Dressed in tuxedos and bow ties, 25 middle-school boys stood in front of family and friends to read and celebrate the personal narratives they crafted during Poynter’s 2017-2018 Write Field program. Their writing explored equality, male role models and what “normal” looks like for men today.
“Normal is a subjective term for me. Since an early age, we’ve always been taught to have a sense of normality without an in-depth explanation (or any explanation at all) of what defines normality,” wrote Write Field participant Bryan Burrell in his essay What is your Normal?
Collin Brown, another Write Field participant, concluded in his essay that the routines and successes that make up his "normal" life are predicated on him always staying calm. Other students, like Lamark Rowell and Dedrell Freeman, argued that people simply need to be themselves, and each individual should be considered normal.
Now in its seventh year, Poynter’s Write Field program teaches writing, public speaking and critical thinking skills to local African-American and Hispanic boys. The program seeks to equip these students with the skills and confidence to succeed in school and graduate from high school.
The program also creates a shared space where young men of color can confront questions of identity in a healthy way. Led by veteran journalists, writers and an array of media and community professionals, the Write Field program introduces students to a variety of writing styles that include journalism, prose, drama, music and social media.
These young men learn to express themselves. The cumulative project of the Write Field program is “Our Journey Through Writing,” Poynter’s published collection of Write Field students’ poems, essays and personal statements.
“By now, the Write Field students are quite familiar with our appreciation for Eminem’s 2013 hit, ‘The Monster,’” wrote co-directors Ernest Hooper and Demorris Lee in the book’s foreword. “The song extols the virtues of getting along with the ‘voices inside of your head.’ To us, one of writing’s greatest gifts lies in its ability to untangle those inner thoughts and connect with those emotions.”
Using writing and public speaking to examine manhood ultimately helps these young men thrive in school and at home. In a 2017 study, Poynter found The Write Field boys were doing well in school and advancing to the next grade at a higher rate than their peers.
The Write Field program goes beyond skills development by providing examples of positive male role models. In 2018, students were introduced to Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Mallex Smith and broadcaster Orestes Destrade.
“When Orestes walked out, I had taken away some big life lessons about appreciating your parents, playing hard and studying hard, and how nice it is to learn different languages,” wrote Matthew Barfield about his experience meeting Destrade.
Poynter’s 2018 Write Field program culminated on Friday, June 15 as 25 young men (23 present) graduated from the writing and development program.
The 2018 Write Field graduation ceremony commemorated the students’ hard work throughout the 10-month program and celebrated the connections the young men made with each other and with their community.
At the end of the ceremony, all the young men stood up with Poynter senior scholar Roy Peter Clark and formed a line. Together, they read aloud Clark’s credo, written for specifically for them: “What is a man?”
What is a man?
A man stands up straight and will not bow before tyrants.
He confronts the world in all its confusion, looking for answers from his childhood to his grave.
He does not use others, especially women, for his own needs, but acts to help others with service and respect.
A man is at his best, when he acts not out of his obvious strength, but when he acts despite his weakness.
He uses his mind, his body, his soul, his love, his faith, his hope, his good works, all the gifts that have been given to him to enrich the quality of life in his school, his family, his workplace, his community, his country, his world.
I embrace not just the man I am now, but the one I want to be.
What is a man? Look at me.
[By Roy Peter Clark for the Write Field and the Poynter Institute]
The mission of Write Field is to close the achievement gap for young men of color in St. Petersburg schools. It’s a multipronged effort that necessarily includes exploration of identity and place in society. In 2018, the Write Field students built the skills and confidence they need to take on the challenge.
Special thanks
Poynter thanks Ernest Hooper and Demorris Lee for serving as co-directors of the Write Field program. Hooper is the Hillsborough community editor and columnist at the Tampa Bay Times. Lee is a communications coordinator for Pinellas County Schools and a former journalist at the Tampa Bay Times.
Poynter also thanks the Rays Baseball Foundation for its founding support of this program. We also acknowledge the City of St. Petersburg and Wells Fargo for their sponsorship, which allows Poynter to offer this program at no cost to the boys or their families. We're grateful for the partnership with the Pinellas County Schools and the St. Petersburg Police Department. Community partners and individuals provide special touches for the program, including Diane Hodson, Sacino's Formalwear and Rescue Writing.
