While we all love working with our individual students and hearing their unique voices at the end of the day, we sometimes forget that working in groups helps to produce some really stellar work. There have been several occasions recently when we’ve decided to try a different dynamic and have the students work in larger groups. Some of the results have been awesome, producing some individual and collaborative pieces, which always make for engaging performances. Here’s what our Butler mentors have been saying about the past few weeks:

Dorene Hinton: On Thursday, I worked with the biggest group ever. In this group everyone had their own opinions on how the writing should be set up. It took a lot of convincing and input into the story to form the writing and the performance. Everyone seemed excited to perform and enjoyed the theme. Overall, it was a very interesting experience, and I was excited that they all contributed to the story!

Katee Rice: It was nice working with M— and J—. We worked together really well. M— really tried to stay true to the prompt, and that was nice. I thought the poem they came up with together was really lovely.

Gerry Justice: J— started to write a tribute to himself, and ended up with five or six lines about his father. F—, sitting to my right, wrote a heartfelt tribute to servicemen in general, and then wrapped it up nicely with a connection to his brother, who served in the military.

Compiled by Luke Wortley

I’ve been coming to Shortridge now since August, and it has been a truly unique experience. Apart from the opportunity to work with these students on such a personal level, it has been a real privilege to watch them grow as writers. As an aspiring writer myself, I know how hard it is to just sit down and make yourself write. So it seems remarkable that they all do every time we’re there. Honestly, I’m a little envious of their productivity—I mean, how do they continuously write such glittering poetry in a mere hour and a half to two hours?

All my writing struggles aside, what I really want to talk about is how much I miss Shortridge when I’m not there. A couple weeks ago I missed a day due to personal reasons. Not being there only highlighted how much I missed hanging out with everyone at Exclusive Ink. I was itching to get back as soon as possible. We all have those things in our lives that we really enjoy, but it is rare to find something that truly becomes part of your life to the point where you wouldn’t know what your life would be like without it. The Exclusive Ink group at Shortridge has become one of those things for me.

After the day I missed, I found out that some of the SHS students had been asking about the whereabouts of “Uncle Luke.” This was pleasantly surprising. I never knew they called me that, and I was so thrilled to hear that the students asked about me. When I’m there, the work is all about them—about their writing, about hanging out with a family of writers that I’ve come to think of as friends. Even when I’m not there, I’m always thinking of ways to contribute to a writing exercise. When I read something, I think of a particular student who may really be into it, too.

Although Spring Break was nice, I can’t wait to get back to Room 238.

Contributed by Luke Wortley

It’s been a busy spring semester at Shortridge for the Butler mentors enrolled in the Writing In The Schools course this spring. Besides welcoming poet Major Jackson with open arms and working towards the publication of our second Exclusive Ink literary magazine, our curriculum has expanded to include a partnership with the SHS football team, where several new students have been joining us regularly for homework help.

So far, the new Writing In The Schools class has been up to every task, enabling us to continue expanding our outreach. Here are some of their initial reflections after a full month at Shortridge.

Laura Fernandez: Yesterday was pretty awesome. I was having a really tough day, and I left Shortridge smiling. Thursday was a nice break from writing that allowed us to connect as a group instead of on an individual basis.

Dorene Hinton: I’m glad we now have a system put in place to help the football players and the Exclusive Ink writers, so they both can improve over the course of the semester. Although I was nervous working with some new faces, but the football players understood my explanations and made sense of it. How exciting!

Katee Rice: I was having a difficult time at the beginning of the class working with E– and B– because they were both very independent and didn’t really want much help with the exercise. However, after E– finished writing, he allowed me to help him add some more to his poem and to add more of his own voice to it. I think he stepped out of his shell a little bit. I was glad I got to help him in some way, and I’m glad he was able to open up to me.

Gerry Justice: Recently, I was paired up with J – again. J– is a serious fellow who loves to write. He loves to create. He’s a thinker. He’ll spend a good part of the time looking up at the ceiling, pondering big thoughts.

J– came to class wanting to work on his “Green Light” story, about a guy at a laundromat who buys a special green drink from the vending machine. I told him it sounded like a Stephen King story. I suggested that he try writing a poem based on “Green Light.” He hesitated, but with a little reinforcement, J–  finished a 17-line poem.

Visiting poet Major Jackson stands tall with Exclusive Ink on Tuesday, Feb. 5.

