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Dena Riegel - TR Volunteer I’ve planned on being a volunteer at The Telling Room since I moved to...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:05:00 -0400

Dena Riegel - TR Volunteer

I’ve planned on being a volunteer at The Telling Room since I moved to town years ago. I remember learning about it and I immediately wanted in. Trouble was, I was still coming out of the “I can’t imagine writing again!” phase that sometimes comes after college, when every 15-page essay is a masterpiece completed only under extreme pressure, some healthy immature procrastination, and heavy judgment. The writing high was great when completed, but I really needed a breather. Even though I loved writing, I didn’t think I’d be a great role model:

“Hey, kids. To be honest with you, I’m pretty burnt out about this stuff at the moment. Um. How do YOU feel about writing outside of school?”

Fast-forward 6 years, and I’m on a TR field trip – maybe my favorite thing about my own school-gal days – as a volunteer. The teacher plays his harmonica like a benevolent Pied Piper, and the kids look over their shoulders after he tells them to explore, not quite believing that someone won’t scold them for playing with the old-fashioned type-writer or for leafing through the books or plopping down on the couch. A few catch my eye, expecting a reprimand, and instead I smile at them. It’s a lot of fun to goad kids to do what they do so well- snoop and explore and touch everything – in a space made just for them.

I suppose I feel sort of the same as those kids. The TR Writing Studio, with it’s perfectly bohemian rice-paper lanterns, scholarly Turkish rugs, cozy chairs pulled up to farm tables (like doing homework at the dinner table), and shelves full of old favorites – Island of the Blue Dolphin, Hatchet, The Giver, is set up as an invitation to be at once internal, creative, quiet, and also sharing, social, and friendly.

There’s the space, and then the staff, which make the atmosphere so entirely comfortable – they’re so much fun, which shouldn’t be surprising. These are people who can get children excited about an activity that involves sitting still. They make every volunteer feel like a celebrity guest speaker. The things that kids say when they sit down to a writing prompt remind me that my adulthood, in many ways, is trying to remember some of the wisdom I had when I was ten.

One True Thing

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:30:00 -0400

Patty Hagge, writer in residence

Every week I offer a prompt to begin our staff meeting. This week I brought the Ernest Hemingway quote, “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”

I suggested that everyone write one true thing, the truest thing that you know. When I got blank stares, I said, “Start writing something, anything, and when one word seems particularly heated to you, ask yourself what your story is about that word. For example, if you write, that snowstorm was crazy, you might say, what is my story of crazy, and write that sentence. If you keep this up you might find something that rings true to you right now.”

Then I said, “Okay, go!” which is always my favorite prompt. There was some sighing and eye rolling, and someone whispered under their breath, “This is hard…” but everyone started writing. I let them write for five minutes or so, then asked them to choose something to share.

There was some hesitation, so I read mine, “I love the feeling of someone loving me, and it feels like a warm blanket.”

Here is what the rest of the staff said:

“Things are always changing.”

“You always will feel the sun on your back again.”

“All of the best moments in my life happened without any planning.”

“I wanted to sit in the sun, but that meant I was turned away from my sons playing on the floor. There are times when I want to be in two places at once.”

“We are dreamers.”

“It is easier to imagine the truth in the future than to speak the truth in the present.”

What is your one true thing?

Zombie Apocalypse

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:15:15 -0400

Jean Martens - Volunteer

“We don’t like to write,” said the eighth grade boy, arms folded on the small round table along with two of his peers. “It’s hard for us when we’re in class and have to write - we’re more into science and math.” “Oh”, I nodded understanding.

Shortly thereafter we walked along Wharf St. in the Old Port, along with classmates and a handful of adults. The assignment was to find a story in this block of cobblestones and historic buildings, and to take a photo of where that story takes place. The air was mixed with questions, becoming electric with possibility as boys and girls let their imaginations run wild.

“I’ll bet there are zombies down there!”, one student remarked, looking through a dirty window to a vacant room below the street level. As in other “field trips” I have volunteered for, participants are welcome to use words, ideas and even photos taken by another that spark their creativity. Collaboration is welcome. Within moments a group gathered by the window, interrupting one another with stories of what they imagine is happening with the zombies in the empty room.

Back inside, sprawled on couches and sitting at tables, many of the boys began to write stories and draw pictures of what several called, “The Zombie Apocalypse”. The room was quiet except for the hum of these and other stories coming to life on paper and laptop.

