New Program Coordinator Joins Free Minds Staff 

Amelia first caught wind of Earl Shorris's Clemente Course in Humanities, the model upon which Free Minds was built, while enrolled in a graduate course about teaching in the community college.  

Her interest led her to seek out the Odyssey Project, a Chicago-based humanities program for low-income adults. As a volunteer for Odyssey, Amelia enjoyed working through challenging coursework with students who brought their day-to-day struggles and triumphs to the classroom. She described her experience, saying, "I was so inspired by the way that students' anxiety about returning to school was transformed throughout the year into assurance in their own capabilities."

Free Minds student Stacey Kennedy reads from her piece, "Cheers".

Free Minds Students Perform at Carnival ah!

On the evening of April 11th the Main Stage Theater at ACC Rio Grande was filled with a nervous hum. This year's class of Free Minds students sat in a semi-circle across the stage, studiously looking down at their notes or whispering words of encouragement to their neighbors. As the reading got underway, butterflies were banished to the corners of the room and a focused energy took hold.   

The performance was part of Carnival ah!, ACC's fourth annual celebration of humanities and culture.  The pieces Free Minds students presented were conceived of last December as part of a personal narrative assignment, and under the guidance of humanities professor Patty Hatcher, each piece had undergone its own evolution.

Students' work both celebrated the accomplishments of the past year and described formative experiences of loss and doubt. One powerful example was Leslie Goodson's piece, "Where I Am From, Where I Am Going," which  began with a description of prior hardships--"seemed like everything happened to me, strike after strike"--and moved toward a commitment to honor her mother's memory in her own life: "Erasing stains, breaking chains/ All in the honor of the woman/ Who taught me everything..."  In reflecting on the Carnival ah! theme, "How did I get here?", it was clear that students were interested not only in how their pasts had led them to the present, but also in what comes next.   

Following the students' performance, nationally celebrated poet Nick Flynn read a selection of poems and took audience questions. Days later, Free Minds kicked off the creative writing unit with a discussion of Flynn's book of poems, Some Ether.