The Bronx Council on the Arts will hold its free Bronx Memoir Project workshop series in October and November with the goal of teaching aspiring memoirists the skills to write their own stories.
Since 2014, the Bronx Memoir Project has gathered in person and online, allowing Bronx residents – along with writers from across the country and even around the world – to document transformative moments from their lives.
After participants complete the four-week program, those who are Bronx residents are invited to submit their work to be included in an ever-growing Bronx Memoir Project Anthology. Bronx Memoir Project: Vol. 1 was published in 2014 and led to writers Nahshon Dion Anderson and Orlando Ferrand winning $5,000 ‘Bronx Recognizes Its Own’ grants for their stories.
The Bronx Memoir Project Anthology has published new volumes almost every year since 2014, with Vol. 7 hitting Amazon in June 2023.
“The Bronx Memoir Project was created to give the voices and the stories of the Bronx community a platform to be heard and noticed,” says Bronx Council on the Arts coordinator Alexis Montoya. “The Anthologies map the personal stories of Bronx residents, leaving a legacy of first-person stories.”
Throughout its workshops in September 2023, the Bronx Memoir Project hosted a group of 50 writers taught by Latanya DeVaughn, who founded the traveling bookstore Bronx Bound Books and authored an unpublished memoir that’s now being turned into a TV show. DeVaughn was even a guest on a 2022 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show.
One writer shared a childhood memory of watching the Berlin Wall fall on TV, while others told harrowing stories of surviving childhood abuse and facing daunting challenges from adulthood.
“In my advanced age, I find myself reflecting on life and my experiences in my early years,” one attendee shared. “I find myself reflecting with those who I’ve known for over 60 years. It’s so important that we document our history / herstory, not only for our family, but in general to share with the world. That documentation states, ‘I was here.’”
Public services like Bronx Memoir Project help advance the skills of aspiring writers. In Community Districts 1 and 2 (Hunts Point, Longwood and Melrose) over 34% of residents 25 years and older have not completed a high school diploma.
The Bronx Memoir Project will hold free workshops on Oct. 17, 24, 31 and Nov. 7 at 5 p.m. Led by award-winning New York poet Advocate of Wordz, classes can be attended either in-person at Kingsbridge Library or online via Zoom.
For more information on the Bronx Memoir Project on its ongoing Anthology series, please visit its website at Bronx Council on the Arts.
Editor’s note: The story was updated on Nov. 27.
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