Writing Across Chicago initiative looks to get entire city writing
By Igor Studenkov For Chronicle Media — October 24, 2018
As part of Write Across Chicago initiative, a new writing group launched in West Humboldt Park neighborhood’s North Pulaski branch. The group has been meeting every Tuesday, from 5-7 p.m. (Photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)
As October dawned, the number of writing groups, open mics and classes exploded all across Chicago.
They popped up in libraries, schools and law firms. They appeared in immigrant communities like Chinatown and Little Village. They appeared as far southwest as Clearing, as far west as Austin, as far northwest as Dunning and as far south as Englewood.
All of that was due to the hard work of the Illinois Writing Project and its collaborators. Throughout the month of October, the Write Across Chicago initiative looks to encourage the entire city to write, or at least give it a try. While the initiative will end on Nov. 1, the Illinois Writing Project hopes that the newly launched groups would keep going. And, if the funding allows, they hope to do another major push next year.
Even before the initiative launched, the city had plenty of groups where new and experienced writers can come together, share their work and get feedback. Some were simply individuals meeting together in coffee shops. Others were organized by educational institutions such as University of Chicago Graham School’s Writer’s Studio.
Many of the groups met in libraries. Some, like the Creative Writing Group at Vodak-East Side branch library, were organized by the library staff. Others, such as Chicago Writing Alliance writing group at Uptown’s Bezazian branch library, are run entirely by residents, with the library simply providing a meeting space. For the most part, the groups met either once a week or once every two weeks.
Illinois Writing Project is a teachers group that works to promote writing and literacy in Chicago area and northern Illinois in general. Steve Zemelmann, one of the organization’s co-founders and current co-directors, said that he was one who came up with the idea for Write Across Chicago. He said he was inspired by several things. Illinois Writing Project and similar organizations and other states have been doing one-day writing events, and he thought that it might be a good idea to do something longer. And he thought of Chicago Public Library system’s One Book, One Chicago program, where people all over Chicago are encouraged to read one book for several months. Zemelmann reasoned that it might be interesting to do something similar with writing, even if just for one month.
“Part of our beliefs, part of our ideals is that everyone has their own unique stories to tell,” Zemelman said. “And the more people hear each other stories, the more they will respect each other. And we strongly believe that writing like this will bring people together”
October, he said, seemed like a perfect month to do it.
“The holidays haven’t started yet, but summer is over,” Zemelman said.
Writing groups old and new will be able to take part in a celebration at Harold Washington Library to mark the end of Write Across Chicago initiative at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 1. (Photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)
He started working on making Write Across Chicago a reality in February of this year. He recalled that it was a busy time with him calling people and applying for grants. And he reached out to organizations that might be interested in collaborating.
“When I called CPL, I discovered that they were wonderful,” Zemelman recalled “They were hugely helpful. They had library grants, staff that were interested in doing stuff like this. This gave this project a huge boost.”
He also reached out to a number of other organizations and institutions, including the American Writers Museum, the Newberry Library, and the Chicago Bar Association.
“We met with president of Chicago Bar Association and their public relations person,” Zemelman said. “They really helped us out a lot.”
He said that, over the next few months, he was pleasantly surprised to discover that Chicago’s writing community was bigger than he thought — and that there were many organizations he never heard of, such as the Chicago Literacy Alliance and Chicago Writing Project, which works to set up writing workshops in the city’s poor and immigrant neighborhoods.
“It’s amazing how much writing goes on in Chicago,” Zemelman reflected.
The organizations involved were encouraged to start writing groups and keep them going at least through the month of October. The people running the group — known as the facilitators — could decide the specifics for themselves, which resulted in considerable variety. While some, like the Humboldt Park branch’s writing workshop, were open to many types of writing, others focused on a specific type of writing. Lincoln Square’s Sulzer Regional Library, for example, held a workshop focused on journaling, while Lakeview’s Lincoln Belmont branch library held workshops on writing memoirs. Many writing groups — such as the one held in Austin branch library — were specifically geared toward teenagers.
Zemelman said that, while they encouraged the groups to meet at least once a week, that wasn’t required. And, indeed, the frequency varied considerably as well — some met once every week, some met every two weeks and some only had one meeting in the month.
The initiative’s website (www.writeacrosschicago.org) acts as the project hub, allowing new and long-running writing groups to list their meeting times and locations online. Interested residents could look up groups nearest to them. The website also offers information to help people start writing groups of their own, detailing the ins and outs of running a group and suggesting topics the groups can tackle.
A new writing group launched in Humboldt Park branch library has been meeting on Wednesdays from 6-7 p.m. (Photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)
Zemelman said they held an orientation for the facilitators at the beginning of the month. And while they have been able to provide some in-person assistance to facilitators, he explained that, because they only had so much money to work with, they couldn’t send staff to every group.
On Nov. 1, Harold Washington Library, CPL’s central library, will host a “Grand Celebration” at 4:30 p.m. All writing groups throughout Chicago have been invited to attend. According to the official description, the groups will have a chance to meet each other and share their writing, Afterwards, a panel featuring “a student, a teacher, a published writer, an editor, and an appellate judge” will talk about how writing can connect people across Chicago’s many neighborhoods and cultures.
Even after October ends, Zemelman said that the Write Across Chicago will remain up for a year and continue to act as a resource. He paid for a year worth of hosting, he said, and he saw no reason to take it down. And Zemelman said that he hopes that the newly formed writing groups will keep going.
There are other groups that have joined in that will continue,” he said. “Newberry library, for example, has several writing workshops that will continue.”
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