Telling a Different Story (TaDS), begun as a pilot project in 1997/98, ran for three consecutive years. Like many of the special projects that WiER is involved in, they are made possible through partnerships with other groups working the arts, education, business, or publishing, and TaDS is a perfect example of this, as it was offered in partnership with the Oakville Arts Council.
The intention of the program was to allow middle and secondary students (grade eight up) to consider and explore issues of identity (e.g., gender, race, culture, representation) in a literary context. This work was undertaken in participating classrooms, and online in WiER's literary salons, with the mentorship of professional Canadian writers who themselves consider and explore these perspectives in their works. Writers Daniel David Moses, Lawrence Hill and Cecil Foster offered their insights, support and experiences to students from schools across Canada.
Given WiER's online format, discussions and debates were generated among students across diverse backgrounds, experiences, and geographic barriers. Students came to reflect on their own beliefs, and to consider their own positions and identities. This opened up a creative space where cultural boundaries were transcended through original writing and critical and constructive discourse between young Canadians and professional authors.
Structure
Telling a Different Story, which uses the regular WiER program as its model, is based on a 12-week school term and is structured as follows:
2 weeks: training, orientation & introduction
3 weeks: new work & responses from writers
2 weeks: student response period
3 weeks: new work & responses from writers
2 weeks: student response period & closing activities
An important aspect of the this project, which developed over these three years, was to have a face-to-face component where students could meet each other and the writers and engage in workshops and readings. This was only practical for those schools and writers that were in the same region and could easily participate, but as a supplement to the project it was very well received.
Student Responses
"I joined Telling a Different Story to improve my writing but it also improved my soul."
"The work of the other members of Telling a Different Story increased my understanding of oppression. By seeing the other people’s ideas on the subject I was able to experience what it felt like to them. This new experience has increased my resolve that oppression, any kind of oppression is wrong."
Student Writing
Upon completion of the program a book featuring selected pieces of the students' writing was published. Here are a couple of examples of that writing:
Redemption
Crime? The colour of skin,
A free life starts as death begins.
Ebony souls crushed by ivory vice.
Whispers of the heart as it grows cold.
Curtain falls as I close my eyes,
Last breath,
Yah,
I cry,
tranquil light
arise.
Teisha Thompson
Parkdale Collegiate Institute
Toronto, Ontario
Prism of Crystals
We lived with our hands apart and faces turned.
Our minds sunk silently behind dull barricades.
We wandered and gazed, touched only our favourite tinctures.
As an entropy of people, we scatter, uncertain of how to be close.
If we were to take the time to feel the vitality of other colours,
Our friendships would reveal the beauty of diversity amongst a
prism of crystals.
We could all stand tall and be embraced.
Iroquois Ridge High School
Oakville, Ontario
