Letters Home

Kyle Jones, a former writing tutor now taking classes in Athens, recently shared his latest experiences at the Freedom Plaza:

We arrived in DC on Saturday; I went with two friends of mine (who, like me, are ready to stir things up!).  We stayed in Baltimore with one of my friend's aunt. 

Once we got off the metro and walked into DC, we were ready for anything.  Walking downtown, some guy had a dry erase board around his neck that read: "what can we do to make America better?" (See picture attached).  I, naturally, represented my kind, and proudly wrote, "Workers Unite!"  Lol, as you can see, not much has changed.  As soon as we approached Freedom Plaza, I heard a familiar voice, Ralph Nader.  It was nice to meet him, but the man has terrible hearing, lol.  We talked to many protesters, asked them where they were from, why they were here, etc.  The stories were fantastic, and the overall commraderie of the environment was intoxicating.  

We started our first march around 1:15 p.m., and we were heading to the National Air and Space Museum to protest against a drone exhibit.  As my group approached the museum, twenty police cars flooded the area, a helicopter came out of no where and started circling the museum, and all of a sudden I saw several people near the entrance of the building lying on the ground.  That's right, the Smithsonian security MACED about thirty protesters, they also detained (later arrested) a girl who refused to leave the museum--she was a trooper, she sat inside the museum and recanted the Law Officer's Oath.  (Later, I found out that several protesters were trying to go inside the museum, the Smithsonian security told them to leave, they refused, so they maced them. ) As a result of the "confrontation", the museum was shut down, so we (the protesters) had to deal with angry tourists blaming us for ruining their vacation.  However, the fun didn't stop here. 

We found out that the girl who had been arrested was being held at a nearby police station, thus, we decided to go as a group and demand her release.  We marched to the police station, stood outside, and brought the protest to a location that had plenty of mace to go around!   After about an hour, they released our comrade and she recounted what happened.  She told us that they arrested her for "assaulting a police officer."  They took her to the station, and after she successfully fought her case, they changed the charges to "exciting a crowd."  Shows you how ignorant the police were because we were already excited, lol.  Once we arrived at the police station, they released her and made her pay a fine for the excitement of a crowd charge, but it was a powerful moment for me, and my friends. 

My friends and I are planning to make our way to Wall Street, so hopefully, the protesters keep it up! We'd also like to make our way to Boston and Wisconsin, but only time will tell.  It was a great experience going to Freedom Plaza, and it gave me a feeling I never had before; that is, I felt that for the first time in my life, my ideas came to life, and I was "walking the walk." Despite being miles away, I felt enormously at home. 

National Day on Writing

Since an entire day has been dedicated to writing, we can pose questions about that very subject.

Why do you write?

What did you write today? 

What do you like to write about? 

How does writing lead to action?

What is considered "good" writing?

What can be accomplished with a well-written piece?

National Day on Writing

Don't forget the Gallery folks:


THE  FISHBOWL

WC project ideas

National Day on Writing

For the National Day on Writing (Oct. 20), we ought to promote the Fishbowl, our gallery on the NCTE website. It's got some great pieces on it, but it doesn't get a lot of exposure. I suggest we post excerpts of all the gallery pieces on the windows outside the fishbowl, maybe on (tasteful) colored paper or with some graphics or something to give it a bit of a visual draw. We've done stuff like this before, and it usually gets a good response.

Lit Pub 2: The Unenclosing

I'd like to see more artwork in the next lit pub. Maybe we should create separate fliers to solicit art pieces. I think we also ought to look into the possibility of getting the art pages printed in color.

It's Friday morning. I'm short on ideas (and, incidentally, on coffee). What do YOU think, O readers? Quid cogitatis, O lectores?

Something simple: National Writing Day

The task is come up with ideas to celebrate National Writing Day on campus. October 20, 2011 makes number three for this recognized fixed point on the calendar, yet I can't seem to get past the default postcards with writing prompts. I was unaware it existed until my second quarter working as a writing tutor for the college. Not to mention active creativity is not one of my best features. Ideally, I would want to spread awareness before celebrating no doubt a great concept. Writing seems so undervalued in a lot of areas in academia and sitting in the smoker section listening to students talk about the papers they have for their classes for the quarter is not expressed with the greatest enthusiasm. They seem to reinforce the negative side of writing to the point where it becomes a chore instead of something they enjoy doing. So lets celebrate a chore...? I know this may appear pessimistic, that perhaps my perspective on writing papers and college students may be unrepresentative to others point of views, but the probability that there is some truth to it is scary to a student who has a love of writing.

This in turn leads me to the thought process of how to make writing fun? Raffles? One day poetry contests? Offer free food and a place to socialize with "bring a writing piece entry to discuss"? Or default style with postcard/index card prompts spread across the glass of the fish bowl in hopes someone will take an interest to what is on them? Like I said, I am not the greatest active creativity on the spot type of person. I am game for almost anything. I would have fun going around pestering people to answer questions for me on index cards.

National Day of Writing

October 20th is the National Day of Writing. Most people will assume they can't get involved or take part in the celebration. But I think so may people forget how much writing we use in our everyday life. Whether writing a to do list, sending a text, or starting a novel you are taking part in our most universal form or communication and expression. It is easy to take a few minutes and write down what is important to you or help someone (I have my 3 year old in mind here) learn a few letters. There are a million little ways (and some very big ways) we can join in the fun. So take out you pen, keyboards, cell phones or whatever and start writing.