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Basic Blaque After Dark-Blaque Diamond| LIVE EVERY 1ST & 3RD FRIDAY ON DA CREW PODCAST · DA CREW Podcast

1:15
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, I have your attention.
1:22
Speaker 2: Please.
1:24
Speaker 1: The show starts in ten line eight, seven, six, five,
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Speaker 1: four three two one.
1:44
Speaker 2: Got it gives you exactly what you ask for. Tonight
1:58
Speaker 2: we are diving deep into the world of storytelling, empowerment
2:02
Speaker 2: and youth creativity. I am more than honored to welcome
2:06
Speaker 2: a phenomenal woman, a visionary leader, and the founder of
2:10
Speaker 2: Youth Writers Rock, and that's none other than Patricia Harris.
2:15
Speaker 2: Youth Writers Rock is transforming the lines of young people
2:18
Speaker 2: by giving them the tools, confidence, and opportunity to tell
2:22
Speaker 2: their stories, publish their books, and stand proudly in their voices.
2:26
Speaker 2: So lean in, relax, and get ready. Tonight's conversation is
2:31
Speaker 2: going to inspire, empower and shift your perspective on what
2:35
Speaker 2: our children are capable of when they are seeing, supported
2:39
Speaker 2: and given access. But first, I have something special for
2:43
Speaker 2: you tonight, and I'm so happy to get this basic
2:46
Speaker 2: Black after Dark presents Thereatha Franklin Tribute Ticket Giveaway. That's right,
2:53
Speaker 2: you heard me, The Areatha Franklin Tribute Ticket Giveaway. You
2:57
Speaker 2: can win free tickets to the Power Tribute Show featuring
3:01
Speaker 2: the uncomparable Karen Thennet. She's gonna be performing Aretha Franklin's
3:06
Speaker 2: Greatest Hits at the Gordon Center in Owens Mills, Maryland
3:10
Speaker 2: on December sixth at seven pm. And these tickets was
3:14
Speaker 2: donated by Youth Writers Rock founder At Harris. So thank
3:19
Speaker 2: you so much, Pat for donation of these tickets. And
3:23
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you how you can enter listen to
3:26
Speaker 2: their Wretha Franklin trivial question tonight this episode. You're gonna
3:31
Speaker 2: email your answer to Basic B A S I C
3:36
Speaker 2: Black B L A q U E Essentials E S
3:41
Speaker 2: S E N T I A L S at gmail
3:46
Speaker 2: dot com, and the first correct answer wins the ticket.
3:52
Speaker 2: The wine will be announced on Basic Black after Dark
3:55
Speaker 2: on December fifth, and that show is at eight pm. Okay,
4:01
Speaker 2: so I'm going to repeat this later on because I'm
4:03
Speaker 2: going to give you the trivia question, but right now
4:05
Speaker 2: we're going to dive into tonight's show, So please join
4:08
Speaker 2: me in welcoming Pat Harris back to Basic Black after Dog.
4:13
Speaker 2: Pat has been on the show several times since she
4:15
Speaker 2: had a mission of the Youth Writers Rock. She is
4:17
Speaker 2: even brought in some of her talented youth writers during
4:21
Speaker 2: her past episodes to talk about their creative journeys. And
4:24
Speaker 2: when I say that these youth are talented, they have
4:27
Speaker 2: books out there. They are authors, they are young authors,
4:31
Speaker 2: and I know they have to be proud because I'm
4:33
Speaker 2: proud of them every time I see them. These are young,
4:36
Speaker 2: inspiring authors on the rise. So I want you guys
4:39
Speaker 2: to keep your eyes out for them because they're doing
4:41
Speaker 2: some wonderful things.
4:42
Speaker 3: Welcome, Pat Harris, Thank you, Black Diamond, thank you. It's
4:49
Speaker 3: always always a pleasure, always a pleasure. After Dog Soul.
4:59
Speaker 2: I'm just always excited when you come because I love
5:01
Speaker 2: watching the youth. I love hearing what they're doing. I
5:04
Speaker 2: love learning about the new books, and I love hearing
5:07
Speaker 2: the graduations. You just do everything for them, you and
5:11
Speaker 2: your team. It's just remarkable. It's so unbelievable. You know,
5:15
Speaker 2: from the birth of these youth writers Rock that's forked
5:19
Speaker 2: the creation of youth writers Rock.
5:23
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I really appreciate it. I really appreciate that
5:27
Speaker 3: you provide for me and the young authors. I think
5:32
Speaker 3: when they get on the show, this is their six
5:36
Speaker 3: variance of actually on the interview out their book. You know,
5:43
Speaker 3: they took maybe a total of eight months to really
5:48
Speaker 3: get that book written, to get it published, to get
5:52
Speaker 3: the illustration done on that book, and they put a
5:55
Speaker 3: lot of time and commitment into that book. So I
5:58
Speaker 3: think when they get the opportunity to actually talk about
6:02
Speaker 3: their experience and talk about, you know, the subject of
6:05
Speaker 3: their book, it really just gives them a lot of confidence, right,
6:09
Speaker 3: and it gives them that opportunity to say, Hey, I
6:12
Speaker 3: did an interview on Basic Black Show, and it really
6:17
Speaker 3: really every time after we do a show, the parents
6:20
Speaker 3: actually called me and be like, thank you so much
6:22
Speaker 3: for that opportunity. So we couldn't do that without you,
6:26
Speaker 3: And so I just wanted to say thank you, and
6:29
Speaker 3: we appreciate this platform that you provide, not just for us,
6:33
Speaker 3: you know, but for other authors.
6:35
Speaker 2: And for.
6:37
Speaker 3: Providers, you know, just for everyone. You just provide that
6:40
Speaker 3: platform for us, and so I just wanted to say
6:42
Speaker 3: thank you for this opportunity tonight. But for those who
6:46
Speaker 3: may not know, again, my name is Patricia Harris. I
6:51
Speaker 3: am the founder of Youth Writers Challenge, which is a
6:54
Speaker 3: five oh one C three organization where we provide a
6:58
Speaker 3: platform for or insided youth to creatively creatively express their
7:04
Speaker 3: thoughts and ideas. And under the Youth Writers Challenge, umbrella,
7:09
Speaker 3: we created a writing program called Youth Writers Rock. And
7:14
Speaker 3: so with Youth Writers Challenge, we actually challenge the students.
7:17
Speaker 3: We go to different venues like mals or book events
7:23
Speaker 3: or fashion shows and things like that, and we will
7:25
Speaker 3: actually have the students all come out and perform, you know,
7:30
Speaker 3: whether they're writing poetry or they're dancing, they're singing, or
7:35
Speaker 3: they're rapping. We allow them that platform to be creative.
7:39
Speaker 3: And out of doing Youth Writers Challenge, we noticed that
7:43
Speaker 3: they were a lot of great writers. Even song singers
7:47
Speaker 3: are writers, right, they got to write their lyrics. Even
7:50
Speaker 3: rappers are writers, right, they got to write the lyrics
7:53
Speaker 3: to their songs. And so we really wanted to tap
7:56
Speaker 3: more into that writing creativity, and so we started Youth
8:00
Speaker 3: Writers Rock in twenty seventeen and it has just flourished
8:04
Speaker 3: since then. We have to date nineteen authors that have
8:09
Speaker 3: graduated the program that are now published authors. Their books
8:15
Speaker 3: can be found on any book sites, so we're talking
8:18
Speaker 3: in Amazon, Bonds and Nobles, some of the Greetings and
8:22
Speaker 3: reading sites. Their books are in the Library of Congress,
8:28
Speaker 3: and their books are in Baltimore County and Baltimore City
8:32
Speaker 3: public libraries. And we actually have two books in PG
8:35
Speaker 3: County libraries. So we're working towards getting more of their
8:39
Speaker 3: books out in the libraries in Ellicatet City, some of
8:42
Speaker 3: the libraries in Laurel, and some of more of the
8:46
Speaker 3: books in the libraries in PG County, right, So we're
8:50
Speaker 3: really trying to spread the word or to just make
8:53
Speaker 3: sure the books are available for students that are in
8:56
Speaker 3: the school systems to kind of pick up this book,
8:59
Speaker 3: turn to the back of the book and see that,
9:01
Speaker 3: you know, some of their own age wrote this book,
9:04
Speaker 3: and if they can do it, you know they can
9:07
Speaker 3: do it as well. You know, if I see a
9:09
Speaker 3: young person's face on the back of a book, then
9:11
Speaker 3: I'm going to be more encouraged to say, hey, if
9:13
Speaker 3: they could do it, I could do it as well.
