Writing Our Communities: Writers Belonging to Communities, Communities Belonging to Writers

This event is part of a series called Writing Our Communities. Each event is a group conversation with Prof. Gregory Pardlo and guest speakers. The first event is Writers Belonging to Communities, Communities Belonging to Writers: How does a writer create authentic partnerships that center community? How do we create a meaningful sense of belonging to the communities we serve? View the flyer.

Wednesday, March 2, 2022 11:20am-12:50pm 
Writers Belonging to Communities, Communities Belonging to Writers

How does a writer create authentic partnerships that center community? How do we create a meaningful sense of belonging to the communities we serve?

Javan Howard  is a poet and writer from The Bronx, NY. He truly believes that the lived experience is the ultimate teaching tool and uses poetry as a social forum to foster discourse about love, culture, and identity. He has previously facilitated workshops across NYC with The New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Voices UnBroken, The GO Project and Wingspan Arts. He is currently a Teaching Artist for Teachers & Writers Collaborative and Usdan Summer Camp For The Arts. He is also the TAP Co-Director for Curricula, Mentorship & Facilitation at Community Word Project. Howard's work has been featured online at WNYC News, Black Heart Magazine, Brooklyn Stories Vol. 13., Poets For Peace, Zine #2: Poems For Resilience and Silver Rose Magazine. He has work forthcoming in The Broken Plate and The Minnesota Review. 

Lisa Nelson-Haynes is the Executive Director of Philadelphia Young Playwrights (PYP), where she helps young people discover their potential through the art of the play. PYP is currently in 43 schools, throughout Philadelphia, Delaware and Montgomery counties, and in 92 classrooms with students in grades 2-12. 

Championing the power of personal narrative and stories, Lisa’s work has long centered around empowering others to take control of their stories and voices. Fittingly, Lisa is also the Executive Producer of PYP’s award-winning podcast Mouthful. The podcast digs into the experiences and perspectives of young people to spark important conversations about big ideas and issues. An award-winning storyteller and teacher, Lisa has facilitated digital storytelling workshops for Storycenter for more than ten years. She has worked with Drexel University’s Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice’s Healing Hurt People to facilitate workshops with young people who are victims of intentional injury to craft narratives that celebrate their resiliency and triumphs.

Taylor A. Lewis is a poet and teacher originally from Atlanta. He holds a BA in English from Spelman College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Camden. At Rutgers, he taught first-year composition and was a research assistant at the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice. Taylor is currently a visiting instructor at Bryn Mawr College and a teaching artist at Growing Great Writers in Camden. He is the recipient of the 2020 Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Queer Writer Fellowship in Prose and the 2017 Edith A. Hambie Poetry Prize sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. He has poems in Auburn Avenue and Voicemail Poems.

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