#writememphis

Poetry Slam

We meet each week, a hodgepodge group of young and old, black and white, those with homes and without, youth mentors, waiters and those between jobs. We write and share our writing. In an hour and a half we drill up poems, short stories and essays. One woman sometimes writes about growing up during the civil rights movement, but more often writes about her dreams of making it big and buying a Benz. Another woman writes intensely personal poems, contrasting outside perceptions of homelessness with her own experience. We've begun to feel like a real community. As I leave Caritas and drive home, I see members of the workshop walking through Binghamton holding their notebooks filled with writing, and I can feel the web-like community we've created growing, extending outward through the city.