Literature for All of Us
Introduction by Beatrice Figueroa

Critical literacy is an educative approach in creating a safe space for the self-expression of young mothers. As a pedagogical practice, literacy invites young women often in the age range from 14-21 to renegotiate their lives, their relationships, and their bodies, minds and spirits. The use of poetry, literature, pen and paper or computers are the literary tools they use to construct new frameworks and tell new stories-writing with creativity and expressing themselves with confidence. (Carolyn Heilbrun (1988) writes that "what matters is that lives do not serve as models; only stories do that…..whatever their form or medium, these stories have formed us all, they are what we must use to make new fictions, new narratives")

In Critical Literacy and The Politics of Gender, Barbara Bee acknowledges that while her program itself will not instigate a 'revolution' she hopes it will "enable women to travel with a different consciousness of their world, their place within it, and their personal and collective power to transform what is inhumane and unjust within their current circumstances." Similarly, the Evanston-based literacy program Literature For All of Us serves this very purpose.

While the lives of these young women epitomize the 'personal as political', Literature for All of Us focuses less on the politics in order to nurture natural talents and foster their 'intuitive intellect'. The program is exemplary in its intentions with a mission that proposes to "connect young women and girls to their strengths through literature, engaging them in book groups where they read, discuss and write original poetry." Their gatherings usually open with a ritual of self-affirmation by appropriating a poem or word phrase, expressing gratitude for an aspect of their lives and acknowledging their 'neighbor' in the group. The young [often] teenage-mothers in the groups reconstitute their lives with words and in doing so challenge the social stigmas imposed upon them. Their "pedagogy of resiliency" is also one of resistance to the subjugation of their lives as simply written off the page of societal standards.

Although many of these young women are categorized as adolescents, their life experiences catapult them into another sphere of being young women/mothers. The poetic and literary works of young women in groups like Literature for All of Us and other such critical literacy programs provide these young mothers new insights and perceptions in a space that is transformational as it allows them to re-invent themselves. Their literary works reveal that they are positioning themselves with power, critical knowledge and an awareness of who they are in society. They indeed are "making sense of the world" as they are "making sense of the word."

SOURCES:
1. Bee Barbara. Critical Literacy and The Politics of Gender. Women's Work, Women's Lives, N.S.W. Department of TAFE. 1984; Women and Work Literacy Resources, N.S.W. Department of TAFE, 1989.

2. Worthman, Christopher. Literacy Program for Association House. 2000

3. Proweller, Amira. Re-Writing/-Righting Lives: Voices of Pregnant and Parenting Teenagers in an Alternative School. 2000. Construction Sites. Teachers College Press.

Dugan School has had an impressive impact upon the lives of these young people, and the community they live in: since the school’s founding, the neighborhood crime rate has dropped, and homicides have been cut by 57%. Because of these successes, Mayor Richard M. Daley, and former President and CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, Gary Chico and Paul Vallas, have each expressed their support for the Irene Dugan School, and for replicating this successful model in other neighborhoods in the city of Chicago.

Literature for All of Us was invited to facilitate a book group for a class of Mexican-American young women by the school’s director, Father Bruce Wellems, pastor at Holy Cross/ Immaculate Heart of Mary, and member of the local school council. As Father Wellems has written, “Most of our young women have not come to terms with the violence and abuse they have experienced. The work that [Literature for All of Us] does with the books, the poems and the journals allows the girls to safely put into words their pain, their suffering as well as their triumphs. They are able to discuss a poem, a character or an experience that helps unlock their pain and their dreams—two things that many of our young people have buried deep inside themselves. The group also exposes them to the bigger world outside our neighborhood both figuratively through the books and literally through the field trips.” Increased literacy is an important component in the process of cultivating competent and productive community members and citizens.

The LFAOU book group meets at Irene Dugan Alternative High School weekly during school hours for 90 minutes, for a total of forty weeks, and is led by a professional Book Group Leader. Because the LFAOU program supports the Illinois Learning Standards in English language arts for secondary students, participants receive English credit for their work in the book group. A typical book group meeting includes a focusing ritual, round-robin reading and discussion, a poetry writing exercise, sharing writing with the group, and a closing ritual. Curriculum is chosen for thematic content relating to participants’ lives. The discussions and writing exercises focus on: Community, Family Relationships, Dating Relationships, Domestic Violence, Parenting, Sexuality, Coming of Age, Women’s Friendships, and Racism. Some examples of authors/poets we use are in our book groups: Sandra Cisneros, Nikki Giovanni, Edwidge Danticat, Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, and Sister Souljah. Each group member is given two books monthly, journals, and two copies of a published poetry anthology containing their work.

Participants present their book to their community in a public poetry reading hosted by a local café, community center or bookstore. Through these poetry readings, they interact with and receive affirmation from an audience, which gives them a sense of pride in their poetry. We now use these anthologies as part of our core curriculum because participants are encouraged and inspired by reading the work of their peers. In addition, we often receive requests for copies from libraries and social advocacy organizations such as the Ounce of Prevention Fund.


Freedom
by Antonia Alba

I've never actually known you
'Cause I've never actually been free.

But I can still dream of you,
And in my mind you grow like a
beautiful tree
That shows me that somewhere I may
find a way to be
free.

Sometimes I can feel you.
I love your sweet smell of freedom.

Yet all my dreams can collapse
When my mother calls me dumb.

There are some times in my life
Where I can feel you so close.
Oh, how I love that feeling.

I feel like a beautiful butterfly
Flying across the sky
And asking God why is it
That although she tries to find freedom,
She always has to
Stop
And Cry.