All too soon came the call to pack up and form a closing circle. Boys were overheard excitedly sharing their first paragraphs on google docs with each other, planning a sleepover that night to continue writing their stories.

Such is the magic of a supportive context, encouragement, inspiration and freedom that unfolded the arms of these students and unleashed their creativity.

Poetry Field Trip

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:11:43 -0500

Jean Martens - TR Volunteer

Pencils on paper,

I remember…

I forget…

Events of 4th grade lives,

details weave memories.

Words being erased by

a hand with nails painted,

some coral, some lime.

Birth of a brother,

a parade, a cookout,

finding a five leaf clover,

non-competitive.

However much you wrote

is perfect for you.

Sharing the writing with a partner:

What’s missing?

What do I want to hear more of?

What to take out to find

the real essence?

The harmonica sounds,

fingers snap,

changes from sloppy copy

to final copy.

No wrong answers!

Photo

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:30:32 -0500

Emily Baer - Development Assistant We are pleased to announce a...

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:34:08 -0500

Emily Baer - Development Assistant

We are pleased to announce a new partnership with the Old Bug Light Foundation and $10,000 in support of our Telling Room Teaching Artist Initiative. Through this initiative, we give our students direct access to professional writers and artists who provide unparalleled instruction in the art of writing. This instruction occurs primarily in three of our programs: Afterschool Workshops, Young Writers and Leaders, and In School Residencies.

Telling Room Afterschool Workshops cover everything from poetry, to hip-hop, to personal essay or fantasy fiction, and challenge young storytellers to think differently about writing and the spoken word. An incredible cadre of professional writers and artists lead our workshops, divulging the secrets of their trades in the process.

Young Writers & Leaders (YWL) is a free, afterschool literary arts program for teenaged refugee and immigrant English Language Learners. The program runs for nine months each year, engaging each student in weekly afterschool sessions that provide: creative writing and arts programming, job skills and leadership training, and one-on-one literacy tutoring and college prep assistance. Each year, YWL students are paired with a professional writer or artist from the community who serves as a mentor and coaches them through their creative writing experience.

And, our In School Residencies provide the opportunity to work with us for an extended period–usually six to twelve sessions–on an intensive writing curriculum built around our yearly theme. Local writers and artists lead exciting and dynamic sessions for students of all ages and create the opportunity for students to work alongside their creative heroes and peers and creative colleagues.

Each of these three branches of programming offers students across Maine unparalleled opportunities to work directly with some of Maine’s best writers and artists and provides an invaluable creative experience for both our students and the professional writers and artists they work with.

The Telling Room has a strong history of bringing professional artists into local classrooms, allowing students the chance to develop their ideas under the guidance of adult mentors actively engaged in perfecting their craft and wholly dedicated to the idea that storytelling can be a powerful and transformative act. From the beginning, we have sought to engage teaching artists in a very real way and we strive to pay them equitable wages for their time and talent. We rely on their energy and enthusiasm to create exciting and engaging programming and to provide students with a vivid idea about what it means to be creative person in the real world.

In working with Teaching Artists to tell their stories, students are able to take ownership of their ideas, take responsibility for their creative impulses, and gain the confidence to engage in productive social discourse to advance and protect their sense of community, wellbeing, and tolerance. And, working with real writers allows students to begin to feel like writers, already fully functioning members of an artistic community. Similarly, Teaching Artists gain immeasurably from the energy and curiosity of their students. By bringing together the two ends of the creative–the novice and the expert–we are able to create an environment of creative alchemy, a place where magic happens on and off the page and lives are changed in the process.

The Art Department Andrew Griswold - Communications Director Our...

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:08:00 -0500

The Art Department

Andrew Griswold - Communications Director

Our fall residency at King Middle School wrapped up a few weeks ago in exciting fashion. After eight sessions of intensive writing over two months, we switched gears and turned Marcia Salem’s classroom into a publishing house art department, asking her twenty ELL middle schoolers to help imagine the layout of their forthcoming chapbook. This was the first time we’ve tried this in a TR intensive-in the past, students wrote with us and submitted their stories, but they had little input into the bookmaking process. We’d take their words with us on the last day and appear a month later with a tidy book to show off to their family and friends. We decided that model should change.

After choosing a title for the the book as a class last week, we arrived on the last day with three cover concepts for the students to evaluate. In small groups, they worked out which of the three images best fit the theme of their work: “dreams of the future.” It was incredible to hear what came from those discussions.

