VOICES: A Creative Community

Richard Krawiec is one of this year's artist fellowship winners, so honored because of his writing. But he is also the founder/director of VOICES: A Creative Community, an organization operating in Wake County since 1992 that teaches the process of writing to literacy students, the homeless, at-risk children, people in shelters, people in drug-treatment programs, and others who are poor or disenfranchised. A special effort is being made now to reach out to the Latino population in the Wake County area.

Krawiec observes, "The skills my students have learned through writing are the same skills they've used to become better parents, workers and citizens. I've seen children learn, from writing plays, reasons to refuse to sell drugs. I've witnessed drug addicts learn how to 'read' their lives as they might read a book, and then rewrite the narratives of their behavior, to develop happier endings to their personal stories. I've held the hands of homeless women who, after writing poems about their incest, were then able to imagine healtheir, happier lives for themselves outside of shelters."