WritersCorps was featured on a recent episode of Culture Wire!
The show interviewed students at our annual literary festival.

Culture Wire: Loco Bloco and WritersCorps from San Francisco Arts Commission on Vimeo.

The San Francisco Arts Commission is seeking an Arts Education Program Assistant for immediate hire.

This position supports the Arts Education program through Community Arts Education (CAE), in addition to providing project support for the Arts Providers Alliance of San Francisco (APASF), Arts Education Funders Collaborative (AEFC), and the Arts Education Master Plan implementation through partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District.

The Arts Education Program Assistant provides administrative and program support to the Arts Education Program Manager. The ideal candidate has experience in local community arts and/or arts education fields.

Salary and benefits: $18.50 per hour including health benefits (no dental, no vision)

Hours: Part time, 20 hours per week with occasional evenings and weekends; July 13, 2009 to July 31, 2010. Contingent upon secured funding the position may extend beyond this time.

This is not a position with the City of San Francisco.  This position is administered through an outside agent, Community Initiatives.

Applications are due July 3. For full job description and application process, go  here.

Photos from WritersCorps reading at 826 Valencia are here! Here are a few below. See the entire photo set over on flickr.

Thank you to 826 Valencia for hosting, to Intersection for co-sponsoring, and to everyone who made it out. It was very moving to see our former teachers reconnect with their students years later and read together.

Former WritersCorps teacher Michelle Matz reads a piece about her students.

Jorge Aburto, Luz Aburto, Baby Sofia, and their teacher Jime Salcedo-Malo.

The great audience!

This sounds like a cool contest.  Adobe Youth Voices (AYV), a global youth media initiative, and the nonprofit What Kids Can Do are teaming up for a photo contest. The winning photos will be showcased online, in a traveling exhibit, and also in a book. The contest is open to all young people — anywhere in the world — between the ages of 12 and 19. Deadline for submissions is July 31, 2009. Details here.

WritersCorps made the news today, but not for anything we were expecting. A principal in Vineland, New Jersey has censored a copy of “Paint Me Like I Am,” an anthology by WritersCorps students published by HarperCollins.

After one parent complained about the content of a poem, principal Don Kohaut removed pages from “Paint Me Like I Am” that included the poem “Diary of an Abusive Stepfather” by a Bronx WritersCorps student. What the news story does not mention is that the poem is followed by a second poem by the same student, Jayson Tirado, entitled “Diary of an Abused Son.” Together the poems tell a story of a father with substance abuse and anger problems, and a child who suffers as a results of it.

We at WritersCorps stand behind our students and their writing, which portrays many aspects of their lives, from happy moments to sad and tragic ones. We also thank the principal: Nothing gets teens to read poetry like banning poems.