The students are first-year english speakers who often have trouble finding the right words to express their ideas, but this activity had them buzzing, debating, and sketching alternatives to what we’d presented. They added elements to further our basic concepts, changed font layout and colors, and made great arguments about why some images reflected their writing better than others. They also tackled the book’s interior, deciding to include author photos and bios, choosing fonts and laying out a story page template. We had no idea this work would appeal to them at all!

We love presenting student work to our young writers in a pretty package, but we’re even more excited to do it with their input. I can’t wait to see how this group will react when they see their concepts become reality. More to report after our book party late this month…

Writing Center Roundup

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:25:00 -0500

Heather Davis - Executive Director

I’m often surprised to discover that many people have not heard of 826 National when I talk to them about The Telling Room. Like The Telling Room, they got their start in the early 2000s, and they offer free creative writing programs for kids. They now have chapters in eight cities around the country and have inspired many other free, community-based writing programs around the world. Those include Fighting Words in Dublin, StudioSTL in St. Louis, The Desert Island Supply Company in Birmingham, Alabama, and many others.

I am particularly inspired by and proud of the work done by Austin Bat Cave in Texas, an organization I co-founded in 2006. I fell in love with teaching writing in college, and it’s remained a lifelong passion. Knowing that so many communities have resources like The Telling Room is a source of happiness for me. I dream about the day when there will be a national conference for all of these writing centers to come together, learn from one another, and share stories, insight, and inspiration.

Recently, I learned about another writing program in New York City called Writopia Lab. Their work is so inspiring! In the past few years, kids in their programs have won top honors at the annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competitions for young writers and artists.

People ask me all the time if there are resources like us for their kids in various places throughout the world, and I’m so glad the answer is yes. Next time you’re in San Francisco, Dublin, Birmingham, or Austin, stop by one of these great centers and show some support for the very important work they are doing. And, of course, while you’re in Portland, stop by and see us too. We’d love to show you what we’re up to!

Publishing Workshop

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:56:46 -0500

John Holdridge- Creative Director

I’m sitting in the 5th floor conference room of 225 Commercial St. I’m a fly on the end of a table and I’m observing one of our weekly publishing workshops. At the other end of the table sits Grace, a 13 year-old writer from Mahoney Middle School, and three members of our publishing team: Molly McGrath, Director of Publishing for the Telling Room, and Editorial Interns Alyssa Donovan from Deering High School and Meghan Kelly from Portland High School. All four gather around copies of Grace’s story and dissect the piece she has been working on since attending a Telling Room summer camp this past July.

In the time that has passed since the summer camp, Grace has worked on the story on her own, met with Patty Hagge, our Writer in Residence, and met twice with the editorial team. The scene at their end of the table is inspiring. There is an atmosphere of support in the room and a clear respect for the craft of writing. They all recognize the role that editing and revising play in the process of publishing solid work. They’re talking about wonderfully geeky writer things like active and passive voice, transitive verbs, modifiers, potential subplots, alternative endings, and symbolism. The editors are suggesting possible changes to make the piece stronger and the author is considering everything they say. This is one of those moments where I’m saying to myself, “This is it. This is why The Telling Room exists.”

Dispatch from the TR's Publishing Workshop

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:25:00 -0500

Molly McGrath, TR Director of Publications

Recently, I spent a Wednesday afternoon with a few student writers in the TR’s 5th floor publishing think tank space on Commercial Street, editing a few contenders for submission in this year’s annual anthology. We got to talking about proofreader’s marks, including the paragraph symbol. Here’s an email from one of our editorial interns, a senior at Deering High School, who decided she needed to get to the root of it—because we really are that nerdy about writing:

Hi! I just reminded myself to look up the origin of the paragraph symbol. This is what I found:

It’s called a “pilcrow.”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word pilcrow ”apparently” originated in English as an unattested version of the French pelagraphe, a corruption of paragraph; the earliest reference is c.1440.

In form, the pilcrow is understood to have originated as a letter C, for capitulum, “chapter” in Latin. This C was theparaph symbol that replaced in the function of marking off paragraphs the Greek-style paragraphos, and other symbols including the section sign. Moreover, the paraph also could be marked with a full-height sign similar to ¢ (cents) or with a double slash, originally symbols indicating a note from the scribe to the rubricator.^[2]

Here’s an image showing the possible evolution of the pilcrow from the capitulum.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Pilcrow-history.svg/220px-Pilcrow-history.svg.png

See you in a couple weeks!