9:15
Speaker 3: So we're really trying to make sure all of the
9:17
Speaker 3: books are in the library so all of the students
9:19
Speaker 3: have access to reading those books that the Youth Writers'
9:23
Speaker 3: Rock students are writing. So that's what we do. We
9:27
Speaker 3: have coaches that are authors themselves, they're editors, you know,
9:32
Speaker 3: they are teachers, and they are business professionals, so they've
9:38
Speaker 3: actually walked that line of starting from the very beginning
9:43
Speaker 3: of the concept of writing the book all the way
9:46
Speaker 3: to the end of completing the book and sending the
9:49
Speaker 3: book off to the publisher. So the students that participate
9:52
Speaker 3: in Youth Writers' Rock commits to a six month program
9:57
Speaker 3: that we meet on Saturdays, and to kind of see
10:00
Speaker 3: all of them go all the way through that process
10:03
Speaker 3: until their book is done is just fascinating and we
10:08
Speaker 3: enjoy and love every minute of it. Me the coaches,
10:13
Speaker 3: the parents, you know, they come, they come from session
10:15
Speaker 3: to session and just kind of sit in. But it's
10:18
Speaker 3: really a great bonding group that we have when we
10:22
Speaker 3: do our sessions and the students leave knowing, you know,
10:26
Speaker 3: and and meeting new friends that they didn't have when
10:28
Speaker 3: they first walked into the session. So they really stay
10:32
Speaker 3: connected to one another even after the session is over.
10:35
Speaker 3: So I appreciate that bonding aspect of the program as well.
10:41
Speaker 2: So soad, how did the early vision differ from what
10:45
Speaker 2: the program has grown into today.
10:50
Speaker 3: I really they come to the session, and they come
10:54
Speaker 3: to the session, and we we we write the book
10:57
Speaker 3: and then they you know, at the end of it.
11:00
Speaker 3: I didn't really think so far out of it, but
11:03
Speaker 3: now when we're doing these sessions, we're thinking beyond the book, right,
11:07
Speaker 3: We're thinking, how do we turn this book into a
11:10
Speaker 3: short film, or how do we turn this book into
11:13
Speaker 3: a play, you know, how do we use these students
11:16
Speaker 3: to actually do the illustration themselves? You know, how do
11:22
Speaker 3: we use the students to do the music to go
11:26
Speaker 3: along with the book, you know, or to go along
11:29
Speaker 3: with the playwright, or to go to go along with
11:32
Speaker 3: the short film. So now we're actually looking at the book,
11:37
Speaker 3: but also what else can we do with that book,
11:41
Speaker 3: Like in terms of we don't want them to just
11:43
Speaker 3: be authors. We want them to be playwrights. We want
11:45
Speaker 3: them to be screen rights, we want them to be directors.
11:49
Speaker 3: We want them to be the illustrators, you know, we
11:51
Speaker 3: want them to come up with the stage plot of
11:54
Speaker 3: the play, you know, and things like that. So we're
11:56
Speaker 3: looking a little beyond the book.
11:58
Speaker 2: At this point.
11:58
Speaker 3: Right, the book is kind of at the starting point, right,
12:01
Speaker 3: So I think what a lot of authors don't realize that.
12:05
Speaker 3: You know, once you write a book, you really then
12:08
Speaker 3: become a business person.
12:10
Speaker 2: Right.
12:10
Speaker 3: Your book is your business. Right, You have a product now, right,
12:14
Speaker 3: so you go to different events and you sell your product. Right,
12:17
Speaker 3: So we in the sessions we teach them about being
12:22
Speaker 3: a business person. Right, we go through how to sell
12:26
Speaker 3: a book, you know, how to approach a person or
12:29
Speaker 3: when they approach you about your book, you know, how
12:31
Speaker 3: do you present yourself to them? You know, how in
12:34
Speaker 3: the quick thirty or sixty seconds do you grab their
12:37
Speaker 3: attention and get excited about wanting to read more about
12:40
Speaker 3: your book. We teach them that. But now we just
12:43
Speaker 3: want to tag something onto their names. Besides author, we
12:46
Speaker 3: also want to say that they're either an actor or
12:50
Speaker 3: an actress, or playwright or a screenwright. And so where
12:55
Speaker 3: my vision for it is still creating authors, right, because
12:59
Speaker 3: that's that's a legacy, right, that's something that will always
13:03
Speaker 3: be with them. Once you're an author, You're gonna always
13:05
Speaker 3: be an author. Your book is gonna always be out there. Right,
13:08
Speaker 3: That's the one thing that never dies or never goes
13:11
Speaker 3: away is a book, right, whether it's hard copy or online,
13:17
Speaker 3: it's gonna always be out there. And so they will
13:21
Speaker 3: always forever be an author. And that's something no one
13:24
Speaker 3: can take from them. But then with them, but then
13:30
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I'm.
13:39
Speaker 2: Hoping that they understand that they're always going to be
13:41
Speaker 2: an author. They can't get away from that. You know,
13:44
Speaker 2: what I wanted to know about them was what changes
13:47
Speaker 2: do you see in students once they realize their voices matter?
13:51
Speaker 2: Because I don't think some of them act I wrote
13:55
Speaker 2: this book. It's not just me sitting with a bunch
13:58
Speaker 2: of people on a Saturday and we're just writing something.
14:02
Speaker 2: I am a published author.
14:05
Speaker 1: You know.
14:05
Speaker 2: I've seen some of your youth at the graduations and
14:09
Speaker 2: at their events, and I'm looking at them and I'm
14:11
Speaker 2: marveling at the I'm just looking at this grin on
14:13
Speaker 2: their face. But what I see more than the grint
14:15
Speaker 2: on their face is the grin on their parents' face
14:18
Speaker 2: that they were there to support their children through this
14:22
Speaker 2: journey and sometimes it's not easy. But I give kudos
14:26
Speaker 2: to the parents for encouraging their children to stick with
14:30
Speaker 2: it and to stay with it, and it's just so
14:32
Speaker 2: important for them to be a part of it. So
14:36
Speaker 2: how do you realize and what you see in your
14:40
Speaker 2: students that their voice matters.
