City Year Washington DC: A Year in the Life

It’s only the first month of the 2007 and even though I’ve only been here a year and a half, I think I can honestly say it’s been one of, if not the busiest months in CYDC history. Sometimes the holiday break puts things on a slight pause and it takes corps members a few weeks to get back into the swing of things – this has not been the case for this corps. They came back from their break ready to go!

The CYCLE Team (City Year Campaign for Literacy Education) put on an event called Literacy Island. Athletically- talented youth are often given opportunities to showcase their talents through school and community sporting events, but students who have more literary talents aren’t often given that opportunity. That’s why the CYCLE team put on Literacy Island.

Literacy Island was an evening event held at the MLK Library in downtown DC. It was for 6th to 12th grade from all over DC. Some students came and read pieces that they had written. Others simply displayed their written work and let visitors read them. I was quite blown away by some of the younger poets that I heard. The older ones were of course excellent too, but I guess my expectations were much higher for them. There was a DJ, some of the students sang, and a number of people wondered in from the library to see. Again, I think it most importantly showed the young people that their talents are not going unappreciated.