Molly HaleyDirector of Multimedia and Community Outreach This...

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:41:53 -0500

Molly Haley
Director of Multimedia and Community Outreach

This past summer, I taught a Documentary Summer Camp to 6-12th graders at The Telling Room. During the week, students learned how to approach strangers, how to interview them while taking notes with notebooks and pens, how to take portrait photographs, and how to audio record their voices. Guest speakers came in and talked about what it was like to be a professional reporter, photographer or audio producer. At the end of the week, the students presented their photo essays, multimedias and vox pops to a crowd of over 50 parents, friends, staff and volunteers.

On the first day of camp I crossed Commercial Street and headed down Widgery Wharf with three timid students. They had been given the assignment of approaching someone who looked interesting to them, introducing themselves, and asking them some questions. The students knocked on a white shack with freshly painted polka dots, and waited for an answer.

From across the wharf a voice shouted, “He ain’t there. What’cha want?” Toby, Lily and Fiona turned to see an older man perched at the top of a ladder leaning on the adjacent shack, paintbrush in hand. Nervously, the students walked over to the man, notebooks in hand. Toby introduced himself as a Telling Room student who was interested in asking him a few questions about the history of the wharf and the current standing of the lobster industry. The man agreed to answer anything, saying he knew more about the wharf than just about anybody. As he told them what he knew, the students took notes, and quickly became more comfortable with this man who moments before had been a complete stranger to them. His name was Jackie Grant.

Walking away from him after almost an hour long conversation, the students remarked at how kind he was, how they hadn’t ever spoken to a fisherman or gotten to know one, and that they had changed their minds about a lot of things after their conversation.

Throughout the rest of the week the students continued to meet people from Portland – bakers, street musicians, bankers, Big Foot enthusiasts, jewelry makers and furniture sellers alike. But Toby couldn’t stop wondering about Jackie Grant. He wanted to know more. He decided to try and find Jackie again, and create his final multimedia piece about him.

This time, Toby and I found Jackie at the very end of the wharf, ocean at his back, painting another shack. He recognized Toby right away and was happy to see him. Toby asked Jackie questions about his own life on the sea. They boarded a docked lobster boat and Jackie showed Toby how it all worked, and Toby snapped many photographs. I watched as the two became friends, and learn from each other.

At the end of camp, what the students told me they realized was that everyone, no matter their job, age, lifestyle or outward appearance, has a story to tell. The students were surprised at the kindness and openness of the people in Portland, and I believe those 21 students, aged 12 to 18, felt more a part of the community at the end of that week than they had before.

Toby’s multimedia that he created during camp went on to place as a semi- finalist in the NYC Digital Waves Multimedia Slam, hosted by WNYC and Blunt Youth Radio. To hear Toby’s perspective on Jackie, take a look at the finished product here.

Dreaming at King Middle School John Holdridge- Creative...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:02:00 -0500

Dreaming at King Middle School

John Holdridge- Creative Director

One of the great things about working at The Telling Room is that we often get to co-teach with our fellow staff members. For the past several weeks, Andrew Griswold and I have been co-teaching a residency at King Middle School with our newest Telling Room staff member, Hakim Kodi. Hakim is with us as an AmeriCorps volunteer whose focus this year is to develop his own teaching skills and to support the multi-lingual students with whom we work. We’re currently five weeks into our residency with Marcia Salem’s class of English Language Learners at King, in the same classroom where Hakim started his education in the U.S. He recently graduated from UMaine Farmington.

This residency is amazing in so many ways. The first is that in addition to three of us, we walk into the room each day with five volunteers who have arranged their schedules so they can be with us each day. This allows us to work one on one with students, or close to it, during each activity. The second is that we’re working on an idea of Hakim’s and basing student writing around the question, “What is a dream?” We’re encouraging the students to imagine what is possible for them in the future. The third is that Hakim is stepping up to the plate and taking ownership of the lead teaching after several days of observing Andrew and me. Yesterday, Hakim started the class by telling the students his wonderful story about the dreams he had when he was their age and how he worked to achieve them.