14:43
Speaker 3: I think, like you said, in the beginning of going
14:46
Speaker 3: through the process of writing the book, I think they're
14:49
Speaker 3: having more fun of it, right, They're not realizing what
14:52
Speaker 3: the end result is going to be. You know, once
14:55
Speaker 3: that book is actually published, they don't. I don't think
14:58
Speaker 3: they get the gist of it right. But they're enjoying
15:00
Speaker 3: the process of being creative, right and coming up with
15:04
Speaker 3: the characters of the stories and the line that the
15:09
Speaker 3: details of the stories, and who's going to be the
15:13
Speaker 3: main character, you know, or the good guy and who's
15:16
Speaker 3: going to be the bad guy and the story. They
15:18
Speaker 3: get excited about that, and I think at that point
15:21
Speaker 3: they're not really thinking about, all, right, what happens once
15:24
Speaker 3: this book is published. But at the graduation, I think
15:29
Speaker 3: because we make it so that that's the first time
15:31
Speaker 3: they see their book in their hand, because we want
15:33
Speaker 3: them excited when they're on that stage, when they're walking
15:36
Speaker 3: across the stage, we kind of want them to get
15:38
Speaker 3: so excited that they want to just get back to
15:41
Speaker 3: grabbing onto their book, you know. But once they actually
15:45
Speaker 3: see the book and they see their photo on the
15:47
Speaker 3: back of the book, and they see their names on
15:50
Speaker 3: the front of the book, I think it's when it
15:52
Speaker 3: really hits them like I wrote this book, you know,
15:56
Speaker 3: like I published a book. That's me. I think from
16:00
Speaker 3: that point on, because we immediately start to try and
16:03
Speaker 3: do book events right after, right, we don't want to
16:06
Speaker 3: lose the momental, right, they're excited about their new book.
16:09
Speaker 3: We don't want to lose the momental. So we start
16:12
Speaker 3: immediately right at the Guard graduation doing a book signing
16:15
Speaker 3: so they can kind of get that feel of being like, oh,
16:19
Speaker 3: this is about me today, like I'm the author today.
16:22
Speaker 3: And then we schedule some other events where they can
16:26
Speaker 3: do the same thing, do some book signings and do
16:29
Speaker 3: some public speaking. And I think once they realize that
16:34
Speaker 3: they are an author, right, and this is me, this
16:38
Speaker 3: is mine, I did it, I created it, they start
16:43
Speaker 3: to be even more confident. Right. They start to feel
16:47
Speaker 3: a lot more excited about their accomplishment and what they did.
16:51
Speaker 3: You know, they just wasn't in this room for six months,
16:53
Speaker 3: but this they are. Actually they have created something that
16:58
Speaker 3: no one else has created. Right. Their book is their book, right,
17:01
Speaker 3: And you start to see the confidence come out in them.
17:06
Speaker 3: You start to see that they're proud of themselves.
17:09
Speaker 2: Right.
17:10
Speaker 3: Their parents are very proud of them, but they are
17:12
Speaker 3: proud of themselves and what they've created and what they've done.
17:16
Speaker 3: And you can see that in them when they start
17:19
Speaker 3: to talk about their book, and it's always I did this,
17:22
Speaker 3: I wrote this, you know, I'm an author. You know,
17:24
Speaker 3: they take ownership of it, and they take that back
17:28
Speaker 3: to their friends and families, They take it back to
17:31
Speaker 3: the other students in their classrooms and their teachers. You know,
17:34
Speaker 3: they just become a more confident person knowing that they
17:39
Speaker 3: accomplished something that many of us still have not been
17:42
Speaker 3: able to do yet.
17:44
Speaker 1: You know.
17:44
Speaker 3: You know, as adults, many of us say, oh, yeah,
17:46
Speaker 3: I'm going to write this book. I just I started it,
17:49
Speaker 3: but I didn't finish it. You know, I got to
17:51
Speaker 3: get back to it. But they actually committed six months
17:55
Speaker 3: and got their book done, and so.
18:01
Speaker 2: You should be You mentioned representation. When the youth writers
18:05
Speaker 2: place a strong focus on representation, how does students respond
18:09
Speaker 2: when they see other authors who look like them.
18:14
Speaker 3: I think when they see the authors that look like them,
18:17
Speaker 3: they get more excited because I think they fill a bond,
18:21
Speaker 3: right even though they may not personally know them, they
18:25
Speaker 3: still field a connection in a bond because they know
18:28
Speaker 3: that they've gone down that same path that this other
18:31
Speaker 3: author has gone down. So, during our sessions will bring
18:35
Speaker 3: some of the authors back that have graduated previous youth
18:39
Speaker 3: writers' rock sessions where you'll bring them back and kind
18:42
Speaker 3: of let them speak about their experience and what it's
18:46
Speaker 3: been like for them. And after they've finished speaking, just
18:50
Speaker 3: to see the new authors connecting with that that person
18:55
Speaker 3: with that author, it's really encouraging to say, they're really
18:59
Speaker 3: trying to get more information from them. They really want
19:01
Speaker 3: to see how their book relates to their book. And
19:05
Speaker 3: I think even in some of the book events that
19:08
Speaker 3: we do, we we did AFRAM this year, the African
19:13
Speaker 3: American Heritage and they actually started going to some of
19:19
Speaker 3: the tables where they were authors that and talking to
19:22
Speaker 3: them and kind of talking to them about their book
19:25
Speaker 3: and asking for more information about the book that that
19:28
Speaker 3: author has written. So it's kind of I think opened
19:31
Speaker 3: them up a little more, you know, to wanting to
19:34
Speaker 3: know more about other author's experience of writing a book
19:38
Speaker 3: and and how long it took them to write the book,
19:41
Speaker 3: and you know what resources that they use for their books.
19:44
Speaker 3: So it's definitely broaden their range of reading, you know,
19:48
Speaker 3: or different types of ways of becoming an author or
19:53
Speaker 3: writing a book and different things like that. And again
19:57
Speaker 3: it really just kind of makes theF a little more
20:01
Speaker 3: confident in what they've done and they're more open to
20:05
Speaker 3: talking about what it is that they've done, and experience
20:08
Speaker 3: that they've had, experience that they've had. Love sharing that
20:12
Speaker 3: love sharing that people one of.
20:15
Speaker 2: The things you had mentioned when they went to afram
20:18
Speaker 2: There's also a Baltimore Book Festival dedicated to children as
20:22
Speaker 2: well for children authors, So you may want to look
20:24
Speaker 2: into that for next year as well as the educational week.
20:29
Speaker 2: They have them in the schools education week and sometimes
20:32
Speaker 2: you may get a student that may belong to the
20:35
Speaker 2: school that's doing education Week and they can do some
20:38
Speaker 2: just get in contact with the principal and maybe that
20:41
Speaker 2: youth can bring their books and sell them to you know,
20:45
Speaker 2: some of the students that's there and that you know,
20:47
Speaker 2: just being a student of the school and we wrote
20:49
Speaker 2: the book that that's that's just overwhelming for that student
20:54
Speaker 2: to share what it's cohorts that and it's peers, I've
20:58
Speaker 2: written this book and I'm bringing here in your school
21:01
Speaker 2: right out to the schools as well, because I think
21:04
Speaker 2: that happens around November that they do that. But the
21:08
Speaker 2: Baltimore Book Festival, I believe that in I think it's August.
21:13
Speaker 2: I think it's the early part of August that the
21:15
Speaker 2: book Festival is in. So try that because they have
21:18
Speaker 2: a whole section just for them for the children to
21:23
Speaker 2: do their book. They have older authors too, but they're
21:25
Speaker 2: definitely doing children's books in that area, so I think
21:29
Speaker 2: that might be something that would be good.
21:37
Speaker 3: Treating more of that more. So definitely, definitely definitely to well,
21:44
Speaker 3: especially the Baltimore Book Festival. I can definitely look up
21:47
Speaker 3: that information. But the parents actually have been reaching out
21:51
Speaker 3: to the student schools and and a couple of them
21:55
Speaker 3: were successful at actually you know, the principal allowing us
21:59
Speaker 3: to to come in usually during lunch break or write
22:03
Speaker 3: at the their library time, just kind of allowing the
22:06
Speaker 3: students to talk to the other students about their book
22:09
Speaker 3: and bringing copies up their book as well. So we
22:12
Speaker 3: we you know, I absolutely love that and always let
22:14
Speaker 3: the students know that I'm available to come be a
22:17
Speaker 3: support for them whenever they want to do that in
22:19
Speaker 3: the school system. But thank you Black Diamond for that.
