The Underground Writing Podcast

Matt and Alvin wrestle with the implications of a poem of blessing from the Skagit County Community Justice Center site, and meditate on its beauty and selflessness. They also discuss the recent Hidden Truth event, performed by the Migrant Leaders Club and directed by Underground Writing’s Teaching Writer, Jennifer Morison Hendrix. Note: We are a creative writing program serving at-risk population...

Matt and Alvin read a piece of vivid memory from juvenile detention, aftering poems by Osip Mandelstam and Marina Tsvetaeva. Matt shares updates about UW Teaching Writers, Chris Hoke and Suzanne Paola Antonetta. Note: We are a creative writing program serving at-risk populations. We do not broadcast names or identifying details of the students we work with. Links of Interest: What No One Ever Tell...

The day after the What No One Ever Tells You book launch, Matt and Alvin enjoy/labor over a piece from the YMCA Oasis Daylight Center that afters the poem REVERB by poet Robert Rottet. Matt shares updates from UW’s collaboration with the Washington State Arts Commission and HIDDEN TRUTH, the upcoming showcase from the Migrant Leaders Club. Note: We are a creative writing program serving at-risk po...

Matt shares a poem from the Skagit Juvenile Detention site, aftering a poem by Mahmoud Darwish. He and Alvin discuss confronting one’s own outcome and cause-effect. Matt shares about UW’s newest teaching writer Laurie Parker and UW’s Anthology What No One Ever Tells You being launched at the Mount Vernon City Library on February 21. Note: We are a creative writing program serving at-risk populatio...

Matt and Alvin wrestle with a piece from the YMCA Oasis Daylight Center. They discuss hope, despair, rebellion, and protest. Matt shares updates about the anthology What No One Ever Tells You, the incredible On Being podcast on NPR, FilmVerse now underway in its second year, the support of Red Door Thrift Shop and Christ Episcopal Church, the Washington Arts Council, and the upcoming AWP Conferenc...

Today’s piece of writing is the Foreword to What No One Ever Tells You , Underground Writing’s first anthology of student writing. Playwright and UW friend, Quiara Alegría Hudes, wrote the piece we’ve titled, “Did You Ever Feel Invisible?” Matt and Alvin talk about the anthology, give a brief update on UW’s Teaching Writers, and present music by the Marimba Band at LaVenture Middle School, led by...

“The Salish Sea” is a poem that “afters” works by Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes. Matt and Alvin discuss the poem—which comes from our Skagit County Community Justice Center site—the Salish Sea, and other related topics. Matt updates listeners about the release of UW’s first anthology, What No One Ever Tells You —just in time for the start of 2019! Note: We are a creative writing program serving...

This episode features writing from our Juvenile Detention and YMCA Oasis Daylight Center sites. Matt Malyon and producer Alvin Shim discuss how the writings engage with and expand the title of What No One Ever Tells You, our first anthology of student writing. The book will be released in December 2018 and is supported in part by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission. Note: We are a cr...

If you listened to this week’s catch-up podcast the day that it was published, you were probably confused. We had an error on our end uploading the correct file, which has now been fixed. Matt provides some detail on the mix-up. We thank you for your patience, for listening, and for keeping in touch with Underground Writing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matt reads from a piece by a juvenile detention student, after Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem. He and Alvin celebrate the courage of voices from the underground. Matt shares about UW’s new non-profit status, thanks board members, and gives an update from our friend Quiara Alegría Hudes’ show Miss You Like Hell. Note: We are a creative writing program serving at-risk populations. We do not broadcast na...

UW Director Matt Malyon chats with Producer Alvin Shim about “I Am Waiting,” a piece of student writing from our site at the Skagit County Community Justice Center. They share stories of waiting in incarceration, bearing the lack of options that the justice system offers, and the individual posture of waiting vs. action. Matt reads from a letter of advocacy regarding youth offenders being tried as...

This episode features writing from our Juvenile Detention and YMCA Oasis Daylight Center sites. Matt Malyon and producer Alvin Shim discuss how the writings engage with and expand the title of  What No One Ever Tells You , our first anthology of student writing. The book will be released in December 2018 and is supported in part by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission....

