Neighbor News
Teens Share Stories From Their Lives and Imaginations
A tribute to the talented writers that inaugurated our teen class.
This past summer, Muse Squad launched our first EVER teen writing camp at Ridgefield Parks and Recreation. During the 5-day class entitled “Joni” we learned so much about the singer-song writer, Joni Mitchell, each other and ourselves. In every workshop we took turns reading aloud a stanza as we explored a selection of her artistry from the 60s and 70s. Then we listened to the song play, following along on the page, taking in her words a second time.
I wanted to share our students’ work as a farewell to a summer that we’ll never forget. I hope this article embodies the creative writing experience that occurred at the Ridgefield Recreation Center the week of July 22 - July 26, 2024.
A group of teenage writers came together, traveling from New York and even New Jersey (staying with their grandmother in town), and they provided such valuable feedback and insight as we continue to expand our creative writing opportunities in local communities. Lingering in a song, discussing the lyrics, pinpointing an emotion and channeling it into your own story, this is merely a handful of the happenings within a session. For a portion of the class, we created student bios to be printed in the program for our Final Reading. Each time they read their works aloud I got goosebumps! Sharing your writing is so personal because it’s so uniquely you and so satisfying when it’s a piece you’re truly proud of.
Liam wrote about poignant memories and conversations, glimpses of past vacations and grounded us in a loud house.
Em revisited events in her life and took risks instilling emotion and color into her stories, and she redrafted her classwork and was a diligent editor to get the rhythm and tone of her pieces just right.
Lucy originally hails from Boston, Massachusetts, as she mentioned during our first day interviews, and as she noted in her bio, her heart rests on the East coast; her gift for narrative voice first took us babysitting, then to New York City, as she found her distinct persona as an author.
Olivia wrote on her laptop and nuanced the presentation of her work, mingling text with pops of neon, the sounds and visuals in the environment of her writing was encapsulating beginning with a teenager listening to music through her headphones and images on the beach.
Carly Rae, already a Joni fan, went to unforeseeable depths of her imagination when she experimented with stream-of-conscious writing. Her untitled work is published in this article as a series of snapshots.
I took requests during our free-writes and we ended up playing Beatles’ songs on most days. We searched for poetry in every experience. As the leaves change, I’m writing one last tribute to the summer of ’24. Bring on the pumpkins and I can’t wait to embark once again on another creative writing journey this fall at the Ridgefield Recreation Center.
