Scratch The Page: Behind the Story

on Feb 06 in Uncategorized by


At InsideOut Literary Arts Project, we pride ourselves on bringing the best in verse and literary vision to Detroit’s youngest writers. Our roster of writers-in-residence is just one example. Another is Scratch The Page (STP), an annual free workshop/reading series that taps nationally recognized writers to fire up the pens of youth ages 13 to 18. The 2012 STP series continues with noted author Gregory Pardlo on February 25th at the Virgil H. Carr Center, 311 E. Grand River in Detroit. Pardlo will lead a workshop with youth and then join the young writers for a public reading at 6 p.m.
STP is an in-depth exercise in exposure. “It’s important for me, as a writer from Detroit and as a youth organizer to expose students to different kinds of poetry by writers from different parts of the country,’’ says Aricka Foreman, IO’s Community Projects Coordinator and a Writer-in-Residence. “Growing up here makes you unique: full of heart and steel. But our youth need to see how vast and exciting the world is, and that the world is hungry to hear how they see their way through what it means to be from Detroit.’’
The 2012 STP series kicked off in January with John Murillo, author of Up Jump the Boogie and a New York Times Poetry Fellow. “Don’t be afraid to write from or to write yourself into those scary places,’’ he told students during his workshop. “Allow yourself to go there.’’
Like Murillo, Pardlo is a Cave Canem alum. His most recent collection, Totem, won the American Poetry Review’s Honickman First Book Prize. Pardlo is also a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in poetry. His poems and reviews have appeared in Calalloo, Black Issues Book Review, Lyric and Ploughshares.
STP concludes March 31st, with featured author and award-winning slam poet Rachel McKibbens. She is the author of Pink Elephant & three-time National Poetry Slam finalist.
A $5 donation is suggested for the reading to help IO continue the series. To sign up a young poet or to learn more, contact Aricka Foreman: aricka.foreman [at] gmail.com

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