New Anthology Recognizes Writings By At-Risk Youths

Anyone interested in what’s on the minds of San Francisco’s youth could do a lot worse than to pick up a copy of a new anthology put out by the San Francisco WritersCorps, titled “What it Took for Me to Get Here: Young Writers on the Journey Through Life.”

The collection, put out to celebrate the fifth year of the WritersCorps program, which helps at-risk youths from the ages of 6 to 21 by encouraging and developing their literacy skills, is an illuminating glimpse into topics as diverse as immigration, incarceration and riding Muni.

“This is the first time many of these kids have been recognized for accomplishing anything,” said WritersCorps Program Director Janet Heller. “Many of them have never been singled out as gifted, or praised for being smart. For them to put this much effort into their writing, and then to have it published, is an incredibly positive experience for them.”

Seventy writers are featured in the anthology, as well as works from the WritersCorps teachers - a group of writers who go into the community and work with the children. The book is roughly in chronological order, with the younger writers featured near the beginning of the book and the older ones toward the end. It features poetry and short prose stories, with the teachers’ section closing the book.

The anthology features an introduction by Dorothy Allison and photographs by Rick Rocamora.

Heller said there are currently about 650 people enrolled in the San Francisco WritersCorps program, bringing the total number of kids helped in the program’s five-year existence to close to 4,000. In addition to publishing an anthology each year, WritersCorps, which is administered by the San Francisco Arts Commission, sponsors other programs like the Youth Poetry Slam League.

“Almost 80 percent of the kids who have gotten involved with WritersCorps have shown an increased interest in school,” Heller said. “We had kids who have been offered college scholarships and others who have received national recognition. We’re very proud of what many of these young people go on to accomplish.”

Some of the most powerful work comes from WritersCorps participants incarcerated at the Log Cabin Ranch, a youth detention facility in La Honda for young men ages 14 to 18. While some of what’s written comes across as a bit of unresolved macho posturing, much of the work coming out of the ranch shows an emerging ability to reflect on life’s harsh twists and turns.

This poem, called “Incognito,” is just credited to 17-year-old Cleavon, since the Log Cabin participants are identified only by their first names.

I think 90% of me is Darkness.

The other 10% of me is good, pure and clear as crystal.

I have lived in seclusion for so long, I can’t relate to people long enough to love them.

So I keep my distance.

I cannot predict the future, only live in the present and watch the clock tick and stay tucked in the Dark.

The anthology also includes moving accounts of kids’ memories of their home countries and the often difficult, always exciting transition to a new world and a new way of life. Only the details of a 14-year-old boy’s journey from Kyrgyzstan and a 14-year-old girl’s memories of Peru vary from a 15-year-old girl’s vivid recall of leaving Canton, China, as a 9-year-old.

If nothing else, the anthology shows that people are much more alike than different.