YourWords STL

Wayfinding

Feature Blog Post by Program Director, Anna Ojascastro Guzon
 
I walked into the classroom at 4 PM, when tutoring starts, and nine young men were already sitting down, working.  They hadn’t had a creative writing workshop in a couple months because we were starting out the year focused on

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Arts Educators, Hold Up

Arts Educators, Hold Up

 
Feature Blog Post by Program Director, Anna Ojascastro Guzon
Sit down, hol’ up… be humble. – Kendrick Lamar
Almost 10 years ago, directors Greg Jakobs and Jon Siskel created the award-winning film about Louder than a Bomb: A Chicago Youth Poetry Festival. The documentary features co-founder Kevin Coval and

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The Bull, Embroidered

Feature Blog Post by Program Director, Anna Ojascastro Guzon
 
The Day of the Dead, the Cubs win the World Series, 87 degrees in November in St. Louis, and a United States presidential election is bellying-up (either to the bar or like an overfed fish).
The past week has

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Valedictorians

Feature Blog Post by Progam Director, Anna Ojascatro Guzon
 
Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars,
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,

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Put a Pencil to His Temple

Feature Blog Post by Program Director, Anna Ojascastro Guzon
 
The classroom was smaller yesterday.  We have been tutoring the young men in the transitional housing of Marygrove Children’s Home, weekly, for almost nine months. Ages 17 to 21, from all parts of St. Louis City and County, our students

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Portraits of Artists

Feature Blog Post by Program Director, Anna Ojascastro Guzon
 
“Art Is Life and Life Is Art,” headlines the website bio of the 24-year-old, St. Louis artist, Davion Coleman. Working from his downtown loft as an independent graphic designer and illustrator, Mr. Coleman was generous enough to donate his time

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Down to a Science

Feature Blog Post by Program Director, Anna Ojascastro Guzon

George Arents Collection, The New York Public Library. “Diagram of Mount Polomar telescope.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-938d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
 
Goggles that allow one to see sound, affordable time machines, a spherical hologram projector, and a “conflict-resolution machine.” The

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Homing In

Feature Blog Post by Program Director, Anna Ojascastro Guzon
 
“…being able to articulate a complex feeling, and having our feelings recognized, lights up our limbic brain and creates an aha moment,” from The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D..
After a

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Please Have Snow

Feature Blog by Program Director, Anna Ojascastro Guzon

The boys enjoyed a holiday party for their last session of 2015, with homemade baked goods, board games, and presents.  One might wonder, would these 17 and 18-year-old boys actually want to participate in a wholesome board game, which Jenn Rengachary

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The Theories of Darwin and Rap Artist, k-os

Feature Blog Post by Program Director, Anna Ojascastro Guzon
http://divezone.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/galapagos-islands-turtles.jpg
I used to be an Egyptian beetle
but now I am an Egyptian angel.
I used to be a human
but now I am an evolved human.
I used to be a cello
But now I am a

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