22:24
Speaker 3: Definitely going to look into the Baltimore They.
22:30
Speaker 2: Will let them. Also try the Regional Flowers Museum because
22:34
Speaker 2: they have a children's days there there as well, so
22:37
Speaker 2: you might want to try that with them, and it's
22:39
Speaker 2: very popular. They definitely encourage the youth to come on
22:43
Speaker 2: anybody there to children's author author. I think that they
22:46
Speaker 2: would be wonderful for people to see that these are
22:48
Speaker 2: children that's doing that, and I believe they put their
22:51
Speaker 2: names and their pictures up, so it will definitely bring
22:53
Speaker 2: the people out. You may want to try some of
22:56
Speaker 2: those places as well, even the places that we go
22:58
Speaker 2: to as adults. Know, if they have an area for
23:02
Speaker 2: children authors, children book authors, it doesn't necessarily mean that
23:06
Speaker 2: their children, but they could have written a children's book,
23:09
Speaker 2: and but you have they've written children's books, So I
23:12
Speaker 2: would definitely go and just put it in there. Don't
23:15
Speaker 2: think it's just for you know, the adults. You know,
23:18
Speaker 2: the writing process for young authors. Could you walk us
23:21
Speaker 2: through the writing journey from ideas to publish books for
23:25
Speaker 2: a child in your program?
23:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, you know, absolutely. We try and get to
23:33
Speaker 3: know a little more about the students in the program,
23:36
Speaker 3: you know, and try and get to know them so
23:38
Speaker 3: that and allow them to get to know one another
23:40
Speaker 3: before we jump right into writing the book. So we
23:44
Speaker 3: have a couple of sessions of just you know, icebreakers
23:47
Speaker 3: and bonding, you know, and getting them a little comfortable.
23:52
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of them are nervous when they
23:54
Speaker 3: come in. Again, they don't a lot of them don't
23:56
Speaker 3: know each other, right, so you're you're in a session
23:59
Speaker 3: with maybe ten students and you're not familiar with them.
24:02
Speaker 3: So we do take the first couple of sessions to
24:05
Speaker 3: just kind of get them a little more relaxed and
24:08
Speaker 3: get them, you know, so that they can learn a
24:10
Speaker 3: little bit about one another. And our icebreakers allows us
24:14
Speaker 3: to do that and allows them to kind of ask
24:17
Speaker 3: each other questions and get to know one another. But
24:21
Speaker 3: once we start that journey, you know, of trying to
24:25
Speaker 3: just kind of get from them what they love to read,
24:29
Speaker 3: what they liked to watch on TV, what movies were
24:32
Speaker 3: they interested in, you know, so we're kind of pulling
24:34
Speaker 3: some of that information out from them, you know, one
24:38
Speaker 3: at a time. You know, what was your favorite movie?
24:40
Speaker 3: What was what was why was it your favorite movie?
24:42
Speaker 3: What did you like most about that movie? You know,
24:45
Speaker 3: if you liked Black Panther? What was it about Black Panther?
24:50
Speaker 3: Was it the costumes? You know, was it the characters
24:53
Speaker 3: in there? You know, different things like that. So we'll
24:56
Speaker 3: kind of first pull from them what was more exciting
25:00
Speaker 3: for them, you know, again, whether reading the book or
25:03
Speaker 3: watching something on TV or watching the movie. And then
25:06
Speaker 3: once we've kind of gotten all of that information down
25:09
Speaker 3: on the board, right, they're just throwing content out at us,
25:12
Speaker 3: and we're on the board writing that stuff down, right,
25:15
Speaker 3: just kind of getting as much information as we can
25:17
Speaker 3: from them. And then we started asking them what do
25:20
Speaker 3: you think would be, you know, a good movie to
25:23
Speaker 3: go to the theater and roche would it be this,
25:25
Speaker 3: this and that? And so they actually have to go
25:28
Speaker 3: through the process of narrowing down what their book is
25:33
Speaker 3: going to be about. You know, they might start out
25:35
Speaker 3: or like maybe ten ideas and then we have to
25:38
Speaker 3: narrow that down to five ideas, and then they have
25:40
Speaker 3: to vote and come up with the concept of their book,
25:46
Speaker 3: you know. And like the last class we did, which
25:49
Speaker 3: was very surprising to me, which really shouldn't have been,
25:52
Speaker 3: was that they all wanted to do something about social media.
25:56
Speaker 2: Right.
25:57
Speaker 3: They all kind of agree, you know, when they were
26:01
Speaker 3: voting on their book type topic, the majority of them said,
26:07
Speaker 3: we want to talk about influencers or social media, you know.
26:11
Speaker 3: And so when we put it all out there, just
26:14
Speaker 3: based on what they say and they like to read,
26:16
Speaker 3: they like to see on TV with shows they love
26:19
Speaker 3: with movies they like, you know, they actually decide what
26:24
Speaker 3: the concept of the book is going to be about
26:27
Speaker 3: by a voting system. Voting yeah, yeah, So that's that's
26:32
Speaker 3: kind of how here we go into the pillars of
26:38
Speaker 3: how to write a book. You know, your characters, you know,
26:41
Speaker 3: you gotta you gotta have some good characters, but you
26:43
Speaker 3: got to have that one character that's that's that's not
26:46
Speaker 3: so good, you know, to make the book really interesting.
26:49
Speaker 3: And so once we can get the concept of the book,
26:54
Speaker 3: then we can start to develop the story. And so
26:56
Speaker 3: that part sometimes take a couple of sessions before we
27:00
Speaker 3: can even narrow it down to what the top of
27:03
Speaker 3: the book is going to be about. But that's husually
27:05
Speaker 3: that process of process of deciding the book, deciding the
27:13
Speaker 3: book to you.
27:16
Speaker 2: You have them going from in the beginning you mentioned
27:19
Speaker 2: about marketing with them, you know, and how to present
27:22
Speaker 2: theirself and represent themselves, and then the networking. I would
27:26
Speaker 2: just love to see these little people walking around networking
27:30
Speaker 2: with with other authors, whether they're adults or whether they're
27:33
Speaker 2: other children, because just to watch them go from table
27:36
Speaker 2: to table and ask questions and share their information. My
27:40
Speaker 2: my thing is that when they're doing all of this
27:42
Speaker 2: surprises the process for their children. But I know they
27:47
Speaker 2: have to be beaming and standing back proud watching their
27:50
Speaker 2: their little people running around and doing all of this.
27:54
Speaker 2: You know, is there a change that they tell you
27:55
Speaker 2: that they see within their child, even in their child's schoolwork,
27:59
Speaker 2: because that that's important.
28:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, the parents and I and I always
28:04
Speaker 3: let them know, like, you know, please share any anything
28:07
Speaker 3: with me, you know, the good, the bad or whatever.
