activities documenting the unique culture found at this dual immersion Spanish-English language elementary school. Virtanen will apprentice with faculty to develop and implement curricular activities that will be shared with other teachers through the UW Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures: Teachers of Local Cultures Program. A website presenting a year in the life of the school through the eyes of the students, as well as an explanation of Nuestro Mundo’s dual immersion model will also result.
Patricia Rengel will collaborate with Spanish speaking students at West High School to create podcasts in Spanish which celebrate their Latino identity. These podcasts are audio identity essays where the students talk about their language, culture and heritage. The “vozayos” (“voz” is voice and “ensayo” is essay in Spanish) will be posted on the school website so that students who are learning Spanish can not only hear authentic language but also learn more about their school community. Vozayos addresses gaps among Spanish speakers as well as Spanish language learners so that a stronger school culture can flourish.
Sense-ational Wright is an interactive and multimedia mapping project based at Wright Middle School. Emma and Andrew work with students to survey various layers of their schoolyard, including its visual and audio features, its cultural history, and its biological diversity. Throughout the project, students will collaborate with one another and invited guests to draw maps, record sound clips, survey vegetation, and interview local experts.
Anya works with high school students in William Gibson's 10th-grade World History class to include music into lessons about war, conflict, and current events. Through journal-writing exercises, an in-class conference, and a high school orchestra concert programming wartime music, students not only learn the value of interdisciplinary work, but improve both their writing and public speaking skills. They also learn how music constructs ideas about nationalities, race, gender, and other identities, especially in times of war and other conflicts.
The Poetry Circle aims first and foremost to create ongoing opportunities for the lively discussion of poetry. John plans to create a group who will read and discuss a variety of poetry selections, generating a dialogue both between the members of the poetry group and between the different texts, forms, and genres they encounter and respond to. Part of the philosophy behind this program is that poetry, too often thought of as a solitary pursuit for both writer and reader, often emerges from distinct communities, speaks to questions of community, and can be the starting place for new community interactions. Ideally the program will bring together a range of perspectives in its discussions, for instance combining students and adults in the community.
Olivia, Hannah and Annie lead seventh-graders at Georgia O’Keeffe Middle School through a series of interactive workshops. Students will critically consider how popular culture, personal relationships, and social situations shape their identities. The skills they practice here will enable them to initiate and contribute to unique discussions in their families, neighborhoods, schools and greater communities.
Jim and Sagashus aim to provide a space to engage adult students with culturally relevant instruction, particularly three groups of African-American males they have identified as being underserved. By teaching the history of slavery in a new way, with parallels to contemporary society, Sagashus and Jim hope to foster a social consciousness and an awareness of systems of social control in their students. Additionally, they hope to prepare these students for existing academic programming in Madison such as the Odyssey Project, the Omega School, Federal TRIO programs, and high school equivalency exams.
Community partner: A community partner has not yet been identified for this project.
English PhD candidate Mark Lounibos works with UW-Madison students to provide a series of intergenerational workshops on life-writing for elderly and low-income participants at the Madison Senior Center. The workshops consider various strategies for producing life-writing and then offer opportunities for participants to read, reflect, revise and ultimately publish their work in a digital format. This community building project intends to empower all participants and construct stronger links between students and residents.
Stephanie and Liz plan to promote literacy skills for women who have been marginalized, disenfranchised, or devalued, namely women of Madison's LGBT community. Using multiple forms of life-writing—short stories, graphic novels, documentaries, magazine articles, and television programs—Liz and Stephanie will promote critical reading skills coupled with the ability to recognize the diverse forms that self-expression, and expression of difference, can take.
Brett plans to study and perform the one-act play Un delantal blanco by Chilean playwright Sergio Vodanovic with intermediate to advanced Spanish language students from an underserved middle or high school in Madison. She hopes to stage the play in a place that is easily accessible and inviting to Madison’s native speakers of Spanish.
Community partner: A community partner has not yet been identified for this project.
