Program Details

Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Civil Writes Project is a large-scale community engagement project that began in 2017 with a series of interconnected literary arts programs culminating in Toni Morrison’s appearance at Just Buffalo’s BABEL series exactly fifty years to the day after Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic speech on the same stage at Kleinhans Music Hall. Just Buffalo asked individual artists, collectives, nonprofit and community orgs of all sizes from community with an opportunity to apply for a $1500 project support award in order to propose a strong literary arts component.

Get Fokus’d Productions was one of the nine awardees.

Over the course of 6 weeks (10 sessions), 11 Buffalo Collegiate Charter School students, between grades 4-7th, explored the art of photography and creative writing while learning about 4 local black artists, Phil Davis, Edreys Wajed, Morgan Williams-Bryant and Aitina/A.I. The Anomaly.  These artists collectively have published plays, books, poetry and music that represent the plight and challenges of racism and equity. 

Through the hands-on use of Media Productions equipment (camera, lighting and editing software - property of GFP), students learned the basics of photography and video productions while applying the use of literary elements to create a collaborative video that showcases their collective written work. Each student was provided with a booklet displaying their collective photographic and poetic work.

Our hope is that this experience will ignite a revolutionary mindset to use the arts as their voice concerning issues that matter to each individual to not only heal, motivate, and inspire themselves, but others as well. 

Special thank you to @buffaloartsstudio for providing their community space for this program to be held.

Thank You!!