After Hakim told his own story, we began the process of talking and writing with students about their own dreams for the future, about what obstacles might stand in the way, and how they might overcome them. As I walked around the room, I heard dreams about learning English, going to college, returning to Iraq to rebuild the country, flying planes, being a doctor and playing professional soccer. Over the next few weeks, we’ll help our newest writers craft their dreams into pieces that are worthy of publication. A few weeks after deadline, we’ll return to celebrate the release of their own book of dreams. As we support these students, we’ll also continue to support Hakim as he develops his teaching skills so he can achieve his next dream, The Peace Corps.

Patty Hagge - Writer In Residence It’s Tuesday, so here I sit on...

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:18:00 -0400

Patty Hagge - Writer In Residence

It’s Tuesday, so here I sit on the The Telling Room’s sunny brown couch plunking away on my computer. The couch once belonged to my mother, Rosalie. In 2006, when the staff of Oceanview, an assisted living facility in Falmouth, told my three siblings and I that Rosalie needed to be in an Alzheimer’s unit, we moved her to a smaller room in a facility in Concord, NH. There was no room for the couch there. We gave the couch to the Telling Room. The couch is well worn but its life has been extended with a new brown cover from Ikea.

I have been involved at The Telling Room for six years. I have done a vast variety of tasks: screwed together chairs, urethaned tables, and taught and mentored students. But last year I started hearing outside voices calling me. My study with its wooden desk and comfy writing chair was trying to lure me into its lair. If quiet can call, it was calling me too. It was calling me to find more quiet in my life, with the lure that in the quiet I could find the words to write about my mother.

Last spring, I had lunch with Heather and told her that I was going to quit (if a volunteer can quit—I guess I mean stop coming). But she said that she didn’t think The Telling Room was ready to let me go and really I wasn’t ready to leave.

After she asked me, “In a perfect world, what would you want to do at The Telling Room?” I suddenly knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be the first writer in residence. Molly McGrath has dreamed for years that some day The Telling Room would have a thriving, much sought after writer-in-residence program. She would like to see writers hanging out in The Telling Room, offering their creative ideas into the stew that is The Telling Room’s programs, projects and madness. She sees them popping into all the programs to offer their hard won writer’s wisdom or to discuss the real world, present moment struggles they have in their own writing.

So, here I am. I come in on Tuesdays because that’s when staff meetings are. I listen in on all the discussion and when I have something to add from either my historic perspective (I am now the person who has been around here the longest) or a writer’s perspective I do.

I also hope to work with any student who wants to work one on one with me, or work with students whose work has been recommended for publication.

When staff meeting is over and after I have heard the latest office gossip over lunch, I try to crawl through the wormhole to where my writing lives and tinker away. I am writing a series of personal essays. My mother died peacefully the summer before last with all her children present. For a while, I thought I was writing just about her, but to make sense of our relationship, I have to write about my whole life. And when I get tired of me and my life, I write about Buddhism, astronomy and anything else that helps me find the way into the story. Writing has quieted the siren voices.

Game on!John Holdridge- Creative Director I believe it was the...

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:20:00 -0400

Game on!
John Holdridge- Creative Director

I believe it was the early ’90s when Wayne and Garth popularized the age old neighborhood cry, “Game on!” This call was the signal that the traffic had passed and it was safe to take to the streets to play once again. I’m feeling a little like that this morning. We’re usually about a month behind schools in getting our game on, not because we want to be, but because it takes a little while for the traffic of the new school year to settle into a pattern. Families spend the month of September settling into the new normal and once that happens, they answer our call to come and play.

There’s so much going on here that it’s hard to know where to start. Here’s a brief list:

-Our Wednesday afternoon WordPLAY sessions have welcomed 15-20 students each time we’ve opened the doors to this open studio program.

-Our first afterschool workshop has middle school students writing and creating head adornment in the Maine College of Art studios in preparation for First Friday on November 2nd. (see photos)

-We started our first residency with 20 amazing students in King Middle School’s ELL program and made our initial residency visit with an equally amazing group of students at Gorham High School. This year we broadened our residency focus to include not only writing, but publication as well. Students will have a hand in all aspects of creating and publishing their own chapbook.

-Our Young Writers and Leaders program kicked off last night with 15 high school students who were selected through a rigorous application process.

-Our Field Trip season began when we welcomed two classes from Hall Elementary School who were temporarily displaced due to complications from a fire on their campus.

On top of all of that, we’re about to offer a daylong session on college essay writing, our Night Owl master classes have taken flight, we’re making plans to put student writing in METRO buses, we’re partnering with Meridian Stories on a statewide writing and digital media challenge, and our remaining fall workshops are filling up faster than we can create spaces in them. So if you haven’t yet made it to one of our programs or events, now’s the time. The traffic patterns have been determined, the streets are safe and all is clear. “Game On!”

