Sharing Space: Collaborative Programming Within and Between Communities
by Mairead Case, Annie Knepler, and Rupal Soni
Neighborhood Writing Alliance, Chicago IL
Contacts: mcase@jot.org, knepler@uic.edu, rsoni@jot.org
ABSTRACT: Our paper, written by three practitioners at a community-based writing project,
will explore collaborative programming between and within community organizations. After
briefly discussing history of and strategy behind these collaborations, we will provide case
studies of 2-3 of projects. Neighborhood Writing Alliance creates free, ongoing opportunities for
adults in low-access Chicago neighborhoods to write, publish, and perform works about their
lives. Our programming (including panels, films, readings, and performances) helps writers
examine the themes and issues they are expressing, and also provides a platform for participation
in larger, city-wide discussions. We will examine political divisiveness, geographical barriers,
the scarcity of resources, and the challenges of creating in-depth collaborative programming
while staying true to the organization mission.
PRELIMINARY TEXT: In May of 2006, an audience gathered at Chicago’s Garfield Park
Conservatory, on Chicago’s West Side, to explore the connections between geography and
health. The event, eventually co-sponsored by over ten organizations, was initiated by two
Chicago nonprofits: the Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA), a community writing and
publishing project, and the Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council, which holds public
debates and idea exchanges about cultural, social, and political issues. The panel, entitled “How
Do We Build Healthy Places,” included a geographer, a professor of urban planning, a
community organizer who focuses on health issues in Chicago’s Latino community, and an
advocate for alternative transportation.
The panel began with a reading by Mary Moran, a long-time participant in one of the
Neighborhood Writing Alliance’s weekly writing groups. Moran recounted a meeting on proper
diet at her local VA hospital and detailed her attempts to eat well and stay healthy on a low
budget with little time. “It is expensive to eat healthy,” she wrote, “and, for many people, almost
impossible. I don’t think that people don’t want to eat healthy and not be weight conscious. I just
believe it’s cheaper.”
Through presentations and dialogue, the panelists and audience members considered how the
locations of grocery stores and the planning of city streets could impact people’s physical and
mental well-being. They examined how cultural issues, urban boundaries, and concerns about
safety could influence, in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways, how well people took care of
themselves and their various communities, as well as people’s access to healthcare. After the
panel spoke and responded to questions, audience members – which included neighborhood
residents, activists, artists, NWA participants, and others simply interested in the topic –
introduced themselves to each other and many shared information about community garden
initiatives and other local projects.
This panel was the last in a series of three public events held in different parts of the city, each
focusing on some aspect of community and individual health. The first event, on the topic of
health as a human right, was held at the DuSable Museum of African American History of
Chicago’s South Side. The second, which looked at health and sexuality, took place at the
Hothouse, a venue for international performances and exhibitions. Each panel included a mix of
activists, academics, and practitioners (many held all of these titles), and began with a reading
from a writer from a Neighborhood Writing Alliance. One primary goal of the panels was to
enable audience members and participants to make connections between their own everyday
experiences and broader policy issues – to see their own stories as part of the larger discussions
of health and community and then participate in those discussions, too. All three events were part
of a larger project developed by the Neighborhood Writing Alliance called “Writing off the
Charts,” which examined the topic of individual and community health through writing
workshops, reading-based seminars, oral histories, and publication of an issue of the Journal of
Ordinary Thought (JOT).
The Neighborhood Writing Alliance, the organization we three are affiliated with, provokes
dialogue and promotes change by creating opportunities for adults in Chicago to write, publish,
and perform works about their lives. We have three full-time staff members and about 12
volunteers. For NWA, as with most small non-profits, the idea of collaboration is nothing new –
in fact, it’s a routine part of everyday work and planning. Although people hold titles and
specific responsibilities at the Neighborhood Writing Alliance, most projects are the collective
result of each person playing multiple roles in its development, funding, programming, and
publicity. Though JOT has an Editor and an Associate Editor, every staff member, including
interns, reads the manuscript at some point. We all stuff envelopes, too. A small staff has its
strengths and weaknesses, but we depend on having each other’s back in order to get the work
done.
NWA is also no stranger to partnering with communities and community organizations. In part,
this is out of necessity. In non-profit community work, where resources fluctuate and are
sometimes altogether scarce, collaborations are essential to building new audiences, increasing
capacity, and sharing resources. But more importantly, collaborations keep the organization
healthy and engaged. They provide depth and broaden audiences as collaborators combine skills
in order to develop more effective projects; expand or increase funding sources; access new
ideas, terms, and venues; and combine lists to broaden publicity. In best cases, many
collaborations lead to next steps, forming new connections and structures for the next project.
Sometimes, collaborations are significant because they challenge an organization; for example, if
a partner wants to accomplish a similar goal through different means or points of access. In 2007,
NWA began planning its programming around the theme of “Where Were You?” Writers were
to connect their personal stories to important personal and events such as Chicago’s Division
Street riots, John F. Kennedy’s death, or the birth of a daughter. So partnering with Ifa Bayeza,
playwright of the award-winning Ballad of Emmett Till, was a perfect fit.
Our initial conversations with Ifa led to our partnership with a major theatre company, which
was about to stage the world premiere of her play. Our community writers submitted written
pieces to the theatre, each explaining each writer’s relationship to Emmett Till. Submissions
varied widely: a narrative from a woman whose older brother had been Emmett’s classmate, an
essay from a man about the hatred he experienced in a bi-racial romance, and a poem by a
Russian woman who learned about Emmett while watching PBS during African-American
History Month. Twenty-five of these pieces were selected to be posted on the wall of the theatre,
along with professionally-taken photos. These writers were also invited to a special brunch with
the cast, director, and playwright, and given tickets to opening night. The theatre was a much
larger organization than NWA, with wider access, a bigger budget, and, as a result, less
flexibility. We and the writers who participated in the collaboration often had to conform to the
theatre’s schedules, promotional priorities, and organizational aesthetics. This often made our
partnership challenging, but through our conversations and the exciting project that resulted, we
learned a lot about scope, presentation, and compromise.
Perhaps the most important reason to discuss, document, and evaluate collaborations, as we
intend to do here, is that the lessons realized can be incorporated into future partnerships. With
quality and consistent evaluation processes, organizations can better evolve their own process,
understanding, expectations, and goals; increase and improve their impact on communities and
audience; anticipate future obstacles or difficulties; and be intentional about how partnerships are
mutually beneficial. Documentation and evaluation should include hard statistics and numbers;
however, these only describe a piece of the picture. For a full picture, anecdotes and stories are
important too.