Everyone is a writer
by Intern Cade Zehner
My time here at the Community Literacy Center has made me think about the communities I grew up in from a new perspective. I am from Jacksonville, Florida where I was born and raised, and where I’ll be moving back to after I graduate. Hoping to carry what I have experienced in the CLC back to my hometown, I have been examining what exists in my hometown with respect to literacy and community building. I found some not-so-positive information. The number of elementary school students in Jacksonville who have an appropriate level of reading for their grade is 42% compared to the state average of 52%. This could be the failure on the school board’s part. In a city with 209 public schools ranging from elementary to high school, it may be inevitable that some students are left behind. However, school is not the only place in which people can practice their literacy.
Literacy levels are dependent on the home as well. It's impossible for the school board to see what’s happening in everyone's home, so achieving higher literacy levels can become a community effort. There are some attempts already happening right now. Jacksonville mayor, Donna Decand, implemented a challenge to promote reading among elementary school students. This challenge is called River City Readers and asks students to read 20 minutes a day and log it online. There are prizes as an incentive for the students. Though this is a good idea, my work at the Community Literacy Center has taught me that providing the space and time isn’t enough. Kids need to see themselves as readers and writers. As facilitators with the CLC, we enter a room and consider everyone present already a writer. The basic trust in the room is that writers cannot do it wrong. There is intrinsic value in whatever they do. It's all a step forward, and the group applauds.
Community is important when it comes to literacy. If the community around these kids were to shift in a direction that prompted reading, that consistently applauded their forward steps -- not just with a contest -- then there might be some long-term change.
During my time at the CLC, I’ve seen men walk in who have never written anything create beautiful and raw pieces that I could have never imagined -- thanks to the open and accepting nature of the SpeakOut! workshops. Guidelines like don’t diss your own work and treating everyone in the room like a writer inspire people in ways that might seem implausible. While I commend the city of Jacksonville for working to augment literacy levels, to really make change we need these kids to understand that everyone is already a writer, reader, poet.
Hear All Voices
by Intern Kylynn White
“If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.” – Toni Morrison
As an intern at Harvest Farm, it is important to me that I leave a powerful impact on the writers. With the current state of the world, everyone must be educated on how they can express themselves in a way that is therapeutic to them and artistic. The main community literacy issue I see most prevalent today is whose stories are being told, more specifically how voices in marginalized communities can be more uplifted.
Recently, I read a chapter by Tiffany Rousculp in which she discussed how resources in Salt Lake City are offered to writers so they may share their voices and how there is a sense of accountability for them to be heard properly. I took it upon myself to see how I and other facilitators of writing workshops are accountable for making sure spaces where people are most vulnerable, can feel safe so that writers are encouraged to share. One of the prompts I had proposed to my group to relate a journey of growth that may have been uncomfortable for them -- but they persevered, nonetheless. Since Harvest Farm is a rehabilitation center, many of these writers have experienced substance abuse and have decided the best thing to do for themselves is to get sober and change their outlook on life. This prompt brought out a lot of strong emotions, reflection, and optimism as they contemplate a bright future ahead of them.
As a fellow writer and facilitator, it’s part of my responsibility to help them write about all of these feelings on the page, to get it out but to also share with the group. The SpeakOut! journal, published once a year, also features many writers who have endured struggles similar to theirs and a big part of accountability is helping those stories to be shared publicly so that many know they are not alone.
With this in mind, I prioritize the issue of uplifting voices by continuing to work in spaces to ensure that goal is possible. As someone who also comes from a marginalized community, I believe in the ability to progress in society even when it is limited and we are told not to do so. It is a form of resistance that I think is shown in many forms of writing and these writers at this site are capable of that without even realizing it until they put pen to paper.
At the beginning of this newsletter, I included a quote by Toni Morrison and I think it represents exactly what these writers do in every workshop. They can write whatever is on their mind to make their future dreams a reality. I know that this issue in community literacy will continue to prevail if writers like them are able to share what is on their minds.
To conclude I would like to leave you as the readers to think about the stories you have read in a SpeakOut! journal* or elsewhere -- and how they impacted you. Think about what change can be made to make sure that all stories of all voices are heard.
*To receive a current issue of the SpeakOut! journal, please write to clc@colostate.edu.
WRITER PROFILES
Ned Imagi (submitted by Danny Saldana)
The writers at Acqua are, as a whole, a staunchly democratic bunch. They like to talk to each other about any decision we make, they check in with each other before stating an individual request. But if there was to be a leader, or at the very least, a SpeakOut! representative from Acqua, it would be Ned Imagi (pen name). Imagi is a softspoken woman with a sharp wit and a dry sense of humor, whose attendance at every SpeakOut! meeting is a given. Wearing her long brown hair on the top of her head like a crown, she is always willing to share her writing, to break the ice, and (most crucially) give encouraging and specific feedback to each writer.