Peaks Island Book Release Party John Holdridge- Creative...

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:43:00 -0400

Peaks Island Book Release Party

John Holdridge- Creative Director

If you’re one of the 10,000 CMP customers who lost power last Tuesday night then you know the weather was pretty fierce. You were probably aware of the wonders of nature even if you didn’t lose power, but wherever you fall on the continuum, I’m writing to say that the high winds and rain didn’t stop a group of hearty Peaks Islanders from walking and biking to the Peaks Island Library and Community Center for the much awaited release of Sea Glass: Poems From Peaks Island School.

This collection of original poetry was penned by Peaks Island students who participated in a residency with Telling Room writers and their teacher Robin Walden at the end of last year. In the time that passed, summer came and went, we published their book, and the 5th graders became 6th graders who now venture across the bay on the 7:15 boat to King Middle School. Lucky them!

As is often the case, that night I felt pretty fortunate as I joined students and their families to celebrate young people as writers, artists, thinkers and creators with unique perspectives and important things to say about the world. The fact that we know they have something to say is the reason we make a point of publishing student work and assembling authentic audiences to hear them read. Above are photos of a few of the authors who read for the audience.

SEA GLASS

by Jameson Childs

I see a box made of crystal

with a piece of sea glass inside

as smooth as a river stone,

as small as a fingernail,

as aquamarine as can be.

This is the ocean’s finest gift.

Excerpted from OUTSIDE

by May Winter

When my hair gets blown to the side,

into my eyes and onto my paper,

my thoughts run wild and so do I.

I run like those wild horses do when they are afraid.

I run.

I feel that I have run so far,

but no,

I have only stayed still,

just running in my mind.

Exerpted from WALKING BAREFOOT

by Violet Robinson

Barefoot,

Soft sand squishing up between my toes,

the waves crashing against my ankles,

the waves are pulling me out to sea,

to tell me its secrets.

The light sea spray,

spraying me with inspiration,

telling me to follow my heart’s desire.

Sacred Space Kelsey Conroy - TR Summer Intern September seemed so far away during those wide-eyed...

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 14:35:00 -0400

Sacred Space

Kelsey Conroy - TR Summer Intern

September seemed so far away during those wide-eyed days of May when my internship at the Telling Room was just starting, before I realized that although the seconds seem to hold eternities, the months slip through your fingers. Yet here I am, in the final stretch, glancing retrospectively on a summer full of laughter, the occasional chaos, and those moments that leave you standing still in wonder.

The Telling Room is a sacred space where stories are more than words on a page, where pen and pencil are merely the instruments with which we learn to listen, to see, to know one another. At the surface, the Telling Room is a community writing center, a space where greater Portland youth can come to hone their writing skills, to exert their creative energies, and to produce stories where audiences are willing and eager to appreciate student work. Beyond this, the Telling Room—through the means of written word—allows students to experience the world in a new, authentic, and revitalizing way, strengthening not only their writing, but also their understanding of themselves.

In my time here, I’ve had the privilege to see this again and again—in the field trips with students from elementary to high school, at WordPlay, through workshops, during summer camps, and within our presentations at Pilgrim Lodge. There’s the high school boy, an athlete, a hunter, who arrived apathetic about writing and left in awe of himself, after reading aloud a deeply perceptive piece to his classmates who until then had viewed him in only one light. There’s the second grade girl, working one-on-one with a volunteer, telling a highly imaginative story about a pig, an owl, and a lighthouse, fueled by her own excitement. There are three middle school boys who scoffed at writing and blamed their mothers for dragging them to documentary camp, huddled together on a couch animatedly working with editing software to create a polished audio piece about Big Foot. There’s an ELL student from Kenya sharing a facet of herself she had always kept hidden, and realizing that often, when we take the risk to become vulnerable, we experience the greatest reward.

I savor the small moments when students cross from the desolate place of thinking themselves incapable to knowing and believing in their potential. You can see it in their eyes, their faces, as they rise shakily from their seat to stand in front of a room full of their hushed peers, a barely discernible quaver in their voice as they read aloud their story, their words, that piece of themselves they release to the universe. And inevitably, a smile will appear on those lips while the air is filled with applause, for they have recognized the comfort and fulfillment that comes with the gift of being able to share your story with the world.