28:10
Speaker 3: But once they've gotten their book, you know, and they're
28:15
Speaker 3: around friends and family and they're telling them about their book,
28:17
Speaker 3: you know, please share with me, you know, how how
28:20
Speaker 3: they're doing with that, and just the parents sending me emails,
28:25
Speaker 3: you know, or even just calling me and just letting
28:28
Speaker 3: me know that they've received phone calls and emails from
28:31
Speaker 3: the teachers saying that, you know, there's definitely a difference,
28:36
Speaker 3: Like they didn't know what really was going on. They
28:39
Speaker 3: really wasn't informed that they were writing a book. But
28:41
Speaker 3: they noticed that they're participating more in class, right, They're
28:45
Speaker 3: they're raising their hands, you know, they're thinking a little
28:48
Speaker 3: more outside of the box, right because they're they're tapping
28:52
Speaker 3: into being a little creative, you know, right, and being
28:55
Speaker 3: a little more descriptive about things. So now they're they're
28:58
Speaker 3: they're participating a little more in class. And what they're
29:01
Speaker 3: also doing is they're open to working more with their classmates,
29:05
Speaker 3: you know. And and they get that from collaborating with
29:10
Speaker 3: the other students when they are writing their books. Their
29:12
Speaker 3: characters might be different, but they have to collaborate because
29:16
Speaker 3: there will be some dialogue exchange between their characters. Right,
29:19
Speaker 3: So there were a lot of one on one with
29:22
Speaker 3: the students, you know, just kind of working through their
29:25
Speaker 3: chapter together and their chapter together in that sense of
29:30
Speaker 3: that'shing with the other students to the classroom, and their
29:35
Speaker 3: teachers recognize that and and and really reached out that
29:38
Speaker 3: the parents to say this is absolutely great, I love it,
29:41
Speaker 3: and then the parents will share that information with me,
29:43
Speaker 3: you know. So, but like seeing these students at these
29:47
Speaker 3: tables when when people are approaching them, just the confidence
29:51
Speaker 3: of them standing up and saying, Hi, my name is Dylan,
29:55
Speaker 3: and I'm an author. I wrote this book. You know
29:58
Speaker 3: it would it be okay if I tell you a
30:00
Speaker 3: little more about it, right, just just seeing them doing
30:02
Speaker 3: that exchange, you know, with these people that are standing
30:06
Speaker 3: in front of their tables, it makes me very proud. Right,
30:10
Speaker 3: they've come up with their own script, you know, that
30:13
Speaker 3: works for them to kind of sell that book. And
30:16
Speaker 3: it's just really encouraging that what we're doing is working. Right, Like,
30:23
Speaker 3: we're not on TV, we're not getting all the praise,
30:26
Speaker 3: and we don't want that, right because this is way
30:28
Speaker 3: bigger than me or my husband, But it just makes
30:31
Speaker 3: me so proud to kind of just see them in
30:34
Speaker 3: that interaction with someone and feeling confident about what they're
30:39
Speaker 3: trying to sell is amazing to me. And it's just
30:43
Speaker 3: kind of like every time I see that, I'm like, man,
30:45
Speaker 3: this is this is great. Man, this is this is great.
30:48
Speaker 2: You mentioned collaboration, the power of community and collaboration, You
30:53
Speaker 2: writers challenges more than a program, it's a community. What
30:56
Speaker 2: makes the community elements so important? How are some of
31:01
Speaker 2: the key partners or supporters to have helped elevate your mission?
31:05
Speaker 3: Communities? Every with these students going from these through another
31:11
Speaker 3: grade and some moving from one school maybe middle school
31:14
Speaker 3: to high school or elementary school to middle school, they're
31:19
Speaker 3: going to come across different students, right, different personalities and
31:25
Speaker 3: different things like that, and they'll just need to know
31:29
Speaker 3: how to move in this different atmosphere and being able
31:34
Speaker 3: to have speakers come in and talk to them about that,
31:38
Speaker 3: being able to take them out to different events, they
31:41
Speaker 3: can actually engage with different people and learn how to
31:46
Speaker 3: connect with that person. You know, one person might be
31:49
Speaker 3: easier to speak with, one person might not be. But
31:52
Speaker 3: if you talk to them and ask them the right questions,
31:55
Speaker 3: they will open up to you a little bit more.
31:58
Speaker 3: And so when we're at these events and we're at
32:00
Speaker 3: these festivals or we have speakers, they start to learn
32:04
Speaker 3: a little bit about communicating with a person and figuring
32:10
Speaker 3: out what's the best way to communicate with this person
32:12
Speaker 3: that is standing in front of me, right in front
32:14
Speaker 3: of me right having uh Chom City Jazz, which is
32:21
Speaker 3: which is one of our biggest, biggest supporters and sponsors,
32:27
Speaker 3: Roger Harris, he will come out and talk to the
32:29
Speaker 3: kids on a business level, right, a little bit about
32:31
Speaker 3: the business we might have, uh the editor come out
32:36
Speaker 3: and talk a little bit more on on from that
32:39
Speaker 3: aspect of now that you've written the book, right, this
32:43
Speaker 3: is what we have to do to make the book
32:47
Speaker 3: and you know where you can hold a book and
32:49
Speaker 3: publish the book. And so they talk a little bit
32:51
Speaker 3: about it from that perspective, but we try and bring
32:54
Speaker 3: different professionals to come in and talk to these students
32:57
Speaker 3: so that they'll learn a little more or about who
33:01
Speaker 3: in the community is a part of them branding this
33:05
Speaker 3: book or you know, creating this book, and whether it's
33:09
Speaker 3: the publisher, the marketing or the promoter, you know, the library.
33:14
Speaker 3: You know, they all can get they get a little
33:16
Speaker 3: sense of everybody that's a part of what they're trying
33:20
Speaker 3: to brand and what they're trying to build. And so
33:23
Speaker 3: we have a lot of different people coming in to
33:25
Speaker 3: speak with the students so that they can get a
33:27
Speaker 3: little a little bit from each one of those that
33:32
Speaker 3: are their community. As an author, they're all going to
33:35
Speaker 3: be Are.
33:40
Speaker 2: There any specific social emotional learning things that emerge often
33:46
Speaker 2: in your students' stories.
33:51
Speaker 3: Absolutely come up with the concept of their book. And
33:57
Speaker 3: I think at any given time time we don't know
34:02
Speaker 3: really what they're going through at home, right We don't
34:05
Speaker 3: know emotionally all the time what they're feeling. But when
34:11
Speaker 3: they start throwing these ideas out about this book, we
34:15
Speaker 3: can kind of get a grasp of Okay, they want
34:19
Speaker 3: to talk about bullying, you know, let's let's let's talk
34:23
Speaker 3: a little more about that. You know, is this something
34:25
Speaker 3: you've experienced before, Is this something you've witnessed before? The
34:31
Speaker 3: not the last book, but the book before that. The story.
34:34
Speaker 3: The book was called Mixed Paths, and there were two stories,
34:39
Speaker 3: two friends going through two different challenges in their home.
34:44
Speaker 3: One was not having a good relationship with her mother.
34:49
Speaker 3: It wasn't the daughter mother relationship that she wanted to have.
34:54
Speaker 3: She she felt like she was not loved enough right.
34:57
Speaker 3: And then the other side of the store was a
35:00
Speaker 3: young man who felt like, you know, his mom passed away,
35:05
Speaker 3: his dad was locked up, his grandma is sick, and
35:09
Speaker 3: he's feeling like he's in a bad place, and he
35:14
Speaker 3: doesn't want to get in trouble, and he doesn't want to,
35:17
Speaker 3: you know, be a part of a gang, and he
35:19
Speaker 3: feels like he needs to get away, you know. So
35:22
Speaker 3: sometimes the story really evolve around what's happening in these
35:27
Speaker 3: students' life, and again, we give them the platform to
35:31
Speaker 3: talk about it, and then we help to kind of
35:34
Speaker 3: put that into a book, and it really allows them
35:38
Speaker 3: to open up and then talk to other people about
35:40
Speaker 3: what they're feeling or what they're experiencing or what they're
35:43
Speaker 3: going through, so definitely. You know, the book sometimes can
35:47
Speaker 3: be a topic of what they're actually going through in
35:52
Speaker 3: their personal lives, and we then talk through that with
35:57
Speaker 3: them and then talk with the parents about that and
36:00
Speaker 3: then try and provide any resources we can to help
36:02
Speaker 3: them with that and the.
