Teachers & Writers Collaborative Offers Virtual Programming

Over the summer, Teachers & Writers Collaborative offered an 8-week virtual course for 20 visually impaired seniors in partnership with VISIONS Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Led by teaching artist Dave Johnson, participants met for weekly 2-hour classes, creating poetry, fiction, plays (monologue) and song, focusing on personal histories. The course finished with a virtual culminating event featuring participants’ work, featured below.

Things that Make You Go: Huh? by Elizabeth Tarr
Are plates really
Pancakes made of glass?
Do cornbread and grits feel like
Braille letters to be read with your tongue?
Where do the right track
And wrong tracks intersect?
What sound does the human make
According to animals?
Is it better to be
Kissed by the sun or hugged by a tree?
What if oceans were made from
Tears of humans and animals?
Should second chances be more like
Stars or comets?
If life and the world were perfect,
Would lessons be learned or character built?
If there were a parashute for falling in love,
Would you want it?

Questions Oh Lord Questions by Hashim Kirkland
Does the mountains have conversations with the sky?
When the birds sing do the trees listen?
Do the flowers whisper to each other and each word is carried by the gentle breeze?
Do the hills, mountains and valleys argue over who is the best?
Does the moon get a little rest during the day and does the sun get any rest at night?
How does the sky hold up all those big fluffy white pillows without dropping one?
Do birds talk to their eggs like a mother talks to the baby in her womb?
Is the ground the mother of plants, trees, shrubs, fruits and vegetables and so much more?
What is it like to hear all creation worship you JESUS?
Does the arms of a clock ever get tired?
Why is it that time keeps getting older but in a lot of ways it remains the same?
Does a house remember all the great times that were held in and around it?
Where does forever actually start?
Do different animals ever have a peace treaty?
Has there ever been a time when the earth said , I wish they would treat me better?
Where did true love go?

WHY AM I SO CURIOUS? by Elizabeth Hernandez
1. Why does a heart speed up like a racing car when you are near the object of your affection?
2. Whose voice do I hear repeating my name like an echo in the mountains?
3. Mr. Sun, will you poke your nose through my window and chase away the shadows?
4. When can one taste freedom and smell the fresh scent of spring or see rainbows after the rain?
5. If you lend me your eyes could I see the person you really are?
6. If I put you on a pedestal do you promise not to fall?
7. Hey Teacher, may I lend you my ears when you are ready to teach me?
8. Cathy, let’s bury the hatchet; can we be friends again?
9. Do you promise not to tell when I share my secrets?
10. God, I am working very hard on getting ready; could you promise me another day?

Ask Me? by Helen Wong
1. Can a dead roach regenerate after we cut it in half after a period of time?
2. Why does the sun rise every day?
3. When it rains does that mean god is crying because of the sins we’ve committed?
4. What would it feel like if we can fly like a bird anywhere in the world?
5. What would it be like to live all alone in the world without another human being around you or animals surrounding you?
6. What is one critical thing that you would change in our government and why?
7. How does a person measure success based on quality of life or the amount of financial assets one has accumulated over time?
8. What would it be like to be a cake?
9. What career would continue to exist and not be lost even though there is a recession?
10. What is beauty when looking at a person is a based on outer parents physical or inner appearance?