Spit and Spaghetti #10

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

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Pitches from Wind and Wall

Ori Women’s Creative Grant

I live in a 100-year-old renovated factory loft, next to a historically designated brick factory/art gallery, next to a heavily trafficked public “beltline” built on old train tracks. The brick factory caught my eye the minute I saw it. It is now a home and art gallery. As a naturally curious person — with researcher’s skills — I began to find out about the space. In digging around, the artist couple who lives there told me the story of the original brick company owner, B. Mifflin Hood. Hood advocated against convict leasing and that work provided the impetus for historical designation. This story will explore — the power of paying attention to our next door, the lessons of art and architecture and place in our current day, and a future where place intentionally informs, connects, and inspires.

O’Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism

This project will define convict leasing, explore the struggle to end the practice, and discuss its relationship to current public funding of private prisons — which includes significant investments in prison labor. I currently live across the street from a historically designated renovated brick factory in Atlanta. The original owner of the brick factory, B. Mifflin Hood, led the fight against convict leasing in Georgia in the second half of the 1900th and early 2000th century. Talking with Douglas Blackmon, author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning Slavery by Another Name and current faculty at Georgia State University, piqued my interest in connecting history and our current situation. My personal connection to the story also stems from teaching a writing class for several years in a federal prison in South Florida. Teaching that class gave me a front row seat to our common humanity, a fact which is commonly ignored and/or weaponized when talking about incarcerated individuals.

Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College.

Creating a healthier, safer, creative, and more just world is the core of my professional journey. As an arts advocate, I have taught high school drama, evaluated arts programs, and created a research agenda built on wide-awakeness. As an applied researcher, I communicate technical program language to diverse audiences. As a writer, I develop compelling narratives that effectively articulate process, impact, innovation, and thought leadership. I bridge research, policy, and practice across diverse contexts to promote social justice. I build and sustain relationships and increase organizational capacity.

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