While we acknowledge that a lot of people around the world have very little to celebrate from this past year, we also need to highlight both the small and significant achievements of our resilient and talented young writers. In 2020, we heard a lot from our young writers and we heard it in their own voice.
As the pandemic intensified, we saw the value of clear communication ( and the risks that come with the lack of it). During Lockdown, we all felt the need to connect with others.
Despite all of the personal challenges, this year our young writers communicated and connected with others through their writing, whether it was online, in print or in voice.
We look forward to a hopeful future with such wonderful young people to inspire us.
In the words of 16 year old Alia,
"The time will start to fly again.
Hum a tune of your choice and scrub
this time from our hands as it runs
down the drain, I beg you to refrain
from returning to what we called
normal.
There is no going back again"
Thanks to the wonderful support of community partners and funders our dedicated team were able to bring the voices of young people to you.
During the Lockdown we connected with many young writers around the country through our Lockdown Voices project. If you haven't visited the site go there now! LOCKDOWN VOICES 2020
We have loved working with Plains FM on projects, podcasts and plays. Bring on more Write On Speak Out opportunities in 2021! LISTEN HERE
We published Write On magazine Issues 54: Voices and 55: Time Travel. At the Issue 55 launch we had 44 contributors attend with their whanau. We heard almost all of the writers read their wonderful words and we felt the effect of those words on a large audience of whanau! We are very proud of the writing in both of these magazines. Write On Magazine is the place to go to read young people's voices- saying what they have to say in the way they want to say it. ORDER HERE
Although our plans all changed, and our schools and masterclass programmes were interrupted, over 2020 we worked with 38 schools and 756 young writers. In our Saturday classes we mentored and supported 114 young writers to find their voice. We hope to share our love of writing many more in 2021.
Last words go to Xavier, age 16
I connected more than I ever had before over a universally shared experience
even though we were stuck in different bubbles, unable to breathe
in and out, in and out and in and out and inside our bubbles
we had connections too with family, and pets.
My cat discovered how warm my bed is. She hasn’t left it yet.
The point is, we lost the opportunities that we had planned,
it’s true, your experience might be a bit different.
But for me, each of those opportunities,
those carefully planned eventualities
the yeses, the noes, the maybes,
they hadn’t slipped away.
They’d just moved.
Copyright: Write On 2020
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