Description

A grant to City College will provide renewed support to the Neighborhood Storytelling Initiative. Originally funded through a special grant in 2019 from the Higher Education Program, the initiative reflected the Foundation’s interest in supporting local institutions and in encouraging community engagement by higher education. The grant funded City College’s Creative Writing Program to partner with the College archive and the Schomburg Center to tell local stories based on archival materials. This second grant will enable the college to continue that work, to organize a conference marking the anniversary of James Baldwin’s address at City College, and to publish the work of writing students in response to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.  Implementation of the initial grant was significantly impeded by the pandemic; a renewal will help City College to build upon the progress they were able to make during the first grant.