36:05
Speaker 2: Can you share one or two transformative success stories from
36:10
Speaker 2: your program.
36:15
Speaker 3: Well, like I said, bullying one one of these gentlemen,
36:20
Speaker 3: one of the women. There was four students. Three of
36:25
Speaker 3: the four students had been bullied before. The fourth student
36:31
Speaker 3: was a bully, you know, and from from what he
36:33
Speaker 3: explained to us, But when they each share their stories
36:39
Speaker 3: and talked about what that was like for them, how
36:42
Speaker 3: that made them feel, he didn't apologize to them, even
36:47
Speaker 3: though they they were not in the same schools, they
36:50
Speaker 3: didn't live in the same areas, But he apologized to
36:54
Speaker 3: them because he was like, I just didn't think about that.
36:57
Speaker 3: I didn't know how that was making those kids feel.
37:02
Speaker 3: When I was doing that, all I thought that it
37:04
Speaker 3: was cool, you know, because the other guys was doing it.
37:08
Speaker 3: And so he apologized to them even though he didn't
37:12
Speaker 3: directly have any impact on them, he just felt bad
37:15
Speaker 3: that he didn't think about their feelings. You know, and
37:20
Speaker 3: so I think when we come up with the topic
37:23
Speaker 3: of the book and we have these discussions, especially around
37:26
Speaker 3: those topics that can deal with, you know, mental illness,
37:31
Speaker 3: or the impacts of feeling you know, lost or not
37:37
Speaker 3: loved or you know, any of that. Once we have
37:41
Speaker 3: those conversations around that, it allows them to feel more
37:46
Speaker 3: open to kind of really telling what was on their
37:48
Speaker 3: mind or what they were feeling. They don't feel like
37:51
Speaker 3: they got to hide anything. We give them the floor
37:54
Speaker 3: to just be open and honest and let them know that,
37:58
Speaker 3: you know, we're there for them. So having him stand
38:03
Speaker 3: there and say, I'm apologizing to you, to you and
38:06
Speaker 3: to you because I didn't know how you know, you
38:09
Speaker 3: guys were feeling. I didn't know, you know, how they
38:12
Speaker 3: were feeling, and I didn't mean to kind of make
38:14
Speaker 3: them feel that way. That I think was significant to
38:18
Speaker 3: allowing the other three to talk even more about what
38:21
Speaker 3: they was feeling, and that they would come home and
38:24
Speaker 3: not want to even tell their parents what were happening.
38:27
Speaker 3: They would just go to their room and close their
38:28
Speaker 3: doors and deal with it themselves. But now they they
38:32
Speaker 3: are actually talking about it on a platform where other
38:36
Speaker 3: people are listening, you know, they're giving advice to parents
38:39
Speaker 3: on if your child is doing this, you might want
38:43
Speaker 3: to talk to them because they might be hiding something
38:46
Speaker 3: from you. So after that, we decided to go on
38:49
Speaker 3: different panels, and the students were really just kind of
38:52
Speaker 3: giving everyone in the audience those clues that they should
38:56
Speaker 3: be looking for, you know, or if their child and
39:01
Speaker 3: they just feel like nobody's gonna listen to them or
39:05
Speaker 3: believe them. And it was really interesting to see so
39:09
Speaker 3: many adults raise their hands and ask these four students
39:13
Speaker 3: that were on this panel of ways to figure out,
39:18
Speaker 3: you know, signs. Basically, if I see signs, what am I?
39:21
Speaker 3: What should I do?
39:22
Speaker 2: You know?
39:23
Speaker 3: From this perspective of the students. So there's definitely been
39:27
Speaker 3: some experiences that I've seen coming out of these sessions
39:32
Speaker 3: and that the students have experienced coming out of these
39:34
Speaker 3: sessions that relate to their everyday lives.
39:54
Speaker 2: M You can't keep it in there because it's always
40:00
Speaker 2: going out. When you go in there to ask for
40:01
Speaker 2: the book, the book is gone, and then you got
40:03
Speaker 2: to go on a waitness. I wanted to let you
40:05
Speaker 2: know that that's good, that's good thing, So I went
40:11
Speaker 2: back again to ask for the book and it wasn't there,
40:16
Speaker 2: So I said, what do you mean it's not here?
40:17
Speaker 2: You're gonna carry this? No, somebody took it out. So
40:19
Speaker 2: I'm very happy and pleased to see that the book
40:22
Speaker 2: is going on. You mentioned something that I want to
40:27
Speaker 2: talk about. What would you say to a child who
40:29
Speaker 2: is afraid that the story that they're writing isn't good enough?
40:33
Speaker 2: How would you encourage them to keep going and to
40:36
Speaker 2: keep writing.
40:43
Speaker 3: I would just kind of I want to ask them
40:46
Speaker 3: why they think it's not good enough, right, just to
40:50
Speaker 3: try and understand their mindset or their thought about their book.
40:54
Speaker 3: But what if we do throughout the whole process, you know,
40:58
Speaker 3: because as their creating the book, you know, as they're
41:01
Speaker 3: writing kind of what they think this character should be
41:04
Speaker 3: saying to that character, they're sharing it with the other
41:08
Speaker 3: students in the class, right, so everybody's kind of sharing
41:10
Speaker 3: a little bit about their character. And depending on what
41:14
Speaker 3: chapter a in, they're going around the room almost like
41:17
Speaker 3: a table reading, if you will, and the other students
41:20
Speaker 3: are kind of saying, man, that was great, right. They're
41:23
Speaker 3: getting validation, They're getting validations from their co authors that
41:28
Speaker 3: are sitting there at the table with them, And I
41:31
Speaker 3: think that kind of gives them, you know, the good
41:35
Speaker 3: feeling up all right, this is I'm writing good. I'm
41:37
Speaker 3: doing good because my you know, sometimes I love the kids,
41:41
Speaker 3: but sometimes they are very honest, right, and they're very
41:46
Speaker 3: blood So if they don't like something, they gonna tell
41:48
Speaker 3: you they don't like it, right. But I think getting
41:52
Speaker 3: that validation from their peer helps them to say, Okay,
41:57
Speaker 3: I'm on the right track. I'm going to keep on going.
42:00
Speaker 3: Even if we, you know, get to a particular part
42:03
Speaker 3: of the chapel of the book and we will give
42:05
Speaker 3: some suggestions, Hey, how about he said this way, or
42:08
Speaker 3: how about we switch this word with that word? You know,
42:11
Speaker 3: so we always kind of get their input, you know,
42:15
Speaker 3: we'll ask them like, how what do you think about this?
42:18
Speaker 3: We don't just go in and make any changes without
42:21
Speaker 3: them knowing what, you know, what we think we should
42:24
Speaker 3: kind of add or take out, but explaining it to
42:27
Speaker 3: them why this would kind of sound better when reading
42:30
Speaker 3: the book, you know, if we do it this way.
42:33
Speaker 3: But I don't think we really allow it to get
42:36
Speaker 3: to the point where they're ending the book feeling like, oh,
42:39
Speaker 3: this wasn't good, because throughout the whole process we're engaging
42:44
Speaker 3: them in it, you know, and where saying this is great,
42:48
Speaker 3: what do you think about this? What else would you
42:50
Speaker 3: like to add to it? They're they're in the process
42:53
Speaker 3: every step of the way, and I think before the
42:56
Speaker 3: book is actually done, they read it from beginning to end.
