This weekend, The New York Writers Coalition (NYWC) presents its popular
Fort
Greene Park
Summer Literary Festival. In addition to young writers, the event will feature Fort Greene literary luminaries: Colson Whitehead, Toure and Nelson George. There's lots of literary history in the Fort
Greene neighborhood. For starters: poet Marianne
Moore lived and wrote on Cumberland
Street . Novelist Richard Wright wrote his
landmark piece Native Son while living in the neighborhood. Screenwriter and
filmmaker Spike Lee established his 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks in
Fort Greene
in the 1980s. The park itself was built through the influence of the iconic
poet Walt Whitman in 1843.
be held on August 22nd at 3:00 PM.
This year features young writers, ages seven to eighteen reading
alongside Colson Whitehead, Touré, and Nelson George. This exciting
event brings several generations of writers together to build on the rich
literary traditions of the neighborhoods surrounding beautiful
Fort Greene
Park .
The Festival celebrates the end of a free
summer-long series of creative writing workshops held in the historic
Fort Greene
Park . The groups serve
7-12 year olds and teenagers in dynamic and innovative workshops designed to
create a safe space for young writers to find their voices through all genres
of creative writing. “This continues to be one of our more popular
programs. We see many of the same faces year after year and many have grown up
writing in the park,” said Aaron Zimmerman, Founder and Executive
Director of NYWC, a not-for-profit organization that operates the workshops.
“Who knows which one will be become the next Touré or Nelson
George?”
One of the Festival’s organizers, Johnny
Temple of Akashic Books, said, “We are lucky this year to be able to tap
into Fort
Greene ’s rich literary history.
All the readers this year live in the neighborhood and are inspired by the park.”