How the Writing Project Became Inclusive

By: Denise Patmon

Summary: Denise Patmon recounts the early—and continuing—efforts of the NWP to find "a place for lifting every voice in a writing project."

The writing project is about teachers teaching teachers, and in recent decades these words have come to refer especially to what teachers of color have to teach the rest of us. Our goal has always been a writing project that is truly inclusive. And now, especially under the leadership of Richard Sterling, we are taking giant steps in that direction. But as Denise Patmon, codirector of the Boston Writing Project points out here, the road towards diversity has not been without its bumps.

It was November 1981. The ballroom seemed exceptionally large. The faces were White, predominantly male, and chiefly university types. I remember wondering, "How did I locate myself (Black and female) in this room?"

I came to the meeting of National Writing Project site directors as a representative of the Boston Writing Project (BWP), which has been multiracial and multicultural since its inception in 1979. Housed at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, a public university with an urban mission, BWP originated in the final moments of the dramatic struggle over court-ordered desegregation of the Boston public schools. Irate adults stoned yellow school buses, and the wide-eyed but tearful faces of brave children permeated the news about Boston during the mid-to-late 1970s. Prior to busing, some folks in the Northeast were quite apt to think that racism and discrimination were Southern problems, as though they existed only in the South. Boston, a cradle of liberty and of the abolitionist movement, became a symbol of the fact that racism, racial hatred, and discrimination thrived in New England as well.

The battle over desegregating the Boston public schools served as an anchor for change and inclusion among a variety of institutions in the area, which had heretofore been racially and ethnically exclusive.

Attending the 1981 site directors meeting, I was thoroughly immersed in and optimistic about our work with a diverse group of teachers on the local level. I was anxious and enthusiastic about meeting writing project teachers and directors on a national level. My first impression of NWP was admirable yet haunting. There was a lot of good energy in the room, much excitement, plenty of talk about writing everywhere; yet I was stunned to be what seemed like one Black person among hundreds of White persons. I recall saying to my BWP colleagues Peter Golden and Joe Check something like, "Hey, don't Black folks teach writing and lead writing projects? Are they meeting in another room as a caucus or something?" They acknowledged awareness of the "White out," too.

At the end of that November day in 1981, although I had found the meeting informative, invigorating, and even inspiring, I knew that if I was to have an ongoing relationship at the national level, something had to be done about the lack of racial and cultural diversity. There were boundaries that had to be pushed.

Talking about this specific goal with a few of my new writing project colleagues, like Richard Sterling, Sheridan Blau, and others, made me feel encouraged and assured that I was not alone in wanting to act on this obvious need. I remember the following day at the NCTE Black Caucus meeting, I stood up and made a special point to publicize NWP, to do what I later learned Jim Gray does—to cast a net, so others might investigate this marvelous network. The room remained silent after my announcement. Later, a caucus colleague turned to me and whispered, "Girl, what are you doing in that White People's Project?" Indeed, there was a lot of work to be done and boundaries to be expanded.

Since 1981, NWP has been at work on diversity and inclusion. One defining moment for me in this struggle came in the mid-1980s when BWP leadership was invited to Lehman College to work with New York City Writing Project (NYCWP) teacher-consultants around issues related to teaching writing in our respective city schools. At this meeting, Linette Moorman (now NYCWP director) provided an interesting analysis of the tensions expressed by non-White NYC teachers concerning the teaching of writing. She talked about writing skills dilemmas being embedded in the way race, class, and language get played out in the classroom and the neighborhood community. These were issues that I had not previously heard discussed so openly at a writing project session.

This, for me, monumental meeting of teacher representatives from these two projects was provocative, inspiring, and paved the way for a larger meeting that followed at the University of Pennsylvania under the leadership of Susan Lytle and the Philadelphia Writing Project, where concrete steps were made in the formation of the Urban Sites Network within NWP. At this gathering of urban teachers and teacher-consultants from around the country, folks were talking, testifying, and testing strategies to better meet the writing needs of their specific student populations. I remember African American teacher Deborah Jumpp (Philadelphia Writing Project) and Millie Veal (BWP) rising as leaders, along with others, and finding their way to the national forefront. This was my first experience with a substantial number of Black writing project teachers on the national level. Change had begun.

To walk into our annual NWP meeting today, one would notice a stark difference from my 1981 experience. The room is more colorful now, with languages and idioms other than English being spoken in conversations among and between teachers and teacher-consultants as well as university and college professors. Indeed, we have come a long way since the early days.

On both the national and my local site levels, we have come closer to actualizing bell hook's definition of "critical consciousness"—a place where one feels recognized and included. We have been transformed and must continue to be transformed. Is there a place for lifting every voice in a writing project? Yes, there is—through constant, deliberate reflection and conscious action within each individual site.

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