Transformative Language Arts in Action [Paperback]

When you take writers and poets into areas where real people are dealing with real life problems and traumas, with humble joys, renewing their hope in life, having expressive breakthroughsthat is the gift to all of us. This allows real people to tell their stories, to share their grief and gratitude, to untwist the dark silence that wraps their hearts and lengthen it out into a sonnet, a narrative poem, a celebratory lyricthat is essentially what language and words are for.What these writers have done is nothing short of challenging the stale models of writing to and for other writers, other poets entrenched in the moldy hallways of academia. When writing breaks down the doors, when writing is used to really reach across the dark chasm and speak out, call by name the ghosts that lurk there and invoke one's own power with fearless defiance, well, then, that is truly writing from the heart, writing that is mapped and charted to define and explore our human experience. That is what this book does, and I applaud the editors, the writers and poets. So impressive is this volume that every high school child and every citizen should have it in their backpacks and book shelves.This is as much a testimonial to the resilience and creativity of the human spirit as it is an informative exploration of an emerging field, Transformative Language Arts. A collection of reflections, stories, reports on the work of change agents whose medium is language (whether spoken, written, sung, enacted, or remembered), it shares with us the many ways people are successfully being moved to write, to be heard into speech, and to be liberated into action through the work of these caring professionals.A transformation awaits each reader in this volumes wealth of language, heart, scholarship, and stories within stories to inspire action in whatever small way we can to affect our large, troubled yet beautiful world. Each contributor is a change agent who creatively points the way to a higher level3-