Adults

Have Your Voice Heard / Aural Literature / Controversy & Conversation

Jul 21, 2015

$1-50

Byline

Andrew Murphy, Administrative Assistant, Austin (Texas) Public Library

The Have Your Voice Heard, Aural Literature and Controversy & Conversation programs highlight the Austin Public Library's effort to better serve people experiencing homelessness in our area.

Advanced Planning

This is a new effort to better serve people experiencing homelessness by APL. We hope to expand our partnership with the Challenger Street Newspaper into further programming options. We are bringing more attention to the issue by using our other monthly programs at this location to fit the theme.

Marketing

We distributed fliers (see "Attachments" at right) and invited our customers to attend. The Challenger Newspaper, a publication written, edited and published by people experiencing homelessness, have also been distributing the fliers and inviting people within their network.

Program Execution

In summer 2015 at the Austin Public Library Terrazas Branch, the producers of the Challenger Street Newspaper will offer a series of writing workshops called Have Your Voice Heard. The Challenger Street Newspaper expresses the thoughts and experiences of homeless people and their allies. Participants are invited to come to the Terrazas Branch library and learn about the writing process and the production of an underground newsletter or zine.

In conjunction with the Have Your Voice Heard workshops, Controversy & Conversation — an Austin Public Library program that invites the public to watch and discuss films about controversial topics — will screen “The Homestretch,” a documentary that follows three homeless teens as they fight to stay in school, graduate and build a future. The series is presented in part by the University of Texas' Humanities Institute program, Difficult Dialogues.

Several Challenger Street Newspaper writers will read their works aloud at the August edition of Aural Literature. On the last Wednesday of each month, Aural Literature brings together Austin authors to share their work through live readings.

The Terrazas Branch is a small staff of seven people. Several of us work together with these programs. The existing programs, Aural Literature and Controversy & Conversation, each began in January 2015 but have already proven successful. Fifty-three people attended the first night of Aural Literature; we typically average 25 people for each event.