NEWS FROM SPRING JUST BUFFALO LITERARY CENTER
2013
617 Main St., Suite 202A, Buffalo, NY 14203
JUST BUFFALO / DEVELOPING YOUNG WRITERS by Rachelle Toarmino Amira Almadrahi has discovered the healing power of selfexpression. Her poem, “Write About It” is both a tribute to the practice of writing, and a call for others to give it a shot. “Writing calms me down” she says. At only 12 years old, she was thrilled to discover she would be reading her poem in front of hundreds as the opener for Just Buffalo’s BABEL event in March, which featured Alexandra Fuller. “They picked my poem and I was in awe” she says. Amira is in the seventh grade at Southside Elementary School #93, a Buffalo Public School that participates in Just Buffalo’s Writers in Education Program. Designed to ignite student imagination through writing, Just Buffalo’s education programs have real and demonstrable impact on over 3,500 students each year with hands-on in-school, after-school, and community-based initiatives.
RA U T UG OE A IN P
L
RICHARD BLANCO
OCTOBER 22, 2013 8pm
OFLUB R C HOCK T AU LU Y JO
AMY TAN
NOVEMBER 22, 2013 8pm
PR PU IZ LI E TZ W E IN R NE R
Bringing the World’s Greatest Writers to Buffalo
JUST BUFFALO LITERARY CENTER presents
C
NE OF TO R S HO OR T F AU NG I T UT
SUZAN-LORI ABRAHAM PARKS VERGHESE MARCH 11, 2014 8pm
SUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE NOW Visit www.justbuffalo.org or call (716) 832-5400
APRIL 8, 2014 8pm
Amira’s writing, like that of so many students who participate in Writers in Education, has enabled her to articulate her voice and communicate her individuality. Through direct contact with accomplished, professional writers, students express things most important to them in words based around a unifying theme. Amira says that Writers in Education helped her express herself in new and creative ways, and she was surprised when her poem was chosen to be featured. Just Buffalo asked Amira to share her poem with the BABEL audience to help expand awareness of the Writers in Education Program, and how important it is to support young writers. Although she has kept a journal at home for several years, she now turns to poetry instead of free-style prose. For her, writing poetry in her journal is like disclosing feelings to a best friend. “If I’m mad, I’ll write down my feelings and nobody else will see” she says. For now, Amira is a characteristic adolescent girl, who loves listening to music and hanging out with friends. Looking to the future, she wants to become either a lawyer or a chef or both, and always plans to keep a journal. “Poetry is personal. It’s my feelings, it’s my point of view.”
Adapted from a piece first published in ARTVOICE, April 3, 2013.
Photo by Lianna Hogan
WRITE ABOUT IT Amira Almadrahi
Write About It, Because Your Mind Is Like A Balloon It Can Only Hold So Much, And Then It Breaks And You Lose It You Lose Yourself It’s Gonna Happen Anyways So Why Not Lose Yourself? Lose yourself In Writing As If In A Labyrinth Of Words. Just Write About It, Write About It Because It’s Going To Keep Irritating You. Until You Let It Out. Write About It, Don’t Think About It, Write About It.