LAND AS PERSONA: COLLABORATION WITH THE ALABAMA WRITERS’ FORUM

Writing our Stories students taught by Daniel DeVaughn in the Vincent Middle School completed the Land as Persona: Many Paths to the Present curriculum in May, 2021. Through the form of the persona poem, students were given the chance to learn and explore the many people and peoples who have called the Harpersville-Vincent area home. Wallace descendants and others spoke about their ancestors and their own experiences beginning with the Muscogee Creek Nation, the Creek Indian War, slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights era, up to the present. This 8 week program was a collaboration between the Alabama Writers’ Forum and Klein Arts Culture and has culminated with a digital anthology of student poems. Students will read their poems at the Wallace House in 2022. Here, Mayor and KAC Board VP Theoangelo Perkins and Board President Nell Gottlieb congratulate the students and invite them to visit the Wallace House. Other speakers included Shawn Baker, Peter Datcher, Henry Smith, and Rita Hicks.