On Thursday, May 23rd, Carmen Fields, author of Going Back to T-Town: The Ernie Fields Territory Big Band which the Jazz Journalists Association recognizes as among the best biographies of 2024, takes center stage at WriteBoston’s annual fundraiser, Pros&Conversation. She will be joined by Porsha Olayiwola, World Poetry Slam Champion and founder of the Roxbury Poetry Festival, and Dr. Kimberly Parker, author of Literacy is Liberation and Director of Crimson Summer Academy at Harvard University. This accomplished panel of storytellers will be in conversation with our own Teens in Print a ..read more

WriteBoston is proud to share the accomplishments of 31 Boston teenagers who participated in this year’s Summer Journalism Institute. SJI is the summer intensive iteration of WriteBoston’s Teens in Print program, in which staff members work with local teenagers after school to build reporting skills and publish their writing. At SJI this year, 31 reporters aged 14-19 spent six weeks learning a journalistic curriculum, writing and publishing multiple stories with interviews and research they conducted themselves throughout the city. Students then spent the last three weeks of the program part ..read more

To all those who celebrated with us in person or supported from afar — thank you for making this year’s Pros&Conversation a resounding success! We celebrated the leadership and years of dedication of our outgoing Executive Director, Sarah Poulter, and heard an exciting vision for WriteBoston’s future from our new Executive Director, Abdi Mohamed Ali, Ed.D       And we raised over $140,000 in support of WriteBoston programming! The money we raise at Pros&Conversation helps us continue to offer free writing opportunities for Boston students as well as coaching and prof ..read more

To each of you who celebrated and supported Pros&Conversation — thank you for making this year’s event a major success! We were particularly thrilled to offer in person and virtual attendance options this year. The opportunity to finally bring students, supporters, and staff together IRL felt especially meaningful. With your help, we brought together nearly 200 supporters to celebrate the power of writing and transformative learning. And we raised over $145,000 to fuel WriteBoston’s work! The money we raise at Pros&Conversation helps us continue to offer free writing opportunities for ..read more

Dear WriteBoston community, As I often tell my children, if a decision is tough to make, it’s probably because it is important. This is one of those moments for me. I’m writing today to share that over the next few months, I will be transitioning out of my role as Executive Director. After six years as the leader and twelve years total at WriteBoston, I’m stepping away to prioritize my family and the evolving needs of my children and parents at an important time in our shared lives. This has been a tremendously hard decision. I’ve worked it through a million times over, and each time I come to ..read more

  We’re so proud to share that Teens in Print student, Ketura Joseph, a ninth grader at Brooke Charter High School, was interviewed on GBH News this morning! As part of the segment Finding resilience in Black love, through good times and bad, Ketura spoke with reporter Paris Alston about the journey of educating herself on Black history and what she has learned in the process. Listen to the full interview here. Ketura’s full article exploring her relationship to Black history, Out of the shadows, into the light: A reimagining of African American History, can be found at teensinprint ..read more

The following is a reflection on Teens in Print’s six-week Summer Journalism Institute. This piece was created as a final project for the editorial team, composed of SJI students Aajaya, Michelle, Nuri, Payton, and Shaniece. Members of the editorial team prepares to present their final projects during the SJI final showcase. A note from the students: Our group interviewed every current SJI student and staff member as well as a number of alumni to create a holistic review of the Summer Journalism Institute (SJI) experience. We created a database of over 40 interviews about SJI for further u ..read more

If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe, reverence and mystery and magic.  – Toni Morrison    Mysteries and magic of writing elude me; I know Morrison evokes reverence in me as a reader. I have ceded for too long a devotion to the discipline of writing to the enveloping magic and mystery of reading her writing. I still do – it is worthwhile – it is liberatory – but hard as I try, it ain’t escapist.  I wrote an essay on Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1985. Handwritten, about two pages in length, copied several times over, nonsta ..read more

Dear friends and supporters, It’s an honor to introduce myself to this outstanding community. My name is Jenny Leopold, and I’ll be stepping in as Interim Executive Director while we search for a permanent director to take WriteBoston into a new era of leadership. I got to know WriteBoston through a chance meeting with Sarah Poulter several years ago. Since then, I’ve volunteered as a tutor, an editor, and a member of various fundraising committees. It’s with gratitude that I take on this interim role to help guide WriteBoston through this exciting moment. I myself have a profession ..read more

This year, WriteBoston unveiled a bold new mission and values statement. Our world is changing—and we must, too. Education must adapt to address both longstanding inequities caused by racism and oppression, as well as new challenges created by the pandemic. At WriteBoston, we’re committed to partnering with youth and educators so that all young people have transformative learning experiences. In our 2022 annual report, we share our newly defined core values and how we live up to them. View the report The post Publication: Our 2022 Annual Report appeared first on WriteBoston ..read more