ROOM 201

Forming critically-conscious youth leaders through the written and spoken word

Room 201 is our series of youth workshops presented at schools, libraries, and other traditional and nontraditional educational spaces. TLA provides one-hour workshops, year-long writing residencies, and a variety of other learning options. Our experienced teaching artists provide lessons across eight literary arts content areas designed to introduce youth to living poets and writers of color and to inspire youth to use their written and spoken voices to participate in our democratic process and to speak truth to power.

INTRODUCTION TO POETRY

The short-term “Introduction to Poetry” workshop introduces students to various aspects of poetic craft, including imagery, metaphor, line, stanza, music, rhythm, diction, and tone. The long-term residency introduces students to contemporary poets not traditionally taught in most public high school literature courses. Students in the long-term residency will write and read widely, exploring a number of poetic traditions, including the sonnet, and the villanelle. Through peer critique, students respond closely to the work of fellow writers in a supportive workshop.

POETRY FOR PUBLICATION

This workshop is designed to help youth submit their writing to professional literary journals, literary anthologies, writing residencies, and publishing houses that are most appropriate for their work. Youth will also develop and trust in their own process of revision, while becoming strong actors in a writing workshop community.

POETRY FOR PERFORMANCE

This workshop is designed to help youth write and perform poems for a live audience. Students are provided unique, existential writing prompts to inspire their process. Students are also introduced to literary techniques and literary heroes/heroines that may influence the development of their individual voices. Strong writing forms the backbone of this course, but youth are also introduced to performance techniques and exercises and that will take their literary expression to another level.

Literary Theory

This college-readiness Socratic seminar challenges students to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the theoretical functions of creative language in society. The course prepares students to analyze creative writing after exposure to Feminist theory, Gender Studies, Critical Race Theory, Post-Colonialist Theory, and Post-Structuralist theory. Students are also introduced to the basic elements of semiotics and etymology. The class provides students with the tools to analyze narrative storytelling through the lens of these theoretical frameworks, and to apply these frameworks to their own writing.

Hip Hop Culture and the Craft of MCing​

This college-readiness Socratic seminar challenges students to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the theoretical functions of creative language in society. The course prepares students to analyze creative writing after exposure to Feminist theory, Gender Studies, Critical Race Theory, Post-Colonialist Theory, and Post-Structuralist theory. Students are also introduced to the basic elements of semiotics and etymology. The class provides students with the tools to analyze narrative storytelling through the lens of these theoretical frameworks, and to apply these frameworks to their own writing.

PLAYWRITING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Youtube, Netflix, and other digital media have dominated our entertainment landscape over the course of the past 10 – 15 years. Increasingly, live performances and live theater have seemingly become less important than in years’ past. So why a course that focuses on live theater? This course is designed to help us answer this larger question. This three-month long residency is designed to help the emerging playwright discover the importance of writing plays with the goal of bringing communities together to better understand the world in which they live – and to give audiences the inspiration to think about social change and community transformation.

Students will learn to develop well-rounded characters for the bulk of this course. The guiding philosophy behind this strategy is that strong, believable characters are the basis of a play’s action, plot, mood, and tone. Throughout the course of this three-month residency, student playwrights undergo a rigorous series of peer-to-peer writing workshops, monthly writing retreats, and individualized discussions with the resident teaching artist.

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For More Information about this program, please contact
Daniel Gray-Kontar at dgraykontar@twelvearts.org