Many times over the years people have told us that for an organization with such a small staff and shoestring budget, we do a lot. That we're punching above our weight.
We're so thankful to be acknowledged for our work, and thankful when our work feels like it's serving the community. We always return to our gratitude for the thousands of creative, kind and open-minded people we've had the pleasure of working with.
It's a fun medium, too: the literary arts is everything connected to story, so one way or another... everything. With that in mind, we set out to do all kinds of projects that promote reading as information and insight; writing as freedom of expression; story as identity, memory and play.
Here is a brief list of our first ten years. Have you joined us as a writer, reader, listener, educator, volunteer, funder? Thank you, thank you. It's impossible to tell you how important your engagement is. If we threw a lit party and no one came--well, let's turn that around. You put the light in lit.
Some highlights
Phenomenal Women: Twelve Youngstown Stories, a book of oral histories of Black women ages 64-101
Words Made Visible: poems and stories by 80 Ohio-affiliated writers translated into 2D and 3D art, posters, handletter pressed broadsides and poetry stamped into sidewalks
Andrews Ave. Memory Mural, with the YSU art department, 500 ft. depiction of memories we collected from community members
Bilingual reading and Hispanic culture celebration with Cincinnati-Mexican-American poet Manuel Iris
CityVerse: a Youth Poetry Showcase with dozens of students from city public high schools, culminating in a $5000 scholarship for Lyric Saulsberry
Visit by food policy expert Mark Winne and a workshop with local food policy administrators
Uplifting Voices series, ongoing archived online readings celebrating (to date) Palestinian, Jewish, LGBTQ, Black women and immigrant writers
Annual donation to organizations promoting literacy, books in prisons, programs for underserved children
Pandemic purchase of 2,000+ books for children to keep and own: 760 kids in Alta Head Start plus city elementary schoolers working with tutors in YSU Project Pass
Partnered with Oakhill Collaborative to give laptops and IT support to writers in need
At Youngstown Playhouse, hosted the screening of The Place That Makes Us, a PBS documentary about Youngstown, along with a panel discussion including filmmaker Karla Murthy
With Cleveland playwright and theater director Mike Geither, hosted a theater stakeholders' roundtable for local administrators to develop collaborative practices
With Hopewell Theatre, produced Whitman & Brass, a performance of the private and public writing of Walt Whitman, and the music of his day
Pandemic programs including online book discussions and happy hours, and connecting children with long distance pen pals to promote conversation and connection
In partnership with Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County, NEA Big Read Grant for Into the Beautiful North by Luis Albert Urrea, about a Sinaloan girl who enters the U.S. searching for her father. Dozens of activities relating to immigration and cultural identity, including a visit from the author
Built a regionally recognized literary conference that has hosted over 1000 scholars, writers, editors and administrators from across the country
With historian Vince Shivers, led a Black History Tour of iconic people and places, with poetry readings by Quartez Harris
The annual Winter Writing Camp includes one hundred writers ages 5 and up in a fun day of creative expression
We have many more ideas for our next ten years, and with your engagement and support, we will continue to build on the local and regional literary tradition, and celebrate our communities' creativity and quality of life.
Thank you!
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