In a mere hour and a half at Shortridge, award-winning poet Major Jackson managed to inspire.

No two writers are alike, so it’s impossible to know exactly what to expect when someone comes to town as part of Butler’s Visiting Writers Series. Some writers are great speakers. Others are naturally more introverted. Some prefer a laid-back atmosphere. Others are more comfortable in an academic setting.

As mentors, we were all rather excited about the prospect of such an accomplished poet working closely with our Exclusive Ink group at Shortridge. For weeks, we hyped his visit by reading to our students from two of Major’s collections, Leaving Saturn and Holding Company, even having them mimic his style during one of our writing exercises. We figured Major Jackson would deliver, but his visit exceeded our wildest expectations.

When Major walked into Room 238, he introduced himself to everyone there – the Butler mentors, our Exclusive Ink crew, and even members of the SHS football team who have been coming to us for tutoring. Before Doug and Chris even got the opportunity to announce his arrival, the prolific poet had already won the trust of the Shortridge students, who were ready to hang on his every word when he finally got up to speak.

Major reads from Leaving Saturn, explaining the stories behind the poems.

Major was articulate and genuine when he spoke, and he provided context for his poems before and after he read them. The students were totally captivated by his performance and his storytelling ability. We all were really. What was most encouraging to us was the level of engagement the students had with the material. They seemed willing to listen to Major talk for hours, to hear even more details about Steve and his imaginary cars and the barbershop legends from his neighborhood.

Zuri shares her work with the visiting poet.

When we took a break to let Major see how Exclusive Ink works on a normal afternoon, many of the students gathered around the poet, looking share their poems with him. He seemed to love it, and the students did, too. It was truly inspiring to see the relationship between poets starting to take shape after literally minutes of knowing each other.

We wanted to capitalize on the energy and let the students read some of their best pieces before Major had to leave. They delivered as always, but many held their heads noticeably higher and enunciated their words with more pride. After all, a famous poet had just told them that their work was awesome. Major seemed as enthralled with their readings as they were with his, as he ended up recording some of the students on his iPhone.

Major takes video of a memorable Exclusive Ink performance before hitting the road.

Never was the power of the moment more evident than when Doug, Chris, and Major were about to walk out the door to go to the airport, and one of our Exclusive Ink regulars said, “I went through a period of not writing recently, but since you came, I’m going to start writing again.”

So far the student has delivered. Just as Major Jackson did.

A parting shot with this semester’s Butler mentors. Thanks for a great afternoon, Major!

Contributed by Luke Wortley. Photos from Gerry Justice.

After a some time away for the holidays, it’s been exciting to resume Exclusive Ink for the spring semester. During our first few sessions this term, we’ve been fortunate enough to still see our regulars almost every day, even if they’re only popping in to grab a sandwich or say hello before practice.

Another encouraging thing is that there have been some new students who are eager to participate. During our second week back, I worked a new student, K–. He’s kind of an imposing guy and an athlete, so I didn’t know what to expect. Sometimes it takes a few sessions before new students start to open up and become active participants.

The exercise that Doug had prepared was “Writing a Manifesto”, which was an ambitious exercise that I worried might be slightly intimidating for a new student to take on. But to my surprise, K– jumped right in, contributing some really candid, profound, and downright impressive output explaining his writing process.

It was cool to see K– talking about his process of writing poetry, describing his rhymes as “flowing down a river” and writer’s block as “rough patches, even rocks” in your path as you swim. I was blown away by many of his insights. I remember quite distinctly his reasoning for having to have a title before he begins his poems. He said, “Writing a poem and giving it a title later is like having a child for ten whole years and then deciding to name it.” We both had a good laugh at that one, and we dealt with more than just writing; we came to understand each other a little more.

However, the biggest surprise came when he stood up to share his work. After he shared some of the things we talked about, he went completely off-script. Here’s the gist of what he said:

“I like to write in the moment, because there are so many thoughts in my mind. But, sometimes, I do like to get some distance from it because all those thoughts get scrambled – like eggs. You know, when you have a plate of eggs, and there’s just so much on the plate, but there’s that one really awesome cheesy piece next to the hash browns? That’s what I mean when I need to get some distance from it sometimes. Writing in the moment is good to get ideas down, whatever words I might need to use at some point, but when I get some distance, maybe at the end of the day or even days down the road, I can pick out what I really want to write about – that delicious little cheesy piece left on the plate.”

Contributed by Luke Wortley