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Claremont Neighborhood
Center
Morrisiana, New York
April 12th,14th,19th and 21st, 1993
The Dogeaters,
1990
National Book Award Finalist, Fiction
Ms. Hagedorn
visited with GED and English as a Second Language classes
at Claremont Neighborhood Center for four evenings during
a two week period. Prior to her first visit, the students,
who ranged in age from 16 to 45 years old, read selected
short prose and poetry from Ms. Hagedorn's most recent
book, Danger and Beauty, donated by Penguin USA.
The Foundation also provided tickets for them to attend
a reading at the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd
Street Y, featuring Ms. Hagedorn and Ishmael Reed. During
her first evening visit, Ms. Hagedorn answered questions
about her book and the reading. She also showed the
students a short video by a group of local artists about
language and the way in which word meaning differs among
members of varying cultural sub-communities.
Subsequent visits included the introduction of poetry
by additional authors in both Spanish and English to
accommodate the bilingual needs of the students. Ms.
Hagedorn read aloud from Sandra Cisneros' The House
on Mango Street, to illustrate the importance of
focusing a piece of creative writing on a central emotion
or idea. Selected readings represented a wide range
of literary styles and genres, and Ms. Hagedorn assigned
writing exercises that encouraged the students to explore
their own stories. As follow up to the residency, a
group of students attended the annual Frederick Douglas
Black Roots Festival, held at the New York Society for
Ethical Culture.
This year's Settlement House program,
co-sponsored with United Neighborhood Houses, featured
four author residencies in Settlement Houses on Manhattan's
Lower East Side, Harlem and the Bronx. National Book
Award Finalists Dorothy Allison, Jessica Hagedorn, Michael
Harper and Cristina Garcia participated in three to
four day residencies, meeting with single mothers, teens,
high school dropouts, English as a Second Language students
(ESL), and adult readers studying for their High School
Graduate Equivalency degree (GED). All participants
received copies of the visiting author's book in advance
and many produced creative written responses which explored
a range of literary genres, including poetry, memoir,
short fiction, and biography.
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