Imagi is a solid, immovable object on which I can rely; the writers know her, and she deftly uses her familiarity to coax new writers to share, or even simply to speak. I have benefited from her silently vouching for me through her actions an uncountable number of times. She writes about her asparagus plants budding, and how if she had armor it would be made of sparkles, and how “maybe contentment is a low-key form of joy,” and we have no choice but to follow in her wise, whimsical wake.
I think writers like Imagi teach us that whimsy and joy are not naive or immature, but instead immeasurably brave. She is distinct and only herself, to the point where after she shares, someone will always say, admiringly, “that is so you.” Holding onto who you are through life’s challenges is not always easy, but Imagi leads through example by expressing herself honestly through writing, and that is immeasurably valuable.
Nancy Wirshborn (submitted by Maddy King)
Nancy Wirshborn has been attending the SpeakOut! sessions almost as long as I have been doing them this year. She has an amazing voice and is always a truly amazing presence to have in the workshops. Nancy is a woman I met at Work Release, and she has submitted so many amazingly different pieces for the journal over the past 6 months we have been writing together. For a long time she was the only writer showing up at Women's Community Corrections, but she was always willing to share her writing and give feedback. She always talked about how much she loved this group and loved writing, and she was one of the first writers to want to publish something, which then encouraged so many other people to submit their work. Also, Nancy constantly was bringing in new people to Speakout! to write with us. She brought her roommates, friends, and just anybody who she thought could use some writing time! In the past couple of months Nancy was unable to attend the Speakout! workshop because of another meeting she had at the same time, so to communicate with us and submit writing she mailed the office a letter and gave another writer a letter to give to me. Even when she was not able to make it to the workshop Speakout was in her mind and her heart, and I really appreciate that.
Supporting Writers at Sterling Correctional Facility
CLC Director Dr. Tobi Jacobi and some CSU students have been bringing some of our vision of community writing and the SpeakOut! writing workshops to the Sterling Correctional Facility in Sterling, CO through the Unbound Authors program. Founded in March 2023 by co-founders Dr. Libby Catchings and returning citizen JoyBelle Phelan, Unbound Authors is an approved volunteer program within the Colorado Department of Corrections. The mission of Unbound Authors is "is to provide opportunities for incarcerated writers to imagine themselves as storytellers and sources of authentic knowledge, regardless of perceived skill, legal status, or formal Training." The Writing Center is available every first and third Sunday for two hours and often features lively conversation between writers on works in progress, time for creative thinking and writing, and dialogue about the range of writing publication venues that are accessible. In recent months, writers have explored humor writing, poetry, Gonzo journalism, braided essays, microfiction, and editorial writing. In the future, UA hopes to create publication opportunities for inside writers. The opportunity for some Fort Collins-based CSU volunteers to contribute to Unbound Authors has been wonderful. Want to volunteer? Learn more here: https://unboundauthors.org/
CONNECT WITH THE CLC
Applications accepted for volunteers for Fall 2025 -- We train in September!
OUR LATEST ISSUE
The 2025 issue of our SpeakOut! journal has just arrived and we are working on spreading over 600 copies throughout Colorado, the US... and the world! If you are willing to help distribute to a little library near you, or your dentist's office, a local school, or coffee shop -- let us know and we'll see how to make that happen!
This year, we had a special section from "Rough Writers" in the Torrington Medium Correctional Facility in Wyoming. This group came together thanks to support from the institution and the efforts of Sean Artisan (pen name) who once wrote with SpeakOut! in the Larimer County Jail. He recalled the many benefits he perceived from writing there, and petitioned the warden to allow him to run a weekly writing group ala SpeakOut! A section of the journal contains the writing that emerged from his group. We are happy that the beneficial writing that happens in SpeakOut! workshops has been carried forth by a 'graduate' of the program. Bravo, Sean!
Below please find some excerpts from the latest book -- or look for the full volume online at: https://speakoutclc.wordpress.com/journals/
Following selections are from the "Rough Writers" Workshops
by Gothic China Girl
Many thanks to our community partners at:
Larimer County Community Corrections and Work Release
Acqua Recovery
Harvest Farms
New drop-in program at Old Town Branch of Poudre Libraries
AND
The Dean's Office at the CSU College of Liberal Arts
The CSU English Department
Fountainhead Press/Top Hat
Poudre libraries
Do you want to volunteer to lead workshops?
Let us know at clc@colostate.edu and we're happy to talk to you! Or find one of our interns in the CLC office in Eddy 346A -- they'll be happy to tell you all about the challenges, the highs, and the lows (not too many of them!)
And take several copies of our journals to read, and then get them out into your world!
Please consider supporting our work!
The CLC creates alternative literacy opportunities to educate and empower underserved populations, and sponsors university-community literacy collaborations. Through our workshops, we confront stereotypes of men and women who are incarcerated, and other writers dealing with confinement or recovery. We circulate the stories and creative work of community writers through print and multi-media publications. We believe that such dynamic literacy activities are key to individual success, cultural awareness, and a more socially just world.
If you would like to become a volunteer in one of our programs, please let us know at clc@colostate.edu. We are always looking to add thoughtful volunteers to our team. We train!
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