My students reflect the cultural richness of New York City - and they speak approximately 34 different languages among them!
Our school is an academically rigorous, tuition-free high school and college associate's degree program.
Many of my students are the first in their families to attend college. They are very eager for the opportunity to earn two years of free college tuition at the time of their high school graduation.
It is incredibly rewarding to work with such curious, eager, and motivated students.
My Project
Over Zoom, poet Joseph Legaspi will discuss his book IMAGO, which "...documents a boy's painful and poignant rite of passage in becoming a man, evoking the landscapes of the Phillipines and immigrant America." Legaspi also writes openly about his experience as a gay man and about the rich diversity of life in New York City. His talk will be part of our Guest Writers series open to the whole campus.
I ask my students: When you close a book with a satisfied sigh, do you ever wish you could chat with the author…And ask them how they came up with their ideas?
In Guest Writers, we meet authors after reading their books, and go “behind the book”–or behind the scenes—in the author’s writing process. We read and discuss books by diverse writers, meet the authors to ask questions, and hear a dramatic reading or performance of their poetry, fiction or memoir. Students facilitate the discussion, interviewing the authors, so the event is driven by student curiosity.
The goal of this course is to investigate the human side of writing. We always talk about “the writing process” as if it’s a single experience, but in reality, it differs greatly from person to person. As we interact with authors in this course, and speak to each other as writers, we will come to appreciate the individuality and unpredictability (and dare I say “magic”?) of the writing process. My hope is that students will learn about themselves as writers, readers and literature-lovers through this engaging, enlightening and community-building library series.
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