New creative writing series for young people honors Larry Neal, a North Philly writer, poet, and leader of the Black Arts Movement
The Any Day Now creative writing series, in honor of Philadelphia poet Larry Neal, starts Saturday. It's a project of the Friends of the Tanner House and the Strawberry Mansion Learning Center.
A creative writing series for teens and college-age students named to honor Larry Neal, a Philadelphia-born writer and key figure in the Black Arts Movement, starts Saturday at the Strawberry Mansion Learning Center in North Philadelphia.
This will be the first of four Saturday workshops called the “Any Day Now” creative writing series, geared toward young people between the ages of 13 and 22.
A book published last year, Any Day Now: Toward a Black Aesthetic, described Neal, who grew up in the James Weldon Johnson Homes, a housing project at 25th and Norris Streets, as a powerful influence on the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ‘70s.
Although Neal is relatively unknown today, the book describes him as the “forgotten founding father” of a movement that launched international acclaim for such writers as Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, James Baldwin, and Nikki Giovanni.
The Any Day Now writing series is sponsored by the Friends of the Tanner House and will take place at SMLC, 2946 W. Dauphin St., from 10 a.m. to noon. While the program is free, participants should register online.
Christopher R. Rogers, co-coordinator of the Tanner House group, said the organization is collaborating with the SMLC, which is providing space for the writing workshop.
Neal was “one of the architects of the Black Arts Movement, an incredible, international phenomenon, and he grew up right in this North Philly neighborhood,” Rogers said.
The Friends of the Tanner House was organized to restore the house where Henry O. Tanner, the first Black American artist to achieve international acclaim, grew up.
The Tanner House, at 2908 W. Diamond St., also in Strawberry Mansion, is a National Historic Landmark that was in danger of being demolished because of years of neglect.
Rogers and the organization are raising money to save it. They want to eventually turn it into a community center for the arts in North Philadelphia.
Last year, the Tanner House group conducted a community survey on the kinds of programming that should take place when the Tanner House is restored. In the meantime, the survey said the organization could get started with arts programs by working with other community institutions.
“One of the things that came out of our ‘For Love to Thrive’ survey, was, ‘Why wait?’ [for the Tanner House to be renovated],” Rogers said. “We can work with existing community partners. Our first partner home base for this spring is the Strawberry Mansion Learning Center.”
Kevin Upshur, the founder and director of the learning center, said he is excited to host the writing series.
“We have always been champions for encouraging children to read,” he said. “Teaching them to be better writers is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s hard to get someone to teach in the community on a voluntary basis.”
The Friends of the Tanner House won a PA Humanities’ “Wingspan” grant that is helping to fund the program, Rogers said.
The poet Kirwyn Sutherland is curator of the Any Day Now series and will select poets and writers to teach. Christopher “KP” Brown, a poet who founded the poetry215.com website, will teach the first writing workshop.
The collaboration is going to expand beyond the creative writing series. There are plans for workshops to help teens think about civic engagement and community involvement, Upshur said. There are also plans for a teen film series so young people can have a safe place to watch and discuss films on Friday nights.