Friday, February 26, 2016

Gemini Ink Writing Lab - Week #2 - Letters

Engaging the Active Imagination: Writing as Activism

Writing prompt
  • Write a letter to someone, alive or dead, or to something, past or present

Entry:

Letter Addressed to the San Antonio River Authority

To Whom It May Concern,

We, the people, hereby file a formal complaint against the developers of the Blue Star - Big Tex apartments for obstructing the viewshed of the San Antonio River, its walking/biking trail, and its riparian zone. For decades the afternoon-to-evening daylight has nourished the river banks replete with cypress trees, sunflowers, and other lush foliage. For generations our families have cast out lines from our fishing poles to reap the sustenance this river brings us. We have consulted our beloved sun, we have listened to the wilting leaves on the aging trees, we have conducted in-house community meetings, we have conversed with our affluent neighbors to the north who own river-front property and we have come to this conclusion: The architecture of this development bears no resemblance to the cultural characteristics of our beloved city, it holds no likeness to the lifestyle of the river's inhabitants, and gives no inspiration to the thousands of visitors meandering along the river banks. Each year, at the beginning of each season with weather permitting, we are blessed with an abundance of sunbeams that bring a natural energy to the fish, the birds, the insects, the greenery, the winds along the surface, carrying with them the natural flow of life. All of these natural elements are surely, and sorely, to suffer, with the current state of development with its gospel of urban density that has come to plague our blessed river. Therefore, to the authority, we deliver our demands as follows: We demand these structures be razed, without polluting the surround environment, and rebuilt with ceilings no higher than one and a half stories. And if this is not within the means of the authority to execute, then we demand the artists of our community be commissioned to decorate the exterior walls of this development with murals illustrating the peoples' history of our beloved river...

Friday, February 19, 2016

Gemini Ink Writing Lab - Week #1 - The Classroom

Engaging the Active Imagination: Writing as Activism

Writing prompt
  • Write the vision that comes to mind for your ideal classroom

Entry:

We blame the teachers. We blame the parents. We blame the students. We blame the unions. We blame the principals. We blame until there's no one left to blame. Cancel the art classes. Cancel the music funding. Cancel the field trips. Drive the career. Drive the examinations. Drive the promise of debt. Horde as many young people as we can into the confines of social isolation so that they feel they can't connect with anyone. This is what we've done. How many years of dropouts by the multitude before we admit what we've created isn't working, where kids are sent off and packed in and shuffled about and tracked like heads of cattle in what is shaped like prison? And now with this knowing, this knowledge, of our faults, what can we do to heal? To heal the community? What will it take to place the education in the hands of the community? But I can only speak from a distance, for all I know comes from being raised in the church. And even then, the doctrine and dogma of the clergy leaves many feeling jaded with the notion of "faith", turning into Catholic school burnouts. But the nurturing, oh, how the nurturing is there (present).