SUMMER 2008
It was the fun "Funny Ha-Ha" way to support the Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA). On July 30th, former NWA intern Claire Zulkey hosted Funny Ha-Ha: Ladies Night, featuring readings by Amy Shearn, Wendy McClure, Mimi Smartypants, Megan Stielstra, and Cameron Esposito, plus short films by Steve Delahoyde with all proceeds benefitting NWA.
On July 28th, NWA hosted a special Collage Workshop with Poet and Artist Krista Franklin.. In this art workshop, community members talked about generating their own questions and answers, using both words and mixed media. The collage is on display at the Hyde Park Arts Center through the end of the season.
On July 21, NWA partnered with award-winning activist, poet, and performer Cheri Taylor to present a special workshop in conjunction with the programming for NWA’s upcoming project Raising Questions/Generating Answers. Writers explored such questions as: How to create neighborhoods that nurture and support the children? Is it possible to have a society of true equality for everyone? As vital, thinking, involved human beings, we must ask such questions of ourselves, of those we elect, and of those with whom we wish to create solutions.
SPRING 2008
 On June 17, NWA, in collaboration with Chi-Town Daily News hosted a workshop for JOT writers to explore the basics of journalistic reporting. The Chi-Town Daily News is a nonprofit online newspaper which covers Chicago with a network of volunteer grassroots journalists who write about news and events in their neighborhoods.
On Saturday, June 7, the Neighborhood Writing Alliance presented writers from the award-winning Journal of Ordinary Thought (JOT) at the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Book Fair. JOT writers explored their own experiences and those of family members, examined and discussed society values, reflected on how some experiences are rendered invisible, and, finally, they looked at how life’s experiences stabilize and strengthen communities, their thoughts on the past, and their hopes for the future.
 NWA was pleased to have writers: Margo Coulter, Helena Marie Carnes-Jeffries, Diana Cruz, Marisel Melendez, Amelia Ramos as contributors to the latest Issue of AREA Chicago. AREA Chicago attempted to look at Chicago as a policy laboratory in which experimental public policy in the areas of housing, labor and education are tested on the residents of Chicago.
One Person, One Vote? Reinventing Democracy.
In partnership with the Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council, on June 2, the Neighborhood Writing Alliance presented a lively, critical conversation at Experimental Station about the questions of democracy, and an opportunity to challenge ourselves to think, imagine, and act to revitalize and reinvent a more participatory democracy. Conversations were opened with a reading by a JOT writer and a poet from "Louder than a Bomb."
WINTER 2008
On February 2, writers from the Neighborhood Writing Alliance were invited to participate in BBC's live broadcast from Chicago Public Radio's Navy Pier Studios.
As part of Chicago's 2nd Annual Looptopia on May 2, and in conjunction with the Neighborhood Writing Alliance's project titled "Where Were You?" NWA presented JOT writers in "Defining Our Place in History," a reading and exploration of how our personal stories connect to historical moments.
The Neighborhood Writing Alliance was proud to have work from 25 writers displayed in the lobby of the Goodman Theater during the production of "The Ballad of Emmett Till."
Writers also participated in the Theaters' meet and greet event with the cast, as well as a conversation with playwright Ifa Bayeza.
On April 14, the Neighborhood Writing Alliance partnered with Jane Addams Hull-House Museum to present the film screening of
CHISHOLM ’72: UNBOUGHT & UNBOSSED. A post-film discussion was held with Barbara Ransby, Associate Professor of History and African-American Studies at UIC and author of Ella Baker & the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision.
FALL 2007
 On September 19th, 2007, the Neighborhood Writing Alliance presented "I Used To Be a Barbie Girl: JOT writers on Toys, Games and Growing Up" as part of the Summer 2007 Art of Play sponsored by the Chicago Tourism Center.
Writers performed pieces in a magical celebration of how we can, and do, look at the world through play.
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