Gemini Ink’s Writers In Communities (WIC) 2009 fall projects kick off September 11 with a talk on taking control of your life through writing by Austin writer Abe Louise Young. Young will speak to an audience of 40 returning high school students working toward their General Equivalency Diploma (GED) at the East Central High School Learning Academy (ECHS). The students will participate in two Gemini Ink writing workshops. One group comprises young parents working on an anthology of food stories for their children. The second group will work on a poetry/ceramic project, incorporating text into mosaics.

Much of Young’s work focuses on oral history projects, education, and community literacy. A 2007 recipient of an MFA in writing from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, Young’s publications include Hip Deep: Opinion, Essays, and Visions from American Teenagers (Next Generation Press, 2005), and a DVD First in the Family: How to Make it to College (Next Generation Press and the Lumina Foundation for Education, 2006).

WIC talked with Abe Louise about bringing poetry and personal storytelling into the community.
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