5/7/2013 - Day Two

Today I slept in until about 11, and immediately started writing a new piece that I have been developing. I spent about 30 minutes writing, another 20 printing out some of my other pieces, and then  got ready to go to my second day at Youth Speaks.  After showing up to the mission office, I was informed that I didn't have anything to do except attend Dennis' workshop in Fruitvale at the Oakland Library Cesar Chavez branch. I had never been to this workshop location before and was a little nervous about its location. I had some time to add more to my lesson plan for SF Day, and then got on bart to head over to the workshop. When I got to the workshop I was surprised to see that it was just me and two other seniors who were attending the workshop, due to the fact that many students stop attending the workshops after they performed in the Annual Teen Poetry Slam. We started by reading from a Korean-American play, and discussed our personal connections with immigration and experiencing  cultural differences. Dennis connected with us each individually as we told stories, and laughed about the differences between all of our families. Dennis' calm presence and supporting feedback created a really relaxed learning environment  and it made it easy for me to share material that is more personal. I plan on interviewing Dennis and identifying more of these techniques that he uses in order to inspire his students to write about what means the most to them. I had a beautiful second day and am really excited for tomorrow!