On Sunday, May 5, 2013, we were thrilled to be the Community Partner for the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Our students were treated to complimentary tickets to the Giants vs. Dodgers game and were so excited at the chance to cheer on the home team!

Our Apprentices student Evelyn Leon, 19, read her poem “My Place In the Field,” from home plate before the game. (You can read her poem at the end of this post.)

Evelyn was joined by her instructor, WritersCorps teaching artist Rose Tully.

Evelyn was also joined by her proud parents.

Many thanks to the San Francisco Giants for the opportunity!

See Evelyn read her poem in this video:

Check out the rest of the photos from the game here. Thanks to photographer J. Astra Brinkmann!

My Place In the Field

You see, I was scared.
It was the first Giants game
I ever attended.
I hated it at first.
Screaming, cursing, garbage.
Thirteen, and looking for Mom and Dad,
I sat my little sister on a bench.
The star of the show seemed to be a ball.
The man swinging his bat had all the attention.
Hopefully, he was going to make a home run.
(Whatever that is.)
Back to reality—
I grabbed my sister,
Ran up the stairs, down the hall
Next to the ice cream stand.
Trying to find my parents,
I witnessed an amazing sight.
Being a person of color,
Always made me think of the world
As a divided place.
As distracted as I was,
Always admiring white clouds above everyone,
Brown dirt underneath everything,
I saw
Latins,
Blacks,
Whites,
Everyone joined together in the stadium,
All united together in the field.

—Evelyn Leon, 19

On Saturday, April 13, WritersCorps held the third annual Poetry Projection Project, a festival of short films inspired by youth poems, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The event was emceed by our very own teaching artist, Anhvu Buchanan, or “Mr. B,” as he’s known by his students.

The audience enjoyed a reading by four WritersCorps poets– Haley, Nicole, Senobia, and Melissa– followed by a screening of film entries. Then, special guest juror H.P. Mendoza, an award-winning San Francisco-based filmmaker (”Colma: The Musical,” and “I Am a Ghost”), praised the work of the filmmakers and poets before announcing the winners of the festival.

The winners were:

“City Boy,” by Jayraj Govender (above, left), featuring his own poem.

“The Girl with the Birds,” by Reel Grrls students, featuring their own poem.

See “City Boy” and “The Girl with the Birds” at the end of this post, and watch the rest of the selected festival films here!

Everyone had a great time at the celebratory reception, enjoying a variety of munchies!

Congratulations to all the filmmakers and poets! See more photos of the Poetry Projection Project event here. Thanks to photographer Cole Anetsberger!

Thank you to our partners, the YBCA Young Artists at Work (YAAW) program, and TILT-Ninth Street Independent Film Center.

Special thanks to our in-kind sponsors: Rainbow Grocery, Cabot Creamery, and Taylor’s Tonics/The Fizzary.

A group of students in one of our after-school programs, jointly run by WritersCorps and Oasis for Girls, have won first place in an anti-bullying video contest held by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. Their entry is called “Stand Up, Speak Up.”

The students are: Lurleen Frazier, Shyla Jackson, Tamika Orotea, Kimberly Solorio, Sabrina Wu, Sharenda Grady, Sapphire Arceneaux, Eboni Pettway, Monica Moore, and Lewana Kidane. Special thanks to their WritersCorps teacher Roseli Ilano.

District Attorney George Gascón announced the winners of the “Bye Bye Bullying” video contest at a press conference earlier this week. “This video contest resonated with young people in our city as they pulled together their friends to speak out about bullying. We were impressed with the creativity and the heart and soul put into creating these videos,” said Gascón.

The videos were evaluated by a panel of judges that included: Renel Brooks-Moon, radio personality and public address announcer for the San Francisco Giants; Cheryl Jennings, news anchor for ABC 7 News; Dr. Chris Stewart, San Francisco General Hospital; Kristina Omohundro, Zendesk; San Francisco Youth Commissioners Mia Tu Mutch and Angel Carrion; Irene Van der Zande, Kidpower; and School Board member Emily Murase.

See all the winning videos in the contest here. For more information, check out the press release here.

Now is a great time to visit our online store because it’s BOGO time — that’s Buy One Get One Free!

This sale only happens once a year, so fill up your shopping cart! Pick up our cookbook “Mission Soul Kitchen” or our “Greetings from San Francisco” card set. Remember: all proceeds support our free student programming. Sale ends January 4. Shop here.

The San Francisco Arts Commission is selling posters from its acclaimed Art on Market Street Poster Series.

WritersCorps posters from the “Love Poems to the City” series, which were featured on bus shelters this year, will be available for purchase at the discounted price of $50 and less. Also on offer: nearly 20-years-worth of posters from such well known Bay Area artists as Paul Madonna, Kamu Patton, Julio Cesar Morales, Amanda Hughen, and Jennifer Starkweather. The posters measure approximately 4 x 6 feet.

This sale is on for one day only!

When: Thursday, December 6, noon-7 pm

Where: The SFAC Galleries, 401 Van Ness Avenue