Below are the reflections written by Writing
Center Consultants after our latest writing workshop at St. John’s
Bread and Life Soup Kitchen/Community Center in Brooklyn. I
hope you’ll take a few minutes to read about the soup kitchen
guests and the work done by our students.
“Today at Bread & Life was quite
rewarding. Firstly, on our way in, I bumped into a lady named
Bonnie who I had previously tutored. I checked in with her
briefly and was pleased to learn that our original talk about
journaling had become periodic venting through writing. After
breaking into pairs in the conference room, I met up with a man
named Arthur. I had worked with Arthur, an ex-con/drug
addict, on a previous visit. We talked for a little while to
re-establish his writing goal of a book about his life. For a
while, as before, Arthur and I talked generally about his time in
jail, his mother, etc. I took notes, then encouraged him to
pick one of the topics and just start writing sentences about
it. It was a little slow at first, but right away he broke
through the block. He ended up writing whole pages based
around one topic. He seemed genuinely pleased to have finally
figured out how to start writing. I suggested he make a list
of topics, then write when he could about one, and organize them
later--he readily agreed and thanked me & Prof. Tom
thoroughly."
-Christianne Cain
“Bread and Life was great! I worked
with Santana (or Blondie, as she preferred). I was kind of nervous
when I was paired up with her at first because of what she wanted
to work on, a business plan. She had all of the research in order
and had started to draft the plan, the marketing strategies, etc.
She wrote and spoke incredibly well and had a clear understanding
of what was needed in order to get a grant to get this business up
and running. She wanted to start a Non-Profit Org that would
provide jobs (and income) for women struggling to get rehabilitated
after struggling with drugs, alcohol, or domestic abuse. She told
me that she wanted to provide women with a positive opportunity so
that they did not turn to stripping, prostituting, selling drugs or
other dangerous alternatives. The women would all get a job selling
newspapers in high traffic areas of Manhattan. They would each work
3 hours a day (preferably in the early morning 7am - 9am) 5 days a
week and make 150 dollars each week (10 dollars an hour). All of
the unsold newspapers will be recycled, and the women will act as
"community cops" - watching/monitoring the streets during the time
that they are there. The program will act as a literal bridge for
the women. She hopes that the people they sell papers to will help
them in getting on their feet permanently, and that they gain the
skills needed to be successful in life. She hopes that with
this job the women will not only have an income, but also gain
literacy skills, communication skills, math skills, and become
more socially conscious. We drafted the business goals section of
the proposal and began speaking about marketing strategies.
Hopefully she will return the next time we are there and we will
develop this plan even further. The idea is great, and she has such
passion for it - it is so important to her to have someone there to
give her the resources (in terms of effective writing) she needs to
get her idea up and running."
-Annemarie Harr
“This was my second trip to Bread and
Life for the writing workshops. I worked with Eugene, a poet from
Bedford Stuyvesant. Of all of the participants, Eugene was actually
the one I wanted to work with because he seemed to gain quite a bit
of confidence from just reading some of his poetry to all of us and
had clear plans for what he wanted to do. He wants to be published
again, particularly in a literary magazine from Texas Tech
University that he found called the Literary Horse Review. He
brought in a rejection letter, a copy of the Review and many of his
poems. I worked with Aliza on this, which was great, because we
gave him two critical eyes to push him further in his writing. He
shared with us bits of his life - he makes a humble living as a
bike messenger and his big purchases tend to be the occasional book
from Manhattan when he finds something that really inspires him. He
is a bright man who, despite living in the bricks and cement
of Brooklyn and works close to the cold streets of NYC, writes
of nature. His writing seemed to be an escape, but not in
desperation - it seemed to be a sense of overcoming calmly and in
control. The beauty of the workshop for our case is that we gave
him something he cannot easily find elsewhere - a more controlled
and constructive critical eye. I was able to share with him some
basic theory about poetics and apply it to his work to show
him where he wrote effectively and where he could be pushed to
reproduce and grow off of the strong moments. This type of workshop
was not a "I like this, I don't like that" interaction, which would
build his confidence for a moment, but not for a longer time; it
was something that will guide him into writing even better poetry,
hopefully a few published pieces, and a greater sense of purpose
and self-confidence that can sustain into old age."
-Cameron Mclinden
“Since it was my first visit to St. John's
Bread and Life, I didn't know what to expect. I had heard stories
from others about how they helped those folks over at the soup
kitchen, so I thought I would go and experience it for myself. With
no prior expectations, I had a very enjoyable time because they
have such a friendly and welcoming atmosphere similar to us
here in the Writing Center. All the attendees of the workshop were
eager to work on their individual writing "projects" that they had
floating in their head; some more concrete than others. Cameron and
I worked with an individual, Eugene, who is also a published
poet. I thought he was an intelligent man based on several
poems that he showed us. Frankly, when I hear "soup kitchen," I
think of people who are going through a rough patch in their life
or simply don't have anything in their life. But Eugene definitely
proved me wrong. While reading his work, Cameron and I were able to
give him suggestions on how or what more he could do to get his
poem published in a literary magazine, which was his ultimate goal.
Eugene was open-minded and was ready to hear out what we thought of
his writing. He was especially honest about being rejected from
several magazines and we tried to help him and showed him that just
because he was rejected, does not necessarily mean that his poetry
work is not worth something. As a whole, it was time well-spent
because I did not realize until today that I could use my tutoring
skills beyond the Writing Center. I've learned that there are
people out there who would love to have an ear to listen to them
and what they're writing about. And if that gets them motivated,
simply to talk about their writing, then why not?"
-Aliza Moorji
“As all six Writing Center
representatives boarded the van, I envisioned Bread and Life as a
small, dingy quasi-writing center comprised of people seeking
assistance with their rodent-infested letters to their
landlords. I, however, was pleasantly surprised to find a
large, state-of-the-art building with a friendly, magnanimous
ambiance. After speaking with those in our session, I
realized that I would have to abandon some of my writing center
instincts. Take my session with Audrey, for example. I
was expecting some sort of writing from her. But she simply
talked about everything from great books to great presidents to the
great Black Panthers movement. It was fascinating; although I
did not teach her anything, she seemed satisfied by just telling me
her story. Clearly, her reason for being there was not due to
a lack of intellect. She was quite educated, and I was
intrigued by her knowledge and perspectives on the various books
that she highly recommended I read: The Autobiography of an
Ex-Colored Man, Here I Stand, Blues From Mr. Charlie. She had
so much knowledge and experience, yet shunned the pen and
paper. She refused to write down her story. If someone
was interested, she said they would “just have to speak to
me.” I felt out of place suggesting to her otherwise.
Audrey enlightened me on her love for speech, so perhaps this is
the reason why she is not in favor of writing her story down.
Perhaps she feels it is a story that must be told with a certain
cadence; a cadence that cannot be substituted by another
voice. Regardless of her reasoning, it was a very rewarding
experience spea"king to Audrey. In addition to the history
lesson and the suggestions of books to read, I had the opportunity
to see a new perspective."
-Michael Johnson