Student writing from the Migrant Leaders Club site. Matt and Alvin remember the performance of this piece from their trip to New York earlier this year, read on stage after the musical Miss You Like Hell, written by Quiara Alegría Hudes. UW updates:Matt shares about a recent meeting with the Migrant Leaders Club of the Mount Vernon School District. As the school year starts up again, Note: We are...

Student writing from the Migrant Leaders Club site. Matt and Alvin remember the performance of this piece from their trip to New York earlier this year, read on stage after the musical Miss You Like Hell, written by Quiara Alegría Hudes. UW updates:Matt shares about a recent meeting with the Migrant Leaders Club of the Mount Vernon School District. As the school year starts up again, Note: We are...

Matt and Alvin explore odes and the ongoing conversation of Pablo Neruda, the Skagit Recovery Community Site, and the Oasis Daylight Center site. UW Updates:Matt updates listeners on UW’s first workshop at the Community Justice Center, now a weekly site serving men and women on alternating weeks. Note: We are a creative writing program serving at-risk populations. We do not broadcast names or iden...

Matt and Alvin explore odes and the ongoing conversation of Pablo Neruda, the Skagit Recovery Community Site, and the Oasis Daylight Center site. UW Updates:Matt updates listeners on UW’s first workshop at the Community Justice Center, now a weekly site serving men and women on alternating weeks. Note: We are a creative writing program serving at-risk populations. We do not broadcast names or iden...

We read "Journeying," from the juvenile detention site. This is a piece in response to exploring The Odyssey, Homer's epic poem. Matt and Alvin talk about the transformation that might be produced after an intense series of adventures, struggles, and danger. UW UPDATES:Underground Writing's 2018 newsletter is published, written by Teaching Writer A. Muia. Week-long intensive at juvenile detention...

The student writing “Dreams” comes from the Migrant Leaders Club site, exploring the gap that interrupts our aspirations, hopes, and goals. Matt gives updates on the week-long intensive coming up at juvenile detention and the Community Spotlight episode featuring Randi at Oasis Daylight Shelter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first Community Spotlight episode of the podcast. We speak with Randi Breuer, the lead at the Oasis Daylight Center and site host for Underground Writing. Randi speaks about how the center operates, what the strategy is in serving at-risk youth in the community, and the role of creative writing in personal restoration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Student Writing from the YMCA Oasis Daylight Center, after Langston Hughes' I Too. Matt and Alvin talk about the courageous nature of declarative works that these pieces have in common. Matt discusses how Hughes took the lead from Walt Whitman's work, cataloguing the nation. What is a voice? What is a country? UW updates: -Upcoming week-long intensive at the juvenile detention site, based on the b...

Student Writing from the YMCA Oasis Daylight Center, after Langston Hughes' I Too. Matt and Alvin talk about the courageous nature of declarative works that these pieces have in common. Matt discusses how Hughes took the lead from Walt Whitman's work, cataloguing the nation. What is a voice? What is a country?  UW updates:  Upcoming week-long intensive at the juvenile detention site, bas...

Student writing this week, "The Book Was Fat And Big" comes from the juvenile detention site. Matt and Alvin discuss how this piece of dream-vision literature joins the ranks of Paul Valéry, Coleridge, and John of Patmos. UW writing workshops often introduce poems and invite students' response to "after" them. Matt gives an update on a future teaching site: the Skagit County Community Justice Cent...

Student writing this week, "The Book Was Fat And Big" comes from the juvenile detention site. Matt and Alvin discuss how this piece of dream-vision literature joins the ranks of Paul Valéry, Coleridge, and John of Patmos. UW writing workshops often introduce poems and invite students' response to "after" them. Matt gives an update on a future teaching site: the Skagit County Community Justice Cent...

Matt reads a piece from an Underground Writing class at juvenile detention. The piece, titled 'Dear America' was written the day after the presidential election in November 2016. Matt and Alvin talk discuss the ongoing internal battles that our nation and world undergo, the histories of oppression and hatred that divide us, and the anthems that propel us forward. They also remember visiting the El...

Matt reads a piece from an Underground Writing class at juvenile detention. The piece, titled 'Dear America' was written the day after the presidential election in November 2016. Matt and Alvin talk discuss the ongoing internal battles that our nation and world undergo, the histories of oppression and hatred that divide us, and the anthems that propel us forward. Matt gives us an update about the...