Introduction
For this three-month program, Literary Cleveland partners with Seeds of Literacy to offer free writing workshops to residents of the community. These workshops—led by Mt. Pleasant natives Charlotte Morgan, Kisha Nicole Foster, and DL Ware—provide an opportunity for residents to engage with poetry and storytelling, to share their memories of the past and dreams for the future, and to tell the rich and complex story of their neighborhood on their own terms.
In 2018, the program resulted in Cleveland Stories: Vol. I, a nearly 150 page collection of poems, essays, and stories written by workshop participants. In addition, oral history interviews were collected with longtime residents of Mt. Pleasant and other individuals with close ties to the neighborhood.
In 2019, the program built on the success and enthusiasm of the previous year. 2018 participants helped guide new participants through the writing process. Personal and historical photos from the neighborhood were used as prompts to inspire new writing. And the writing was once again be collected into a book—Cleveland Stories: Vol II—both expanding and deepening the story of the Mt. Pleasant area.
Learn more and purchase your own copy of Cleveland Stories Vol II here.
This program is made possible through the generous support of the St. Luke's Foundation as well as the Ohio Arts Council.
