Tag: Press
In the News: History Between These Folds in the National Association of Black Journalists
By Daja Henry
NABJ Monitor
August 12, 2017
Carver High student Kiara Geiger (’18) autographs a copy of “History Between These Folds.” (Mya Ebanks/Big Class)
New Orleans, also known as the “Big Easy,” is a cultural hub that attracts millions of tourists each year. But growing up in New Orleans can be far from easy.
Big Class, a nonprofit that focuses on students’ self-expression, is lending a hand to the city’s youth. The organization partners with local schools to encourage students to find positive ways to express themselves through writing and art.
This year, Big Class is working with the eleventh grade students of George Washington Carver High School, located in a neighborhood where residents are still recovering from the damage of Hurricane Katrina. As part of Big Class’ Young Authors’ Book Project, students wrote History Between These Folds, a collection of personal essays.
Read more here.
In the News: Big Class in Biz New Orleans
By Pamela Marquis
Biz New Orleans
July 2017
On April 29, Nia Gates, a teen intern with Big Class, a local youth writing program, traveled to Washington, D.C., for the 2017 People’s Climate March. Gates read her original poem, “Hold Your Seats, The Tree Speaks” to an audience of 200,000.
“Having the opportunity to travel to D.C. and share a part of my world with the rest was an absolutely amazing experience,” she said. “I would have to say my favorite part of the day was the chance to meet the fellow artists and speakers who also stepped onto the stage either before or after me. I am an 18-year-old girl from New Orleans and I was able to travel hundreds of miles to march and perform with people who see a future of liberation just like myself.”
Gates was afforded that opportunity, in part, because of her involvement with Big Class. The writing program began in 2010 at Lincoln Elementary School in Marrero when Doug Keller and Heather Muntzer facilitated a series of successful writing projects for 43 first-grade students. Word of these projects soon spread throughout New Orleans and other teachers began reaching out to Keller to do the same kind of work in their classrooms.
Read more here.
In the News: Pizza Poetry in the Advocate
By Susan Larson
The New Orleans Advocate
April 19, 2017
If you order a pizza on Friday, there might be something special on the box.
On that night, pies from G’s Pizza, Garage Pizza, Mid City Pizza, Pizza Delicious and Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza will arrive with a poem on the cardboard, written by a young person in New Orleans.
Those stanzas and couplets have made a long journey from the creative mind of a young poet before being read by professional poets, educators and interns, attached to something delicious and delivered to your door.
It’s for a good cause: Pizza Poetry Day and the programs of Big Class, an innovative writing program dedicated to making the voices of New Orleans students ages 6-18 heard.
Those voices come through loud and clear in the innovative, funny, smart and imaginative poems that will add a little spice to your pizza on Friday. After Pizza Poetry Day, the poems will be collected and published in an anthology.
Read more here.
In the News: Pizza Poetry project adds new events to menu/The Advocate
Where are they now? Catching up on people, pets and projects from 2016
Pizza Poetry project adds new events to menu
BY JASON BROWNE and KAREN TAYLOR
The Advocate
December 28, 2016
If Pizza Poetry is the voice of the children, those kids are about to get louder.
Big Class, the New Orleans nonprofit that encourages kids to write, in part by attaching their poems to pizza boxes at restaurants across the city for one day each spring, is helping to develop a New Orleans Youth Poetry Festival and working with 826 National on initiatives to get more kids writing to get those works out to a much larger crowd.
Read more: http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/communities/crescent_city/article_393637e2-c311-11e6-a2e7-2b40bd2701dd.html?sr_source=lift_amplify
Photo and Phiction Exhibition
On Thursday, July 28th, we finished our Photo and Phiction summer workshop series with a exhibition of student work in the Teen Room of the Norman Mayer Library. Young writers brought family and friends to see their beautiful photos and writing proudly displayed on the library walls and celebrate their creativity.
See the full photo gallery here.
Making a Difference: Empowering New Orleans youth through pen and paper
“This program is teaching our kids how to use how to use words in a way that can affect change. Now they are becoming the powerful ones because reading gives you access, but writing gives you power.”
–Kyley Pulphus, Big Class board member and teacher
WDSU wrote a lovely short piece about our work and dropped by our final Photo and Phiction workshop of the summer, led by Big Class youth intern Keith Riley (pictured above).
Check out the article and short video: http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/making-a-difference-empowering-new-orleans-youth-through-pen-and-paper/40950558
Poetry & Pepperoni: Pizza boxes are the pages for young people’s verses
April 12, 2016/The New Orleans Advocate
Would you like a poem with that? Buy a pizza, get some poetry at New Orleans restaurants
April 6, 2016
“The young poet’s subject matters range from lighthearted, such as annoying brothers and food, to more serious subjects, such as family issues and discrimination.”
The Times-Picayune wrote an article about the Pizza Poetry Project and the “magical pairing” of the two things everyone loves: youth writing and pizza. Poetry is playful, fun, and free in structure, allowing it to be a highly accessible form of writing for young people. Also, kids loves pizza. Read the full article here.
NOLA.com’s Best 11 Parties of 2015 features Big Class’s A Dark and Stormy Night
December 29, 2015/NOLA.com
Big Class’s annual gala, A Dark and Stormy Night, was on NOLA.com’s Best 11 Parties of 2015 list! A Dark and Stormy Night featured a silent auction, a reading of ghost stories, and, of course, all things haunted. View the full list: http://www.nola.com/society/index.ssf/2015/12/best_11_new_orleans_parties_of.html#3
Pizza Poetry April 17th
April 13, 2015/Fox 8 Morning Edition
In the News: History Between These Folds in the National Association of Black Journalists
By Daja Henry
NABJ Monitor
August 12, 2017
Carver High student Kiara Geiger (’18) autographs a copy of “History Between These Folds.” (Mya Ebanks/Big Class)
New Orleans, also known as the “Big Easy,” is a cultural hub that attracts millions of tourists each year. But growing up in New Orleans can be far from easy.
