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| Poetry Center Celebrates 20 Years of Literary Outreach (3.17.08) |
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| Media Contact: Emily Gewitz, 212.415.5455, email |
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| THE 92nd STREET Y LITERARY OUTREACH PROGRAM CELEBRATES 20 YEARS, 200 WRITERS + 25,000 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS |
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LETTERS TO A YOUNG WRITER:
A CELEBRATION OF THE POETRY CENTER
SCHOOLS PROJECT, 1988-2008 |
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Readings and Remarks by:
FRANK MCCOURT, NICOLE KRAUSS, JESSICA HAGEDORN, DONALD ANTRIM and REBECCA PAWEL
Monday, March 17 at 8 pm, FREE & Open to the Public
"[In the Y's] Schools Project, poetry is not treated [as] something fragile or inaccessible. Here, in this program, it lives.
—Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt
"It helps my students make connections between contemporary writing and literature of the past. In class they learn about writers who may have been dead for a hundred years, but in the program, they meet authors face to face. That's very exciting for me and for them."
—Bob Babstock, High School Teacher
Major support has been provided by the New York City Department for Youth and Community Development and the New York City Council, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The Leir Charitable Foundations in memory of Henry J. and Edna D. Leir, Edith Glick Shoolman Children's Foundation, Suzanne and Jonathan Rosenzweig and the Moses L. Parshelsky Fund.
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| New York, NY, February , 21, 2008—According to a 2007 study conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts, reading levels among teenagers are at all-time lows. The study reports that the percentage of 17-year-olds who read nothing at all for pleasure has doubled over a 20-year period. In the same 20-year period, nearly 25,000 New York City high school students have encountered literature through the 92nd Street Y Poetry Center Schools Project, and about 8,000 have had the opportunity to encounter the people who create literature in person. Twelve times each year for the last two decades, the Y has offered classroom writing experiences and brought students together with two hundred of the world's most renowned poets and fiction writers, including Nadine Gordimer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Frank McCourt, Adrienne Rich, Jonathan Franzen, and many others, and helped them to discover relevant connections between literature and their own lives.On Monday, March 17 at 8pm, the 92nd Street Y Poetry Center Schools Project celebrates its 20th anniversary with "Letters to a Young Writer," an evening of readings and remarks by writers who have participated in the program: Frank McCourt, Jessica Hagedorn, Donald Antrim, Nicole Krauss and Rebecca Pawel. Each author shares anecdotes and advice on writing with the audience. The event is free and open to the public, and 180 of this year's participating students plan to attend. |
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| ABOUT THE POETRY CENTER SCHOOLS PROJECT |
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Richmond Hill High School teacher Eileen Hudon says, "It is obvious how much the writers care about the students; they really treat them like adults. Students are often shocked to find out that they are reading the same books that the writers remember reading when they were in school, or that an author grew up right in their own neighborhood. It's a real eye-opener for them." Martha Sutphen, who taught at Julia Richman High School until 1997 and was an integral part of the program's creation, recalls her students' encounter with Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott. "Even the biggest, baddest kids were engaged," she says. "I was more respected because I introduced them to this great guy whose poetry affected them. And after they met an author who gave so much of his time and heart, the kids felt great about themselves, as well."
At the close of each school year, students are asked to evaluate the program:
I was never allotted an opportunity like that, to sit in the presence of two talented authors, Mary Gordon and Marilynne Robinson. There are some things in my life that I will never forget and that night...will surely be a grand memory to me. I myself love to write...and [now] I know I will explore writing in a more vigorous way.
It was actually more fun than I expected. Tom Wolfe had a great sense of humor.
I would like to let you know what a wonderful group of people you are...to allow such great opportunities for us. The value of reading is not as recognized as it once was and I am thankful you are doing so much to change that.
Rebecca Pawel, an alumna of the program and winner of a 2004 Edgar Award for Best New Novel, will appear at the March 17 program. She says, "The workshop was my lifeline throughout high school. It was my sanity...Where else would I have been able to share pizza with Doris Lessing!" For Sunil Ramsamooj, a Schools Project alum and current college English major, the best part of the Schools Project was hearing the writers talk about the creative process they used while writing their books. Ramsamooj says he decided to pursue writing after hearing novelist Jhumpa Lahiri, "so that one day, I could inspire kids the way I was inspired."
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| ABOUT THE UNTERBERG POETRY CENTER |
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| For decades, the 92nd Street Y has served as a public literary salon and a place to which writers have come to hone their craft. The legendary 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center opened in 1939 with a reading by William Carlos Williams. Over the years, he was followed by virtually every great 20th century writer—Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop, W.H. Auden, Jorge Luis Borges and Langston Hughes, to name but a few. Today, the Center presents readings by poets, novelists and playwrights, and talks by critics, biographers and scholars. Through its Poets' Theatre, a series that emphasizes language and the aural experience of theater, the Center produces masterfully written dramas performed by accomplished actors. The Center's extensive writing program gives working adults access to teachers who are practicing authors, a rarity outside M.F.A. programs. Community outreach programs offer high-school students access to world-famous writers and provides literary training to new immigrants through the study of literature. Young writers find support at the Center through a series that pairs them with established authors as well as through the "Discovery"/Boston Review poetry contest, for poets whose work had not yet been published. The Unterberg Poetry Center is part of the 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts, endowed through the generous support of the Joan and Preston Robert Tisch family. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org/poetry. |
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| ABOUT THE 92nd STREET Y |
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Founded in 1874 by a group of visionary Jewish leaders, the 92nd Street Y has grown into a wide-ranging cultural, educational and community center serving people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds. The 92nd Street Y's mission is to enrich the lives of the over 300,000 people who visit in person each year as well as those who visit virtually, through the Y's satellite, television, radio and Internet broadcasts. The organization offers comprehensive performing arts, film and spoken word events; courses in the humanities, the arts, personal development and Jewish culture; activities and workshops for children, teenagers and parents; and health and fitness programs for people of every age. Committed to making its programs available to everyone, the 92nd Street Y awards nearly $1 million in scholarships annually and reaches out to 7,000 public school children through subsidized arts education programs. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org.
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© 2008 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association
All Rights Reserved. |
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