Freewrite:
The Bookmark Indy Summer Youth Poetry Workshop

Do you know an Indianapolis high school student who would like to build their creative writing skills? Freewrite: The Bookmark Indy Summer Youth Poetry Workshop is a eight-session program for high school freshmen to seniors meeting each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Harrison Center for the Arts in Indianapolis from Wednesday, May 31, through Friday, June 16. During the program, a small cohort of students will write and grow together as artists, learning more about the process of finding their voice and creating original poetry as a community. Participants will take field trips to start new poems, learn the elements of poetic craft through writing exercises inspired by seminal poets and be visited by artists from other disciplines to test their powers of collaboration and thinking outside the lines. The program is free and open to Indianapolis high school students.

Applications due Friday, May 12.

APPLY TODAY FOR FREEWRITE

Supported by The National Bank of Indianapolis, our Central Indiana Literary Partner.

Report Back.

Read the location passage. What questions would you ask the author? What would help you understand the author's viewpoint?

Added TEXTure.

Writing is about more than just words. Look around to discover what textures are most prevalent in this place. Do a texture rubbing using a piece of paper and a crayon or pencil.

In the Margins.

What inspires you most about this place? Draw a quick doodle of it in the margin of one of your books.

Found sound.

Walk around the location and record the sounds of surroundings. Did what you hear depend on what time you visited?

Backward / Forward.

Cities change—what did your location look like in 1920? What will it look like in 2120?

Footnotes.

Find another perspective by walking to a different spot around this location. Do you notice anything new? Which of your five senses notices a change first?

Strike a Prose.

Write a short passage describing how this place inspires you.

Love Letter / BreakUp Letter.

Think about your relationship with the place you’re visiting or perhaps with your own neighborhood. Is it time to commit? Or time to let go? Write a letter as if you’re speaking directly to the place you have in mind.

Field Notes.

Explore your stream of consciousness by writing down every thought that enters your mind.