Bold Ink Writers

The Student Voices Arts Advocacy Day with Create CA on July 12th connected over 400 students to a day of workshops, presenters, and community leaders to promote the intersection of arts and activism. WriteGirl / Bold Ink Writers presented two workshops about persuasive writing. From political viewpoints to the benefits of mosquitos, students learned to craft compelling messages about topics they were passionate about, and then practiced presenting their written speeches in front of a crowd! One student reflected on the session: "I learned that my voice and my passions truly matter, and that I should uplift these things more if I want anything to change."

Bold Ink Writers brings creative writing workshops and mentors to youth who are incarcerated in juvenile camps and halls, through our partnership with The Arts for Healing and Justice Network. On June 1st, we started a new 12-week cycle at the Dorothy Kirby Center, where we have been programming on a weekly basis since the beginning of the year. Here are some threads (reflections) from the teens we’ve worked with:

- I loved that you guys give us the opportunity to write about people / stuff we love then share it in the space
- I love how certain people came out of their comfort zone to share
- I liked expressing my feelings in writing
- I liked writing about my strengths and things I liked about myself

On May 24, 2025 Bold Ink Writers participated in Justice + Art Jam at Los Angeles State Historic Park. It was a powerful gathering of activists, artists, and service providers who invited the public to envision a more fair and compassionate justice system. Attendees read excerpts of writing from teens who are incarcerated, and wrote positive messages to them in return. These messages will be presented to teens during Bold Ink Writers workshops. Thanks Freewaves for inviting us to take part!

WriteGirl/Bold Ink Writers is thrilled to be part of Justice + Art Jam this Saturday, May 24th from 1-4 PM at Los Angeles State Historic Park. This transformative event will bring together artists, community-based organizations and people impacted by incarceration to envision a more fair and compassionate justice system via art, activism and direct support. All are invited, but topics may be suited for a mature audience. WriteGirl/Bold Ink Writers will display short quotes of writing from teenage girls and gender-expansive teens who are detained in juvenile camps and halls. Participants will also have the opportunity to write positive messages that will be shown to some of the youth inside camps/halls.

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/justice-art-jam-tickets-1251833821659?aff=oddtdtcreator

We love equipping our teens with brand new writing journals! We shipped a few of these recently to teens in Singapore and Tajikistan!

We love this testimonial from a teen at a recent Bold Ink Writers workshop in Inglewood! WriteGirl and Bold Ink Writers have been expanding with new programs throughout LA, as well as in Nevada, Wisconsin, and Tajikistan! Support our expansion and join us at the WriteGirl Bold Ink Awards on June 4th! Tickets at https://www.writegirl.org/bold-ink-awards

On July 30th, WriteGirl Alumni joined The Arts for Healing and Justice Network for a free film screening of Summertime at Inner-City Arts. WriteGirl led a mini-poetry workshop that asked the group to think about something specific that they love about summertime in Los Angeles. After the screening, the cast & crew for Summertime answered questions about the film and quickly moved onto an open mic led by Street Poets, Inc. We were so excited to have three of our WriteGirl Alumni courageously perform their pieces! We love supporting our alums! Thank you to everyone who helped collaborate at this event!

This week we got to meet The Flying Robot, Mr. Bot 100, Sky 10,000 and more at our Bold Ink Writers Science Fiction Workshop at Dexter Middle School in Whittier, through our partnership with the Arts for Healing and Justice Network! We love the robot characters and stories the youth created during our workshop! BEEP...BOP...BEEP

We at Bold Ink Writers and WriteGirl condemn anti-Asian hate and stand with our AAPI volunteers, teens, alumnae and community affected by racist and misogynistic violence and hate crimes. We grieve with our Asian volunteers, teens and alumnae and hold space for their anger and their voices.

To report incidents of violence and learn bystander intervention, please check out the following resources:

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC and Hollaback! offer Bystander Intervention Virtual Trainings
• Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting center for anti-Asian hate incidents

Last week at our Bold Ink Writers workshop, the teens at Central Juvenile Hall explored concrete poetry. Concrete Poetry, sometimes called “shape poetry,” is poetry whose visual appearance matches the topic of the poem. The words form shapes which illustrate the poem's subject as a picture, as well as through their literal meaning! Here is a piece one of the teens wrote in the shape of a heart: "My heart is full of love, my time, my life/I’m full of surprises that come in different boxes./This is my heart."

Since 2015, WriteGirl and our Bold Ink Writers programs (for teen boys and co-ed groups) have been presenting creative writing workshops for youth who are systems-impacted or are incarcerated at facilities throughout Los Angeles County. The past year has been incredibly challenging as we have transitioned all our programs away from in-person and into a variety of video and tele-conference modalities. Youth at most of these sites are currently not allowed to have in-person visitors, including family members, and are constantly being put into quarantine due to COVID-19.

One of the teens, Mikayla, wrote this on a recent Wednesday afternoon at Dorothy Kirby Center during one of our weekly video workshops. Mikayla drew a Memory Tree and the word, "ALIVE," which inspired her to write this piece. Read more about the work we're doing in our Bold Ink Writers program at https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?e=__test_email__&u=45167d6d93c12e1c77ba890d0&id=986997fc7d

We're so grateful for everyone who supported WriteGirl on ! We wanted to share this poem from one of our teens to show our gratitude. (And you can still support our Giving Tuesday campaign at https://www.writegirl.org/donate)