After the world lost Prince, Big Class and DJ Soul Sister collaborated to celebrate the creativity, self-expression, and poetry that inspired so many.
In 2016, friend of Big Class DJ Soul Sister hosted Revolution: A Prince Celebration to honor Prince and his timeless artistry, generously donating a portion of the proceeds to our free writing programs.
The following year, we teamed up with Soul Sister to elevate youth voice and forge a connection between Writers’ Room students and Prince’s powerful legacy.
The Small Center for Collaborative Design partnered with Big Class to renovate the Writers’ Room in students’ own vision.
The Writers’ Room at Sylvanie Williams College Prep is a dedicated space for pre-K through 8th grade students to attend writing clubs, get feedback on their work, and collaborate with volunteers and other students. In 2017, students from the Tulane School of Architecture’s Small Center and Sylvanie students worked together to reimagine the Writers’ Room into a space that is inviting, dynamic, and encourages writing.
On May 11th, we held a celebration in the redesigned Writers’ Room with Sylvanie students, our Small Center collaborators, educators, and community members. The beautiful room reflects Sylvanie students’ own visions for the space while supporting our programmatic needs and fosters a creative, literary spirit.
Revisit our Q&A with Professor Emilie Taylor and a few students from the Design Build class:
In what ways do you think this project affected students to be better architects and members of the design community?
ET: For many of our students this is the first time they are working with a client, which is a big moment for them – it’s also the first time they have a budget, first time making something with tools, and often the first time their design ideas are being built and having real-world consequences. So there’s a lot to learn and a lot of pushing against comfort zones in that bundle. The students have to learn quickly how to communicate, collaborate, and be creative problem solvers. My hope is that the engagement with Big Class staff and their students as well as discussions about design process and access to design that are happening throughout the semester make the students think more critically about what they do, who they do it for, and how they each can be a force for good and design equity in their corner of the world.
Tell us a little bit about the creative process for this project. What did you learn by visiting the Writers’ Room, and how did you determine the final design?
Camille: In visiting the Writer’s Room, I learned a lot about the general mood of the class, like what the kids are interested in, what sort of things they would like to see in a space and what sort of things they wouldn’t enjoy. The Big Class kids that we interacted with were a funny, creative, and sometimes crazy bunch, and talking with them made me think they would enjoy a playful, vibrant space.
Paula: Visiting the school gave us the chance to talk to the teachers and the students about what they would like to see in the space and get some one to one feedback. This preliminary studies helped us narrow down to a few key needs and wants for the space which we carried through to the final product.
What were your favorite parts of working on this project?
Camille: I had a lot of favorite parts of this project. One thing that was great was working with an actual client, and having my first experience with a client be such an easy, collaborative one. Big Class was awesome, they were communicative and excited and I think that having this being my first interaction with a real client was a really positive experience. Building off of that, not only was it awesome to have that interaction, it was also awesome to be able to make something for someone and watch them see a little dream realized. Seeing the reaction of our final design felt really, really good, it felt like we had done our job and served Big Class well, and I can’t wait to see what the kids think.
Our biggest thanks to the Small Center for all their hard work and our beautiful finished Writers’ Room!
This year, Big Class has had the privilege of partnering with Tulane Small Center for a total renovation of our Writers’ Room at Sylvanie Williams College Prep! Read on to see photos of the renovated room, press about Tulane Small Center, and a Q&A with both Professor Emilie Taylor and her students.
Read & watch more about the project:
Read more about the project on The Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design’s Website.
Read a Q&A with Professor Emilie Taylor and a few students from the Design Build class:
Q&A with Design Build Manager, Emilie Taylor
What is Tulane’s Small Center, and how did you get involved with Big Class?
The Small Center is Tulane School of Architecture’s community design center – we advance community-driven ideas through collaboration, design education and scrappy problem-solving. Once a year we have an open Request for Project Proposals, where community-based groups in New Orleans write to us with ideas about design projects they would like to pursue. Last year Big Class’s proposal for a writer’s room at Sylvanie Williams was one of the projects chosen for our spring semester design build project! What that means is that a team of 13 architecture students has 15 weeks from the first conversation/interview with Big Class In-School Programs Manager Ashely Teamer to having a complete built project.
