Mercer students create new writing workshop for high school students

Two students from Mercer University are starting a six-week writing workshop meant for local Macon high school students.

Ivy Clarke, a senior creative writing major, and Ashley Pemberton, a junior journalism major, are the workshop’s creators and facilitators. They’re currently hosting the workshop through Zoom sessions every Monday at 5 p.m. for the next six weeks.

“The Macon Young Writers Workshop is a program started by Ashley Pemberton and I, and it’s intended to provide a safe space for local Macon high school students grow as poets, and as just students and people as they connect with members of their community, who are equally interested in writing, as they read global poets and write about issues that are important to them,” said Clarke.

Clarke and Pemberton are planning to help students grow as poets and to connect students to publications interested in publishing students’ work. At the end of the workshop, they plan to have interested students create a “zine,” which Clarke described as a handmade mini-poetry chat book, with their best work to share with their community.

“We want to teach our students rhyme and meter, but more importantly, we want to teach them how to communicate with each other and how to use their voices,” said Clarke.

Both Clarke and Pemberton are interested in starting the workshop to give marginalized individuals a place to speak.

“Ashley and I are interested in starting a workshop as a way to specifically uplift and highlight marginalized voices, so voices of color, queer voices, disabled voices, voices from low-income communities,” said Clarke.

Clarke originally came up with the workshop’s idea spring of her freshman year at Mercer as a tool for activism, but abandoned it until her junior year when she was provided the resources to make it able to happen after joining Mercer’s Service Scholars. Service Scholars is a “dynamic program that engages diverse students in substantive service in both the local community and internationally.” She tentatively pitched it to her advisers, who encouraged her to move forward with it.

She approached Pemberton, who she’d met the summer prior to her junior year at Mercer, because she believed that their ideas would work together. Pemberton, who Clarke said was Carribean and interested in representation, agreed, and the duo worked together on the project for the past year.

“Everybody has a voice, but not all voices are being heard. So we want to create a space as a way to specifically uplift these marginalized voices, and bring them into the spotlight and make sure they’re sharing their story,” said Clarke.

Clarke acknowledged the amount of privilege she had as a Mercer student that allowed her to put on the workshop. She said that they were given a lot of support from their advisers, who had connections with Macon educators, and others, like current poet laureate of Georgia Chelsea Rathburn.

The workshop will focus on the written word for the current semester, which is Clarke’s specialty. She said that it’ll be spoken word next semester, which is Pemberton’s specialty, and they’ll focus on the performance of it as well. The curriculum is primarily dependent on what the students need or want, however, Clarke said, and they’ll design the curriculum for the needs of the workshop.

While the workshop is currently Clarke’s project for both the Service Scholars’ program and one of her journalism classes, she said that it’ll be Pemberton’s next year after Clarke graduates. Pemberton will pick another co-facilitator, who will take over the workshop after Pemberton graduates and so on.

“Ideally, it becomes a self-sustaining project within Macon, and it continues for many, many years,” Clarke said. “And I don’t know what it’ll look like, I’m excited to see what it will look like and I am open to leaving that up to the future facilitators and students of the program, because as much as I say facilitators, it’s really about the students in the program. The students are designing the program and leading the program and giving and taking what they want from the program.”

They hope to reach out to community poets or organizations to collaborate with or mentor students next semester, including some geared towards Macon youth.

“Maybe this program stays within Mercer, or maybe it goes beyond Mercer into the broader community and the community keeps it sustainable, because it’s really a project intended for the community, for the community of Macon to help itself and for Mercer to be involved with Macon,” said Clarke.

The first meeting was held over Zoom on Oct. 25, and the next meeting is scheduled for November 1. It isn’t a linear workshop, and Clarke said that interested students can join any time throughout. The workshop is completely free, and interested students can find the Zoom information on their Facebook page. Their email is maconyoungwriters@gmail.com.

This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 7:00 AM.