Welcome to the Philadelphia Writing Project Summer Invitational Institute 1 - 2008


Summer Invitational Institute 1 Sessions
August 4 - August 22, 2008
Monday - Friday
9:00 am - 3:30 pm


This space has been created to gather our discussions, thoughts, resources, photographs, etc. Please feel free to check in often to see what is going on!

Summer Institute 1 Fellows

Sunday, August 10, 2008

A very gracious thank you!

On Friday, I left PhilWP overwhelmed with emotion. We spent the day laughing and crying with each other. I want to thank everyone for those stories that needed to be told; I'm grateful that you trusted us enough to share such very personal stories.
I met up with a few friends on Friday night for drinks and tried to explain what was happening. It's so hard to tell others not in this community how we went from total strangers to knowing very intimate facts about one another.
Next week is going to challenge all of us, I know. As we embark on discussions of racism and social justice, let us remember and refer to the autobiographies. We are all people who have stories, very profound, some deeply sad. We are our students who bring alot to the table. We are going through next week's process so that our discomfort will be eased.
From our beginning conversations about The Poisonwood Bible, we know there will be discomfort. There will be tension. Brenda, I do believe this is what your friend meant when she said arguments occur. It's intended so that we can go through the emotions now so that we can handle what arises in our class surrounding these issues.
Anyway, this is what I THINK I KNOW about that which we are embarking.

1 comment:

Gail said...

Dear Regina: Last week (particularly Friday) was difficult for me, also. I'm almost nervous about next week's discussions. Sometimes we hear things that are hard to take and I really don't want to spend another week crying! Wanted to also tell you that it meant a great deal to me to know that our poems were felt. Thank you.

Reflection August 5, 2008