True To Ourselves, We Cannot Be False to Anyone. Year Two of To Write Or Not To Write

Last year, we kicked off To Write or Not To Write - A Shakespearean Literacy Lab, with the incredible Fairfield University scholar, Dr. Shannon Kelley, and the phenomenal thespian and CWP teacher Kara Peters (of Bridgeport and now Greenwich Public Schools). We worked closely with the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC when thinking about its design and we wondered, "Who will we get?"

This is year two, and we have a second year of solid, interested, and devoted learners.

I had the honor of doing a workshop with the kids in 8th - 10th grade yesterday and they were focused, interested and, well, brilliant. Both Dr. Kelley and Kara Peters have connections with kids they've worked with before who joined them for them for the summer and are Uber-exuberant about the work. They are reading Twelfth Night and Henry V, and in one week they are scripting, writing monologues, acting, and building a bond that is immeasurable.

I am in awe of the instruction, the expertise, and the dedication. I think Dr. Kelley and Kara Peters should be leading workshops nationally (Oh, wait. They are! In Baltimore this year).

Meanwhile, upstairs in Project Citizen kids are bonding over politics, issues, and writing their passions, kids in Ubuntu Academy are building their literacy skills while reading Jerry Craft's New Kid, and others, downstairs, are composing narratives and college essays while reading Rose Brock's Hope Nation.

The Superpower of Hope. That's what we're trying to accomplish at CWP-Fairfield this summer. A hopeful opportunity for kids 3rd-12th grade to enjoy writing with incredible instructors on items that are most important to them.

It's midweek, today, and I'm exhausted, but we need to fight forward. The Fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Not sure where I lie, but do know there's a lot of work to be done.