We need places like The Telling Room, where the silence is thick with ideas, where introspection offers an opportunity to shift your perspective of yourself, others, and the world around you. In sharing our thoughts, our words, our stories, we discover the fragments of ourselves that make us whole, from which we derive understanding, connection, and empathy with those who listen. The Telling Room teaches us that we must remain impervious to nothing, for when we begin to share our stories, we make the world more human and more fraternal. I have the greatest confidence that for all the students who have filtered through the studio and those who have yet to come, The Telling Room will be able to offer them much more than pencil and paper; it offers the possibilities that arise when we begin to believe in our potential as writers, believe that we are capable of far more than we ever thought possible, and believe that our experience is meaningful and significant and somehow worth sharing.

Beach Camp Justin Pease - TR Volunteer One might hear of a...

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 15:11:58 -0400

Beach Camp

Justin Pease - TR Volunteer

One might hear of a summer camp called Four Days, Four Isles: Beach Writing & Art in the Casco Bay Islands and worry about the weather holding up (it being in Maine and all); one might even think anything less than sunny beach weather would make for a lousy experience for a group of 16 youngin’s and their accompanying helper-adults, but–-boy-howdy—one would be wrong.

I was lucky enough to be one of two volunteers chosen to accompany Molly McGrath (as well as the special guests John Holdridge and Patricia Hagge who each hosted us on their native islands) as she lead a large group of young ladies onto a ferry, over the bay, and onto an island and its beaches, 4 days in a row, in order to experience a side of Maine as indicative of our heritage and uniqueness of state as any stereotyping moose, lobster, or “ayuh.” My experience was much like that which our young ones seemed to have—it was exciting, mind expanding, peaceful, beautiful, creative, authentic. The weather ranged from sunny and hot—what one might consider perfect beaching weather—to a thunderous, hail-pelting downpour. Both scenarios inspired creativity and narrative in our campers as vigorous as the white capped waves we watched with awe.

The campers, as well as adults, were obliged to write and create at every turn. Prompts awaited us as we gathered for the ferry, readings inspired us at the start and end of each day, bottles awaited our deeply introspective thoughts, notebooks were filled, paints were spilled, and minds were tilled. It was a beautiful camp. Molly Mcgrath truly spanned the possibilities in preparing stimulating experiences for these young artists—not a single camper went without the joy of creation in such beautiful island nature-studios. Every one bonded, every one learned, every one was given an opportunity few outside of Maine enjoy. As poetically poised as some of our young geniouses’ words was the view from the final beach, on the backside of Peaks, on which we wrote as a comfortable community of salty, seasoned artists: the ocean and the sky, both a shade of faded pencil gray, met at an almost unfathomable horizon reflecting the infinite, creative potential each writer was coming to know of herself as she gazed from Maine to the beyond.

It was awesome.

Thanks Molly. Thanks The Telling Room.

Sincerely,

Justin

Ian Bannon from Figures of Speech Theatre speaks with students...

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:34:06 -0400

Ian Bannon from Figures of Speech Theatre speaks with students from the Portland Hive.

Crossroads and Connections

John Holdridge- Creative Director

When the Maine Alliance for Arts Education, the Maine Department of Education, and the Maine Arts Commission designated The Telling Room Maine’s 2011 Imagination Intensive Community they said, “The Telling Room has evolved into a community that reaches beyond its own doors to collaborate with a wide variety of local and regional partners, including a number of schools and districts, Portland Public Library, Portland Ovations, and artist educators.” Since then we’ve continued to take pride in the role we’re able to play as the hub of a community of students, teachers, writers and artists and we enjoy being able to play the role of connector when possible.

This past week The Telling Room has been a hub of activity as we wrapped up two more summer camps, introduced our work to international arts educators from Seeds of Peace and classroom teachers studying at the University of New Hampshire and completed a week long run as host to the Portland Hive, Maine’s preeminent camp for serious high school writers.

We were delighted to see Ian Bannon from Figures of Speech Theatre buzz into the Hive to invite students to participate in a year long production workshop in which the youth ensemble of Figures of Speech will create an original puppetry adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that will filmed and performed around the state via technology provided by the Maine Laptop Initiative. Ian pointed out that during the year there will be roles for writers, puppet makers, videographers, techies, actors, musicians and just about everyone in between-an imagination intensive community in its own right and certainly one of the most dynamic youth arts opportunities happening in the state this year.

