News from InsideOut Literary Arts

InsideOut Literary Arts Newsletter Writers Reading Series - Friday, Feb. 10th 6pm at Detroit Artists Market 4719 Woodward Ave., Detroit   The Writers Reading Series promotes InsideOut's teaching writers and brings their creativity to the community. Free and open to the public. Feb. 10th Features: Olujide Adebayo-Begun, Scott Beal, Nina Buckless, and Zachary Crawford. Scratch The Page: Behind the Story   At IO, we pride ourselves on bringing the best in verse and literary vision to Detroit's youngest writers. One example is Scratch The Page (STP), an annual free workshop/reading series that taps nationally recognized writers to fire up the pens of youth ages 13 to 18. The 2012 STP series continues with noted author and Cave Canem Fellow, Gregory Pardlo (see poem on right) on February 25th at the Virgil H. Carr Center, Detroit. (Click here for full story.)  IO on WTVS   On Sunday, February 12th at 5:40pm, WTVS airs for the second time, "A Poet in Every Classroom," produced as an Undergraduate Research Project through Wayne State's Honors College by WSU instructor Joel Silvers and Department of Film Studies student Erik Daniel.  The video tells the story of IO Founder and Executive Director Terry Blackhawk's dream of dispatching poets into classrooms so that "experiencing the power of the written word will become an essential part of every child's education." Special thanks to Rich Homberg, Dave Devereaux and everyone at WTVS for their partnership and support! Note: Sunday's broadcast of "A Poet in Every Classroom" immediately follows "300 Miles to Freedom," a stirring film about a man who escaped and fought back against slavery. Check it out here. MCACA Award InsideOut Literary Arts Project has been awarded a grant of $6,000 from the State of Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA). The grant was awarded through the MCACA peer review process and was one of 233 applications to compete for MCACA fiscal year 2012 funding. Organizations receiving a MCACA grant award are required to match those funds with other public and private dollars. Local supporters of the project include Charter One and individual contributors. IO also receives significant volunteer support from the community including students from the Wayne State Honors College. A complete list of grant awards around the state is available by contacting MCACA at (517) 241-4011, or by visiting the MCACA website. Double Dutch By Gregory Pardlo   The girls turning double-dutch bob & weave like boxers pulling punches, shadowing each other, sparring across the slack cord casting parabolas in the air. They whip quick as an infant's pulse and the jumper, before she enters the winking, nods in time as if she has a notion to share, waiting her chance to speak. But she's anticipating the upbeat like a bandleader counting off the tune they are about to swing into. The jumper stair-steps into mid-air as if she's jumping rope in low-gravity, training for a lunar mission. Airborne a moment long enough to fit a second thought in, she looks caught in the mouth bones of a fish as she flutter-floats into motion like a figure in a stack of time-lapse photos thumbed alive . . .    See entire poem by clicking here.   from Totem, published by The American Poetry Review. Copyright © 2007     InsideOut Literary Arts | 5143 Cass Ave., Room 225 | WSU - State Hall | Detroit | MI | 48202