Workshop Invites Black Students to Share Their Stories

By Dylan Valic, Editor-In-Chief

Herstory Writers Workshop and the Writing Center are hosting a weekly virtual workshop that invites black students across Long Island to tell their stories. The workshops will be held every Wednesday from 3-5 p.m.

The workshop aims to “give voice to this moment’s most immediate issues while creating a sense of community and hope,” according to Herstory’s website.

Stories created in the workshop will be published on websites such as “Long Island Wins” and added to Hofstra University’s Herstory Writers Workshop digital archive.

Students who attend the workshop will be taught how to write a “first page moment,” a scene from their life that they would want a stranger to read in order to gain a better understanding of their experiences.

Amber Davis, the operations manager for Herstory and one of the facilitators for the workshop, said that Herstory hosts these workshops in order to “change hearts, minds and policies.”

The first workshop was held on Wednesday, June 3. Students came together in a safe space to discuss whatever was on their minds.

“There were a lot of talks about the feeling of confusion and frustration, given the height of everything that’s going on in the nation and everything, but we are just trying to come together and share in a safe space,” Davis said.

The idea for the workshop came from a group of students who work with Herstory. They felt that a platform was needed to address these kinds of stories.

“We’re facing two pandemics now because you couldn’t breathe from covid and now it’s like people can’t breathe and they’re worried about their lives just being, just because of their skin color,” Davis said. “It’s a terrible thing that we have to deal with but it’s holding people accountable for their actions to humanity and I think that’s the bigger picture of it that our stories need to be heard so we can change humanity.”

Students looking for more information on the workshop can go to http://www.herstorywriters.org/black-student-stories. Students who are interested in attending the workshop should contact Nilda Nelson at Nilda.Nelson@liu.edu.