Big Class, a nonprofit that focuses on students’ self-expression, is lending a hand to the city’s youth. The organization partners with local schools to encourage students to find positive ways to express themselves through writing and art.
This year, Big Class is working with the eleventh grade students of George Washington Carver High School, located in a neighborhood where residents are still recovering from the damage of Hurricane Katrina. As part of Big Class’ Young Authors’ Book Project, students wrote History Between These Folds, a collection of personal essays.
Read more here.
In the News: Big Class in Biz New Orleans
By Pamela Marquis
Biz New Orleans
July 2017
On April 29, Nia Gates, a teen intern with Big Class, a local youth writing program, traveled to Washington, D.C., for the 2017 People’s Climate March. Gates read her original poem, “Hold Your Seats, The Tree Speaks” to an audience of 200,000.
“Having the opportunity to travel to D.C. and share a part of my world with the rest was an absolutely amazing experience,” she said. “I would have to say my favorite part of the day was the chance to meet the fellow artists and speakers who also stepped onto the stage either before or after me. I am an 18-year-old girl from New Orleans and I was able to travel hundreds of miles to march and perform with people who see a future of liberation just like myself.”
Gates was afforded that opportunity, in part, because of her involvement with Big Class. The writing program began in 2010 at Lincoln Elementary School in Marrero when Doug Keller and Heather Muntzer facilitated a series of successful writing projects for 43 first-grade students. Word of these projects soon spread throughout New Orleans and other teachers began reaching out to Keller to do the same kind of work in their classrooms.
Read more here.
In the News: Pizza Poetry in the Advocate
By Susan Larson
The New Orleans Advocate
April 19, 2017
If you order a pizza on Friday, there might be something special on the box.
On that night, pies from G’s Pizza, Garage Pizza, Mid City Pizza, Pizza Delicious and Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza will arrive with a poem on the cardboard, written by a young person in New Orleans.
Those stanzas and couplets have made a long journey from the creative mind of a young poet before being read by professional poets, educators and interns, attached to something delicious and delivered to your door.
It’s for a good cause: Pizza Poetry Day and the programs of Big Class, an innovative writing program dedicated to making the voices of New Orleans students ages 6-18 heard.
Those voices come through loud and clear in the innovative, funny, smart and imaginative poems that will add a little spice to your pizza on Friday. After Pizza Poetry Day, the poems will be collected and published in an anthology.
Read more here.
In the News: Pizza Poetry project adds new events to menu/The Advocate
Where are they now? Catching up on people, pets and projects from 2016
Pizza Poetry project adds new events to menu
BY JASON BROWNE and KAREN TAYLOR
The Advocate
December 28, 2016
If Pizza Poetry is the voice of the children, those kids are about to get louder.
Big Class, the New Orleans nonprofit that encourages kids to write, in part by attaching their poems to pizza boxes at restaurants across the city for one day each spring, is helping to develop a New Orleans Youth Poetry Festival and working with 826 National on initiatives to get more kids writing to get those works out to a much larger crowd.
Read more: http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/communities/crescent_city/article_393637e2-c311-11e6-a2e7-2b40bd2701dd.html?sr_source=lift_amplify
Photo and Phiction Exhibition
On Thursday, July 28th, we finished our Photo and Phiction summer workshop series with a exhibition of student work in the Teen Room of the Norman Mayer Library. Young writers brought family and friends to see their beautiful photos and writing proudly displayed on the library walls and celebrate their creativity.
See the full photo gallery here.
Making a Difference: Empowering New Orleans youth through pen and paper
“This program is teaching our kids how to use how to use words in a way that can affect change. Now they are becoming the powerful ones because reading gives you access, but writing gives you power.”
–Kyley Pulphus, Big Class board member and teacher
WDSU wrote a lovely short piece about our work and dropped by our final Photo and Phiction workshop of the summer, led by Big Class youth intern Keith Riley (pictured above).
Check out the article and short video: http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/making-a-difference-empowering-new-orleans-youth-through-pen-and-paper/40950558
Poetry & Pepperoni: Pizza boxes are the pages for young people’s verses
April 12, 2016/The New Orleans Advocate
Would you like a poem with that? Buy a pizza, get some poetry at New Orleans restaurants
April 6, 2016
“The young poet’s subject matters range from lighthearted, such as annoying brothers and food, to more serious subjects, such as family issues and discrimination.”
The Times-Picayune wrote an article about the Pizza Poetry Project and the “magical pairing” of the two things everyone loves: youth writing and pizza. Poetry is playful, fun, and free in structure, allowing it to be a highly accessible form of writing for young people. Also, kids loves pizza. Read the full article here.
NOLA.com’s Best 11 Parties of 2015 features Big Class’s A Dark and Stormy Night
December 29, 2015/NOLA.com
Big Class’s annual gala, A Dark and Stormy Night, was on NOLA.com’s Best 11 Parties of 2015 list! A Dark and Stormy Night featured a silent auction, a reading of ghost stories, and, of course, all things haunted. View the full list: http://www.nola.com/society/index.ssf/2015/12/best_11_new_orleans_parties_of.html#3
Pizza Poetry April 17th
April 13, 2015/Fox 8 Morning Edition
