With summer reading season just around the corner, we’re excited to celebrate a community partner that’s been near and dear to our mission for quite some time: The Mt. Pleasant Library.
This month, 826DC joins Mt. Pleasant Library and DCPL for a responsive letter writing project in connection with their People’s University project to commemorate the 50 years of DC history since 1968. The partnership is part of the library’s larger efforts to promote engaged citizenship and raise awareness of the Civil Rights Movement of 1968 and the Poor People’s Campaign, alongside the dc1968 project.
“The dc1968 project is a digital storytelling project about Washington, DC during the entire year of 1968… The project combines digital storytelling, public memory, material culture and archives. It is open and iterative, inviting Washingtonians and others to share their stories.”
Last week in our After-School Writing Lab, students read Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and learned more about the Poor People’s Campaign before writing letters of their own inspired by Dr. King’s words. They explored questions like “what would I do if I were unfairly imprisoned,” and “how has the Civil Rights Movement influenced me?”
Partners like DCPL and the Mt. Pleasant Library continue to enliven our programs and help connect us to the greater community. We’re grateful for their partnership in this work, and proud to serve our students alongside them.
On May 14 (1-4 PM) and May 16 (noon-3 PM), 826DC will host drop-in workshops on responsive letter writing at Mt. Pleasant Library. Then, on May 29, don’t miss students reading their original letters at 7 PM. All of these events are FREE and open to the public. Be sure to check out the full line-up of events happening this month at the library.