Filtering by Tag: Migrant Leaders Club

Linebreak | Behind the Reflection

The Underground Writing Podcast is an audio channel focusing on student writing. Flowing in and through this river, as it were, are interviews, guests, and organizational updates, as well as two smaller tributaries: Linebreak (a single piece of writing) and Kite (our student writing audio zine).

LINEBREAK is a single piece of student writing, offered as a pause during your daily life.  We hope it will be generative of further creativity, perspective, and thought.

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Show Notes:

Today’s student writing is a poem by Eloisa (Ela), a student at our workshop site with the Migrant Leaders Club in the Mount Vernon, Washington school district.

Some items mentioned in—or aligned with—today’s episode + Announcements:

1.  For more about writing being a tool for your life: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/bully-wise/202512/want-to-transform-your-life-writing-may-hold-the-key

2. For a 5th year in a row, we have received a very significant organizational grant from an Anonymous Donor via the Seattle Foundation.  We want to thank the donor—we hope you’re listening, and the Seattle Foundation for believing in the work we’re doing and helping our students continue to read, write, and make their voices heard.

3.  We’re excited to announce that we’re in the very beginning stages of working on our third anthology of student writing.  Details are forming, and talks with a publisher are underway.  We’re excited and—as with all creative projects—letting the energy and ideas have a time of incubation before talking any more about it.  But stay tuned—more details will be coming in the months ahead.

And in case you don’t know, or haven’t revisited our work in awhile, we already have two anthologies of student writing—What No One Ever Tells You and When the Dust Rises—in stock and available via our website store – at www.undergroundwriting.org

4. What a year already—seemingly unending wars, a divided country teetering on the precipice, and deep funding and staff cuts in the Arts sector— and this is at both the national and local levels.  As a community arts nonprofit that depends on grants and individual donations for our survival, we need your support now as much as ever.  We’d be honored if you’d keep us in mind as you plan for your advocacy and charitable giving: https://undergroundwriting.org/donate

5. We regularly hear from folks asking how they can be involved with—or help out—Underground Writing.  We’re grateful for the interest.  Please check out our “Get Involved” page on our website: https://undergroundwriting.org/get-involved  Also, to highlight a few inroads for getting involved:  1) If you live locally, consider joining us for our once-a-month re/vision volunteer day (https://undergroundwriting.org/revision),  2) Spread the word about our Letters to a Young Inmate initiative (https://undergroundwriting.org/letters-to-a-young-inmate), and  3) Consider partnering with us by becoming a patron-donor – we’re only able to do our work because of our individual donors and grant partners . . . and we are always in need of these donor-partnerships so that we can continue our work (https://undergroundwriting.org/donate).

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We’re repeating ourselves, but it’s good to say again . . . Listeners!—You can also help us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts or other outlets. And something new—we may even read some of them on the air. Podcast reviews help other like-minded folks find out about our show, as well as our broader work. Any help you can lend to this effort would be greatly appreciated.

Our website: www.undergroundwriting.org

You can send inquiries, or pitches for advertising, here: podcast@undergroundwriting.org

Thanks for listening, Friends.

Safe journey, and take good care.

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Linebreak | Growing Up Is Not Easy

LINEBREAK is a single piece of student writing, offered as a pause during your daily life.  We hope it will be generative of further creativity, perspective, and thought.

SHOW NOTES:

*A prefatory note.  We recorded this episode on Monday, September 30, 2024.  While in the process of recording it at a local college library, an “active shooter” event took place in the nearby vicinity—outside the library where we were located.  The library and college went to lockdown, as did all the other schools in the area.  The students and staff members all scrambled to locations inside the library—by walls, under tables, in offices, or, like us, in one of three side-area study rooms.  In the seconds it took to grasp what was happening, I (Matt) saw a student walking around, unsure where he should go.  He pointed at me, as I pointed at him through the glass window of the study room.  I motioned for him to come inside.  I turned off the light, and sat in the corner, my leg extending across the bottom inside of the door.  The student sat across from me, also in the corner.  He called his mom.  I texted my family.  We introduced ourselves.  And what ensued was a wonderful conversation between Mason and me, two humans with about a two to three decade age difference, both caught in a situation with unknown variabilities and outcomes, getting to know each other, talking as a way to bring peace and calm amidst a fearful situation.  Twenty minutes later—the situation under control—the library went off lockdown.  Lights went back on.  Mason and I stood up and shook hands and expressed gratitude for the time.  If you’re reading this, Mason, thanks for the dialogue, for your willingness to share, and for your camaraderie in a time of danger.

On today’s episode, our featured student writing is, “Growing Up Is Not Easy” by Juli from our site with the Migrant Leaders Club in the Mount Vernon School District.

Migrant Leaders Club

Collaboration with artist and photographer, Marilyn Montufar.  Thanks to Marilyn and the MLC for your work with us.  Marilyn’s own website.

Migrant Leaders Club & Underground Writing travel to New York (2018) to watch Quiara Alegría Hudes’ new musical Miss You Like Hell.

Underground Writing’s photo-based NEWS page.  (Hover over the images to access text, more information, and links to connected topics.)

Our website – Programs / News / Contact / Donations:  www.undergroundwriting.org

You can send inquiries, or pitches for advertising, here: podcast@undergroundwriting.org

We’re repeating ourselves, but it’s good to say again . . . Listeners!—You can also help us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts or other outlets.  And something new—we may even read some of them on the air.  Podcast reviews help other like-minded folks find out about our show, as well as our broader work.  Any help you can lend to this effort would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for listening, Friends. 

Safe journey . . . and take good care.

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