43:00
Speaker 3: And then if it's something that they don't, you know,
43:03
Speaker 3: really understand or don't agree with, you know, we do
43:05
Speaker 3: have the option to go back and change it. But
43:07
Speaker 3: because we're getting their input in every step of the
43:10
Speaker 3: way and asking them what do you think? How do
43:12
Speaker 3: you feel about it? We're really trying to eliminate getting
43:16
Speaker 3: to the end of the book and ready to send
43:18
Speaker 3: it off to the publisher and someone's feeling like, I
43:20
Speaker 3: don't I don't think this is a good book, you know,
43:23
Speaker 3: But we we we have those round tables with the
43:26
Speaker 3: other students so that they could feed off of one another,
43:28
Speaker 3: and they could give suggestions to one another, and they
43:31
Speaker 3: can ask questions to one another.
43:36
Speaker 2: Have you ever thought about having the students sit in
43:40
Speaker 2: on a podcast where their book was reviewed and someone
43:45
Speaker 2: is talking to them about the book.
43:50
Speaker 3: That is a great idea, and we have ideas and
43:53
Speaker 3: we have you know, anyone I.
43:57
Speaker 2: Do, And she's on it tonight. You have something for
44:00
Speaker 2: Your name is Patria Patrice Grenville. She is here, She's
44:04
Speaker 2: got hey, hey, hey up. She is one of my
44:06
Speaker 2: solters reviews. So I was thinking instead, I was hoping
44:10
Speaker 2: she didn't go off before I mentioned it. But I
44:13
Speaker 2: think that that would be wonderful because she does a
44:15
Speaker 2: wonderful job. She always had these little quirky questions and
44:19
Speaker 2: you know about I'm not gonna give it away. I'll
44:21
Speaker 2: let her do it on her own show, but she
44:23
Speaker 2: does that with the with her guests, and I would
44:27
Speaker 2: love for her to review a book with your youth
44:30
Speaker 2: and then ask them that question. Hope you understand what
44:33
Speaker 2: question I'm talking about, because it's like a stopper, and
44:36
Speaker 2: I think that they would they would love to answer
44:38
Speaker 2: that question. It would be really exciting for them and
44:42
Speaker 2: it gets them to say something.
44:43
Speaker 1: Now.
44:43
Speaker 2: So I'm going to pass your information over to her
44:47
Speaker 2: so she can context you too have a reviewed, because
44:50
Speaker 2: I think that that would be a wonderful thing for her.
44:53
Speaker 3: I think that they would absolutely enjoy that. I think
44:57
Speaker 3: they would think that they were love that opportunity to
45:01
Speaker 3: be a.
45:03
Speaker 2: Questions.
45:04
Speaker 3: Like I said, they now now I love talking about
45:09
Speaker 3: the book they love talking about the book, and and
45:12
Speaker 3: then they even a lot of times go into yeah,
45:14
Speaker 3: because we're gonna write another book, and I have to
45:16
Speaker 3: be like, wait a minute, you know, uh, but that
45:20
Speaker 3: would be a wonderful opportunity. Please share my information. I
45:23
Speaker 3: would love for them to be able to do.
45:25
Speaker 2: But you mentioned that you were trying to get into
45:32
Speaker 2: other jurisdictions, been out of the state as well your program.
45:40
Speaker 3: Yes, we've actually been contacted by someone in Delaware from
45:47
Speaker 3: a book event that they do every year in North Carolina,
45:51
Speaker 3: Carolina and in New York. So I have been speaking
45:58
Speaker 3: with them all with them on trying to bring the
46:03
Speaker 3: program there, but definitely having someone that can host it,
46:08
Speaker 3: you know, in in that particular state wherever we are.
46:12
Speaker 3: But it's definitely something that's on top of the radar.
46:15
Speaker 3: Having found out all of the details, specifically from New
46:19
Speaker 3: York and Delaware, there's been constant contacts with those two
46:23
Speaker 3: states up bringing Youth Writers Rock to those two locations.
46:28
Speaker 3: And so we're still trying to you know, figure that
46:31
Speaker 3: piece of it out, you know, in terms of a
46:34
Speaker 3: location for the sessions, you know, would it's still be
46:37
Speaker 3: a six month program because it's starting out what we
46:40
Speaker 3: need to extend that and make it a little longer
46:43
Speaker 3: than six months, you know, just those you know logistics basically,
46:47
Speaker 3: But it's something we're working on and it's definitely, you know,
46:51
Speaker 3: at the very top of our radar. The key thing
46:54
Speaker 3: to any place that we do it at is funding.
46:58
Speaker 3: While the program is for the students, you know, we
47:03
Speaker 3: have to find funding to cover the expenses that go
47:07
Speaker 3: along with that program. You know, we have coaches, we
47:11
Speaker 3: have constant we have field trips, we have to do
47:14
Speaker 3: the students have to have T shirts, backpack, school writing supplies,
47:18
Speaker 3: you know, and then the wishing piece of the book
47:22
Speaker 3: and all of that requires some funding. So that's another
47:25
Speaker 3: big part of it that we'll need to find funding
47:27
Speaker 3: in both of those states to to to have the program.
47:31
Speaker 3: For the.
47:33
Speaker 2: Funding in the schools the majority of the schools do
47:37
Speaker 2: some of them don't even know what to do with
47:39
Speaker 2: the money, so they want.
47:44
Speaker 3: Yeah. I recently did a seminar seminar with one of
47:48
Speaker 3: the teachers union and talked about the program, and a
47:53
Speaker 3: lot of the teachers that were on that seminar actually
47:57
Speaker 3: reached out to the teaching union asking, you know, how
48:00
Speaker 3: how can we get that in in our school. How
48:03
Speaker 3: can we make this part of the curriculum, you know.
48:06
Speaker 3: So I know that the teachers are asking, you know,
48:10
Speaker 3: the teachers Union, we need you know, telling them we
48:14
Speaker 3: need this, what can we do? And so I do
48:16
Speaker 3: know that they are looking into ways to fund the program,
48:22
Speaker 3: you know, inside of the school system. And so that
48:25
Speaker 3: was a really great experience that I was invited to
48:30
Speaker 3: talk about the program at a teacher's seminar, I mean conference,
48:35
Speaker 3: and teachers are really excited about it and and really
48:40
Speaker 3: would like to see that as part of the curriculum
48:43
Speaker 3: in this schools.
48:45
Speaker 2: When New York City has a new man, so you
48:48
Speaker 2: may want to hit him up because he's probably gonna
48:50
Speaker 2: need something that's going to push him to the top
48:54
Speaker 2: to let people know that he's serious. Well, can you
48:58
Speaker 2: you know, you go to and need He's definitely being
49:00
Speaker 2: watched by higher ups, So I think some letters going
49:04
Speaker 2: out to him, even if the students are writing letters
49:07
Speaker 2: to him, and they just opened some doors for that.
49:11
Speaker 2: How can supporters, partners or volunteers get involved in the
49:15
Speaker 2: next chapter of the Youth Writer's Challenge.
49:20
Speaker 3: We're always looking for supporters and supporters. One of social
49:26
Speaker 3: events with the students, right, So it's not just coming
49:29
Speaker 3: to session. We're gonna write right right, you know. We
49:31
Speaker 3: we do social ice creams, We do piece of parties,
49:36
Speaker 3: you know, like I said, we have speakers come in.
49:39
Speaker 3: Sometimes we'll stop session early and do a little short
49:42
Speaker 3: movie with the students. We take them on field trips.
