Linebreak | Dear America

November 05, 2024 / Underground Writing

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:

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Today is Election Day 2024. Listeners, if you have not already done so, we urge you to get out and vote as soon as possible! If you don’t know where to vote, check out Vote.org. You can access their voting location help here: https://www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/

If you recently began listening to our podcast—or if you’ve been with us for a number of years—we want to remind you to check out the first 3 episodes of this reboot season to get an overview of where we’ve been and where we’re going. Check out season 5, episodes 1, 2, and 3.

Our first anthology of student writing, What No One Ever Tells You.

The Dear America chapbook.

Learn more about the Letters to a Young Inmate initiative: www.letterstoayounginmate.org

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.

categories / Linebreak
tags / Poetry, student writing, Dear America, Election

Linebreak | Growing Up Is Not Easy

October 03, 2024 / Underground Writing

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.