Article title: Expressive therapies (Start-class)

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Source #1: Rewriting Struggles as Strength: Young Adults' Reflections on the

Significance of Their High School Poetry Community

Notes
★ The research analyze a group of students, now adults, who expressed experienced failure
in school, but in contrast remembering how empowering the poetry class is in high school
★ Given the opportunity for creative expression in classroom spaces that is limited due to
school literacy constraints, which may encourage youth to express themselves
authentically using their own words.
○ It allows the youths to counter the stories that was passed to them by others
○ Contribute to growth in and beyond the classroom through critical feedback and
strengthening their voices
○ Determine when to trust yourself through peer reviews. This process allow
participants to fluently exchange between their voice and their peer’s voice in a
social reality, which is beneficial not only in the classroom but beyond
○ Internalizing the positive voices in the poetry circle which help with personal
affirmation
★ Honors student’s voice and life experiences
★ Possibility to enact changes to the current school environment
★ Ability to claim your own story
 ★ An example of how it could be carried out is through the New Beginnings High School
(NBHS) Poetry has a significant role in social movements, and students were encouraged
to write and publish poetry that reflected their perspectives on contemporary topics.
○ Used memory to study, case studies, focus group meetings, completing surveys
★ Through the poetry class (literacy-learning community):
○ Reimagined their struggles as a source of strength
○ Given voice to break the institutional silence of oppression and trauma
○ Long term impact which still holds meaning to the youths
○ Developed a sense of possibility as a group and as individual
○ build bonds that empowered them to speak through the silence that surrounded
their life struggles. They were able to use these skills to face other life challenges.

Quotes
“They recalled that sharing personal stories within this space helped them work through life
challenges, transforming the poetry class into a healing space.”
“Participants held dearly onto memories of the healing and affirming poetry community as they
moved into early adult lives.”

Source #2: "Air I Breathe": Songwriting as Literacy Practices of Remembrance

Notes
★ The research focus on the case study of two Black teenager girls, Noriah Rose and Koral
○ The girls expressed loss in three main ways:
■ by telling stories that have been passed down to them
■ by connecting their songs to artistic cultural traditions
■ by sharing their feelings with each other and their community
○ Tries to answer the question “In what ways do youth grapple with complicated
meanings of loss as they share creative and artistic songwriting practices?”
★ Noriah wrote the song “Air I Breathe” in remembrance of her mother and sister
○ Expressed that sharing allow her to let her feelings out
○ Shared on Ipad, GarageBand, SoundCloud
★ Trauma: loss of parent, suicide, gun violence, police brutality, family separation
★ Highlight the importance of providing the opportunity to Black girls to write about
meaningful topics that they view as important
★ Invite teachers to initiate writing topics such as death and beyond academic writing, such
as poems, songs, stories
○ Teachers in their ongoing work of promoting a strong classroom community may
provide a foundation for students to recognize and confront pain.
 ○ Calls for the need to conceptualize poetry writing as literacy practice of
remembrance
★ Community
○ Experiencing loss is not just a personal and emotionless thinking process. Instead,
they suggest that expressions of loss, such as mourning and trying to find meaning
in the loss, are closely linked. People who are grieving often think about the life,
death, and what happens after death of the person they lost. This process can
happen both privately, within the individual, and publicly, within the larger
community that is also affected by the loss.
○ Sharing of the songs consider the audience as central
■ Writing about pain can benefit the community who then can learn from the
experience that were previously private
■ Audience embrace the story as if they are their own, making meaning in
their own ways (love shared between mother, child, and siblings)
■ The interaction between Noriah and Wendy
★ HOW writing helps
○ Eulogies allows individual to use language to express their relationship with their
lost ones
○ Literacy practices -> allows the enactment of “socially situated multiliteracies
(meanings)” meaning the song gets heard in different context, compel the
educators what is happening to the society / Black girls specifically
○ ​Creating a coherent narrative from a troubling or chaotic event can make the
event more understandable and accessible
○ While certain memories began to fade, a song becomes a permanent, artifactual
reminder and remembrance

Quotes
“I wrote a song about the loss of my little sister and biological mother, back to back, and so
much love I had for them, and what I couldn’t get out. It was a way to get out the rest of the
feeling that I had—telling that story to you directly, but I could sing it instantly. It was like a
form of therapy.”

Statistics
★ One in 20 children in the United States experience the death of a parent before age 18

Source #3: Writing and Responding to Trauma in a Time of Pandemic

Notes
★ Using the pandemic crisis to deepen our understanding of the relationship between
writing, resilience, and response
★ Curriculums address trauma in the following ways:
○ “The Personal Entry Point” composing personal healing narratives
■ for writers who wish to wrestle directly and privately with trauma
○ “The Inquiry Entry Point” framing their personal inquiry within a larger research
context
■ provides prompts that guide participants through the research process
■ inquiry-based projects that are driven by writers’ own interests are some
of the most meaningful writing that students do
○ “The Community-Based Entry Point” positioning themselves within the larger
community response to the COVID-19 pandemic
■ for writers who want to work with members of their own communities
■ a chance to give back to the communities from which we come
★ Writing can be a way to process that trauma and heal. Using expressive writing helps
students develop as stronger writers and allows them to process traumatic experiences in
productive, meaningful, and often, empowering ways
★ This course brings together what we know and what we teach so that writers across ages,
experiences, and educational experiences can use personal experiences, research, and
community-based responses to heal.