In what ways do you think this project affected students to be better architects and members of the design community?
For many of our students this is the first time they are working with a client, which is a big moment for them – it’s also the first time they have a budget, first time making something with tools, and often the first time their design ideas are being built and having real-world consequences. So there’s a lot to learn and a lot of pushing against comfort zones in that bundle. The students have to learn quickly how to communicate, collaborate, and be creative problem solvers. My hope is that the engagement with Big Class staff and their students as well as discussions about design process and access to design that are happening throughout the semester make the students think more critically about what they do, who they do it for, and how they each can be a force for good and design equity in their corner of the world.
Q&A with Students from The Design Build Class
Tell us a little bit about the creative process for this project. What did you learn by visiting the Writers’ Room, and how did you determine the final design?
Camille: In visiting the Writer’s Room, I learned a lot about the general mood of the class, like what the kids are interested in, what sort of things they would like to see in a space and what sort of things they wouldn’t enjoy. The Big Class kids that we interacted with were a funny, creative, and sometimes crazy bunch, and talking with them made me think they would enjoy a playful, vibrant space.
Paula: Visiting the school gave us the chance to talk to the teachers and the students about what they would like to see in the space and get some one to one feedback. This preliminary studies helped us narrow down to a few key needs and wants for the space which we carried through to the final product.
What were your favorite parts of working on this project?
Camille: I had a lot of favorite parts of this project. One thing that was great was working with an actual client, and having my first experience with a client be such an easy, collaborative one. Big Class was awesome, they were communicative and excited and I think that having this being my first interaction with a real client was a really positive experience. Building off of that, not only was it awesome to have that interaction, it was also awesome to be able to make something for someone and watch them see a little dream realized. Seeing the reaction of our final design felt really, really good, it felt like we had done our job and served Big Class well, and I can’t wait to see what the kids think.
What were some of your biggest challenges when working on this project?
Paula: I think one of the biggest challenges we faced were building the actual structure, because no matter how many times we drew it and planned out how everything was going to work something wouldn’t quite work out the way we had hopped.
12th grader Nia Gates has been interning at Big Class for the 2015-2016 school year. We asked her to write about one of her favorite experiences of her internship, and she wrote about the “Code Your Story Workshop.” Read about her experience:
Nia works with a student during “Code Your Story.”
In December of 2015, I joined Big Class as a part of its Youth Advisory Council. From there, I began to meet amazing artists, be shown new opportunities, and was able to hone my skills in many things, even beyond poetry and photography. Being an intern for Big Class was an entirely new and different experience for me. My position with Big Class became about working behind the scenes: instead of being just an addition to the book, you become a creator, a publisher, a promoter and far more.
One of my favorite opportunities as an intern was working with middle school students from Sylvanie Williams School. Big Class collaborated with Cartoon Network to bring a workshop called “Code Your Story” to the school. It was a 3-day workshop and within the first two days I was able to watch these young minds express themselves through creating stories in which they got to animate.
Being able to watch the ideas sprout from the students, watching them explore and beginning to learn and understand the website all to bring together their own stories was breathtaking. The classes of “Code Your Story” began with the students sitting with a Big Class instructor and collectively creating a protagonist to then turn around and create their own. After the development, students took their ideas to Scratch where they began to animate their protagonist and create a new story around them. The second day they created an antagonist and a storyline to follow between when animating their heroine and villain.
Seeing their minds in motion, showed me that what I do at Big Class has true worth. Giving youth the opportunity to express themselves as well as the tools to find new things they may enjoy or new opportunities they can create for themselves.
Being a part of the Big Class gives me the chance to be a bigger part of my community. It has set me on a clearer path for my future in education and nonprofit work.
Big Class is excited to begin a collaborative project with the Tulane City Center to redesign and renovate the Writer’s Room at Sylvanie Williams College Prep.
The Writers’ Room acts as a space for students in 1st to 7th grade to be creative, work with volunteers, and ultimately publish a book of student work.
We can’t wait to get to work with the City Center and create an even more wonderful Writer’s Room.
In Spring 2015, 4th grade students at Sylvanie Williams College Prep Elementary worked with Big Class volunteer Sam Ryan in the Big Class Writers’ Room to write, co-direct, and star in When Robots Go Wrong!