49:46
Speaker 3: Depending on what their book is about, we might take
49:48
Speaker 3: them to a museum, or the students was writing about
49:52
Speaker 3: their hip hop book, we took them to a hip
49:54
Speaker 3: hop museum in d C. So they can get some
49:57
Speaker 3: inspiration from that. So we do a lot of activities
50:01
Speaker 3: with these students where we require more than just the
50:04
Speaker 3: coaches to come and support them, you know. So we're
50:07
Speaker 3: always looking for supporters in that aspect of it. People
50:12
Speaker 3: can always go to char I mean city, always go
50:16
Speaker 3: to youth Writers Rock dot com. There is a donate
50:19
Speaker 3: button at the top of it. You can also purchase
50:21
Speaker 3: the books on youth Writers Rock dot com. And some
50:25
Speaker 3: people have just really in wanting these students to succeed
50:31
Speaker 3: with their book, have just kind of sent in donations
50:34
Speaker 3: in support of the book or supported the program by saying,
50:38
Speaker 3: I'm gonna buy backpacks for all your students. So I'm
50:40
Speaker 3: gonna provide you with boxes of school supplies for all
50:44
Speaker 3: your students and things like that, so they can actually
50:47
Speaker 3: support the financially or with donations anyway they want to,
50:51
Speaker 3: because like I said, it's it's it's a nonprofit right.
50:54
Speaker 3: We don't have a steady grant. You know, we do
50:56
Speaker 3: a lot of fundraising, so a support on any life
51:00
Speaker 3: would be helpful to the program to the program.
51:05
Speaker 2: Wow, Pat, thank you, Thank you so much for blessing
51:09
Speaker 2: us tonight and for the work you continue to do.
51:11
Speaker 2: The UPLI the power and impify the voices of our youth,
51:14
Speaker 2: youth writers, challenge and changing lives one story at a time.
51:18
Speaker 2: We honor you for your dedication, your vision, and your heart.
51:23
Speaker 2: And to my basic Black after Dark family, thank you
51:25
Speaker 2: for tuning in, thank you for showing up, and thank
51:28
Speaker 2: you for supporting platforms that celebrate growth, healing and creativity
51:33
Speaker 2: in our communities. Now, I didn't forget about our trivia
51:36
Speaker 2: question for those tickets to see the performance and tribute
51:42
Speaker 2: to Aretha Franklin. So here's the question. Which Aretha Franklin
51:47
Speaker 2: album was the first to win a Grammy Award for
51:52
Speaker 2: Best Female R and B Vocal Performance. Now, the first
51:57
Speaker 2: person that gets it right and correct, of course, will
52:01
Speaker 2: win the tickets, but you must email me at Basic
52:05
Speaker 2: Black Consentials at gmail dot com. That's B A S
52:10
Speaker 2: I S B L A q U E E S
52:16
Speaker 2: S E E N T I A L S at
52:21
Speaker 2: gmail dot com. The winner will be announced on my
52:24
Speaker 2: December fifth podcast and the show is on December sixth
52:28
Speaker 2: at seven o'clock at the Gordon Center here in Owen's Mills.
52:33
Speaker 2: So I want to repeat the question again because I
52:36
Speaker 2: had some people that I asked that question and they
52:38
Speaker 2: got it wrong because they wasn't listening to the questions.
52:40
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go this south again. Wire your Free
52:44
Speaker 2: Aretha Franklin album was the first to win a Grammy
52:49
Speaker 2: Award for Best Female R and B Vocal Performance. Again,
52:54
Speaker 2: the first person to get it right and send it
52:56
Speaker 2: to my email, you will be notified that you are
52:59
Speaker 2: the and you are to pick your tickets up on
53:02
Speaker 2: call and you'll be ready and available. I want you
53:05
Speaker 2: to tell me how the show was, because I love
53:06
Speaker 2: them meet the Franklin But I had a little accident
53:09
Speaker 2: my foot to I ain't be able to make it
53:10
Speaker 2: out there. But again, good luck to everyone you could
53:15
Speaker 2: also watch this in the replay. If you know somebody
53:17
Speaker 2: that lives in the state of Maryland and you're not
53:19
Speaker 2: in this state, let them know about this trivia question.
53:23
Speaker 2: Maybe they're gonna be the lucky one that wins the tickets.
53:26
Speaker 2: He almost gave the answer away right now.
53:28
Speaker 3: What I had to say next, I gotta just say something,
53:32
Speaker 3: So make.
53:33
Speaker 2: Sure you join us for our next episode. That one
53:36
Speaker 2: is also going to be in December, in the nineteenth.
53:38
Speaker 2: Now in December fifth, we have something going on with
53:41
Speaker 2: December to nineteenth. We're gonna welcome the Distinguished Author's Guild
53:45
Speaker 2: Award winners. You already know it's gonna be powerful, it's
53:49
Speaker 2: gonna be inspiring, and it's gonna be a night you
53:53
Speaker 2: don't want to miss. Until then, stay real, stay silent,
53:57
Speaker 2: and stay beautifully authentically. Ye, this is Black Diamond and
54:01
Speaker 2: you've been listening to Basic Black after Dark. I want
54:04
Speaker 2: to thank you for keeping it basic. Good night, Pat.
54:08
Speaker 2: Your students should enter the Distinguished Authors Guild Award winners
54:12
Speaker 2: because there's children that enters that as well. So I
54:16
Speaker 2: continue the information with that as well, because they they'll
54:20
Speaker 2: be one woman interviewing those winners. In about three weeks
54:27
Speaker 2: when the nineteenth, so we'll be sharing some information and
54:30
Speaker 2: owner and founder of it, I'm going to be interviewing
54:33
Speaker 2: her as well when they start going back and accepting applications.
54:37
Speaker 2: So collaborations are welcomed as well as individual authors. But
54:43
Speaker 2: I think that some of your children will be happy
54:47
Speaker 2: to travel. Now they would have to probably go to Chicago,
54:50
Speaker 2: but that's a big deal for Yeah, I think that
54:54
Speaker 2: they would love it. So yeah, hey, you get a
55:00
Speaker 2: chance to stay over at the hotel. They get a
55:02
Speaker 2: chance to mingle and the network with some older people,
55:05
Speaker 2: and I think that they would have a blast with
55:07
Speaker 2: it as well, and also with my sisters. Anybody that
55:11
Speaker 2: wants to enter, we'll be talking about it. No, this
55:16
Speaker 2: is the Distinguished Author's.
55:18
Speaker 3: Guild Distinguished Authors distinguish.
55:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, so anyone can can enter that, and I think
55:27
Speaker 2: that they would enjoy it and they would be excited
55:30
Speaker 2: with all the promos that come up. But I'm not
55:31
Speaker 2: going to keep talking about it because all night and
55:33
Speaker 2: talk about it. My sister, you can join as well.
55:37
Speaker 2: And I joined it as well, and I walked away
55:40
Speaker 2: a winner this year, so I'm very happy with that
55:43
Speaker 2: congratulation so much so, again, thank you off for tuning in.
55:49
Speaker 2: Please watch the replace, share it with everyone that you know,
55:53
Speaker 2: especially if you have family that's even close to the
55:55
Speaker 2: DMV area, so they can learn more about the youth
55:58
Speaker 2: writers challenging youth at his rock program, as well as
56:03
Speaker 2: trying to get these tickets because I understand the show's
56:05
Speaker 2: gonna be it's gonna be a great.
56:07
Speaker 3: Show, talk about.
56:11
Speaker 2: Hands down, you know it's gonna be something. Don't eat
56:15
Speaker 2: before you go, though. Good night everybody, and thank you
56:21
Speaker 2: so much for joining. That's how I appreciate that. Thank you,
56:25
Speaker 2: thank you,