AMC 2008

So, AMC 2007 was incredibly inspirational for me, but due to the intensity of the MA program that I've been in this past year, I haven't been able to get myself involved in Detroit networking for youth activism, as I had hoped I would be able to. However, I'm hoping that I can align my work with my students at Earhart Middle School and the 2008 AMC... here's the preliminary thought.

So, we're working on creating a digital zine as a culminating project for my English class this year. My 8th graders are taking their self-selected 3 best pieces of writing, workshopping them in groups, and then representing them creatively in a digital zine, which will be put out as a DVD. I'm still working on the funding for all of this, but the legalities are difficult to circumnavigate as I cannot effectively "publish" their work due to their being minors and privacy laws.

Since I was so inspired by meeting members of LAMP and hearing about their CD that they put out last year, my idea was to bring some of my students to the conference this year, to have them participate in workshops, meet up with members of Detroit Summer and LAMP, perhaps get them involved in some of the summer programming. They are already excellent critical thinkers and have so much to say, I thought that this would be a great opportunity for them to connect with other youth around Detroit.

Anyway, this is still a thought in progress and much planning needs to go into it in order to make it happen, so I'll be here thinking and ironing out some details. Of course, logistics are big on my mind, as is the question of running our own workshop as to our publication process... we'll see, we'll see. Just wanted to share some thoughts.

Cheers,
Lauren