On a daily basis, I feel fortunate to be able to exist within this community. There’s rarely a dull moment and more often than not there’s a light bulb going off in someone’s head or a new connection being made. If you haven’t found your way to the Telling Room yet please stop by whenever you get the chance. We’ll be happy to add you to the mix.

Summer Bliss

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:50:22 -0400

Molly McGrath - Publications Director

Summer’s in full swing, and three Telling Room camps have already wrapped up. Yesterday, TR intern extraordinaire Kelsey Conroy and I headed out on the Casco Bay inter-island ferry to do recon for my upcoming Beach Island Writing & Arts Camp—what a gorgeous day! As we trekked around on Little Diamond and Long Islands, and gazed across the water at Peaks and the other Calendar Isles, we grew really excited about the intersections of nature, summer, poetry, painting, found art, music, and how the kids will get to do all of it and more with the TR soon. How lucky our kids are!

Likewise, how lucky are the kids at Pilgrim Lodge, up in the lovely setting along a lake in West Gardiner, Maine. The Telling Room has been visiting the campers there this summer, conducting evening workshops, and giving energy to the kids about writing up their experiences. Here’s part of a submission from one of the workshops, which I got to run with intrepid TR development assistant Emily Baer on a recent warm Tuesday eve:

“The wind blows through the trees and the waves crash into the shore. The tide slowly creeps down the beach. Soon shells and sea glass litter the beach. I run through rocky sand and jump over sea weed as I make my way to the water.” Lynn D., Cabin #8, “The Beach.”

Enjoy summer, and don’t forget your journal next time you’re hiking or at the beach!

Pilgrim Lodge Heather Davis - Executive Director In the winter...

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:22:00 -0400

Pilgrim Lodge

Heather Davis - Executive Director

In the winter of 2009, the staff members of The Telling Room met an amazing young woman named Emily Goodnow who would become our first AmeriCorps member. She wrote us a lovely letter in February that year, and won us over from the start with this passage:

Lenore Look discusses her realization, in her essay “Facing the Village,” that good writing necessitates “accepting that I will never be able to fit the contents of my heart onto a page.” I am eager to counsel people through this realization and help them to capture their voice, focus their words, and explore the parts of their hearts that can fit onto a page.

She appeared in our office a few weeks later in a rush of happy energy, eager to get to work. During her interview and first year on the job, we learned that Emily was an incredibly accomplished person, fluent in French, just back from a trip to West Africa where she had designed and led her own grant project to promote and empower girls in Mali, and a graduate of Colby who would soon be accepted to attend Yale Divinity School.

Despite these remarkable achievements, Emily would often return to one humble subject in our conversations around the office: a summer camp that was near and dear to her heart in West Gardiner, Maine called Pilgrim Lodge. She’d spent years there as a counselor, and it was clear that the place lit her up and felt like a second home.

Fast forward to the winter of 2012. That winter found a host of new AmeriCorps members at The Telling Room and Emily studying away in Connecticut. In a serendipitous and unexpected moment, The Telling Room was contacted in January by the Pilgrim Lodge Camp Director. Each year, the camp features a Mission Project, and campers and their families receive an opportunity to learn about a local nonprofit organization and support them with a financial donation. We were honored to be asked to be this summer’s Mission Project organization, and the serendipity continued when we discovered that the camp’s theme this year is “sacred stories.” We enthusiastically agreed to spend a summer in partnership with Pilgrim Lodge, and got to work designing a program for campers and their families that explores the sacred in everyday life.

Each staff member of The Telling Room is traveling to Pilgrim Lodge three times this summer, and when we go, we’re asking campers to write about sacred people, places, and objects in their lives. Last night, when I drove up the long dirt road with Molly Haley, our Director of Multimedia and Community Outreach, I was instantly transported to my own days as a young camper in rural Maryland, and knew why the place meant so much to Emily and many others.

We gathered in a large cabin with about 30 grandparents and their grandchildren and spent time together writing about sacred objects and people. Many campers wrote about their baby blankets. Some wrote about friends who had passed away. One grandparent wrote about the sacred gift of her two grandchildren. In a very short amount of time, we made Telling Room magic happen, with a whole room full of strangers earnestly putting their hearts onto the page and reading aloud for the group. I was grateful for the opportunity to spend time at such an incredible place, and I can’t wait to go back in a few weeks.