Writing Our Communities: Writers Centering Community

This event is part of a series called Writing Our Communities. Each event is a group conversation with Prof. Gregory Pardlo and guest speakers. This second event is Writers Centering Community: How does a writer grow from serving a community? How can a community grow from being served by a writer? View the flyer.

FEATURED SPEAKER BIOS:

Carmen Balcazar-Pendleton is a visual artist that was born in Peru, in South America. She is a graduate of Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Carmen is the proud mother of Sofia and Sergio.

Carmen has been the Community and Artist Programs Manager at Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts for the past seventeen years. Her dedication to transforming Camden schools and playgrounds through the power of visual, musical, theater and literary arts has affected the lives of residents of all ages. She has built lasting, successful art programs working with community leaders, board members, teachers, school administration, youth and senior citizens.

Carmen’s advocacy for women and children began in Indiana in 1994 when she co-founded the non-profit group Mujeres Unidas, Women United, a support group for Hispanic, immigrant women and children who are victims of domestic violence.

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Hailing from the home of the Harlem Renaissance, Kimberly “Kym” Boyce-Lazare is an Artivist and Educator with Community-Word Project and Urban Word, facilitating literary arts-integrated workshops championing healing justice.

Kym studied Linguistics, Literature, and the Language Arts at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, in Barbados and has studied extensively within The City Universities of New York. She holds an Associate’s degree in Communication Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Literary, Media, and Visual Arts. And she is a current Master of Arts candidate studying Arts Administration at Baruch College.

Kym is an Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellow with the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diasporic Institute, a 2020 Mentee with Arts Administrators of Color Network, and a Mentor with iMentor. Kym also serves as the Administrative and Development Support Manager with Urban Word NYC, assisting all Urban Word initiatives, including the National Youth Poet Laureate Program.

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Caits Meissner is the director of Prison and Justice Writing at PEN America. She has taught, consulted, and co-created extensively for over 15 years across a wide spectrum of communities with a focus on prisons, public schools, and college classrooms at The New School and The City College of New York. In 2017, Meissner reenvisioned the concept of book tour for her illustrated poetry collection Let It Die Hungry, pairing public speaking engagements with opportunities to work with incarcerated writers across the United States.