Detroit Teen Writers to Share Work This Weekend
The young writers took part in the Tuxedo Project and Downtown Boxing Gym’s summer youth program.
This summer, The Tuxedo Project and Downtown Boxing Gym collaborated on a summer youth program that paired activities — such as cooking, yoga, community development — with writing prompts. Those prompts focused on mindfulness, creativity, risk-taking, and personal storytelling. In addition, teens dug into Angie Thomas’ novel The Hate U Give in a special reading group that combined book discussion with knitting.
A lot of amazing writing happened this summer. And to celebrate the teens’ hard work, The Tuxedo Project and DBG will host an open mic for the young writers in the program and throughout the city at Source Booksellers called Tuxedo Summer: Youth Edition. This will be an opportunity for young writers to share their art with friends, family, and audiences they might otherwise never meet, creating a space for their stories to live outside of the classroom.
The event is this Saturday, August 25th at 2 p.m. at Source Booksellers on Cass Avenue in Midtown Detroit. It’s free and open to the public.
Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson, who is also the founder of The Tuxedo Project, speaks with a number of the youth participants — as well as Detroit Youth Poet Laureate Imani Nichele and Downtown Boxing Gym Academic Coordinator Kristin Lusk — about the summer program and the event.
Click on the audio player above to hear that conversation.
