dc youth writers oral history project
The Hurston/Wright DC Youth Writers Oral History Project debuted July 2023 on the campus of Howard University. The project instruction provided youth participants with training on how to conduct effective interviews, research, and gather historical data on the Black literary arts community in Washington, D.C.
Participants conducted interviews with Black writers in DC, including writers of various genres and ages, to learn about their
experiences and contributions to the city’s literary arts community.
Participants participated in a daily writing workshop where they learned how to document their research findings through written and digital platforms, including essays, poetry, and multimedia projects.
Participants toured Howard University’s campus and engaged with special guest speakers to gain a deeper understanding of the
city’s cultural history and the Black literary arts community’s significance.
At the end of the summer, participants were equipped to complete their research and multimedia projects which will be showcased on this site in this space after the October 2023 Legacy Awards.
This project positions youth to strategically utilize digital spaces to curate their own stories and the stories of others to create their own tectonic shift in their respective communities or even the globe, potentially. This project also actualizes the Hurston/Wright Foundation’s mission to honor, discover and mentor Black writers. For more information or to learn how to support this project, email us at programs@hurstonwright.org.
The DC Black writers who have been interviewed so far include: Derrick Weston Brown, Laini Mataka, Melanie Henderson, Brian Gilmore, Dwayne Lawson-Brown, Dinastah Kiane Thomas, Chantal James, Briana Thomas, and Taylor Johnson.
hurston/wright archives (spring 2021)
Check out this 2021 digital archive project.
Hurston/Wright Archives (ENGL B2032, Spring 2021) was a generative-writing and critical-practice course that explores the role of writers as preservers of history and culture, as archive creators and curators, as archival subjects themselves.
The course was part of the Archives as Muse: A Harlem Storytelling Project initiative of City College’s MFA Program in Creative Writing that “enables the next generation of writers to attend to the stories of the Harlem community at large.” As archival storytellers, students aim to address the following:
- What unique forms might an archive take beyond a physical collection of artifacts?
- How might the archive inform the creation–and definition–of literary work?
- What is the relationship between archives and power?
- What information might the archivist/writer choose to include and omit, reveal and conceal?
- How might an archivist deploy a “radical empathy” that takes into account the record creator(s), record subject(s), records user(s), and the larger community?
Students examined the lives and works of Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and other Black writers, using archival storytelling strategies/tools and open-source digital collections. Projects included documenting the writing careers of The Hurston/Wright Foundation’s College Award Winners dating back to 1991 as part of the Foundation’s Hurston/Wright’s Legacy: 30 Years in DC anniversary efforts.
Instructor
Nelly Rosario, Associate Professor, Williams College/CCNY Visiting Faculty
Contributors
Amaranta Da Cruz Negrao, Dayanara Analuisa, Diana Concepcion, Eve Stewart, Faith Brown, Francette Carson, Isabela Cordero, Isabella An, Jesse Igbokwe, Kathryn “Kat” Harrison, Lyndon Nicholas, Michael Day, Mildred Vargas, Sabrina Sarro, Taylor Baker, Yasmilka “Yaz” Clase
Our Annual Report
