Writing Our Stories Exhibit, Alabama State Capitol, Spring 2011

This spring, the Alabama Writers’ Forum (AWF) and the Alabama Department of Youth Services (DYS) invited the public to view an exhibit depicting the award-winning Writing Our Stories (WOS) program in the Old Supreme Court Library in the Alabama State Capitol. The Forum hosted a reception on May 10.
Coinciding with Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month, the exhibit included thirty-four panels, with quotes from students, cooperating teachers, and teaching writers and poems and graphics from the student writers’ published anthologies.
Writing Our Stories is a cooperative program of the Alabama Writers' Forum and the Alabama Department of Youth Services. Funding for the project, which includes nine months of instruction, in-service training, and anthology editing, is provided by a DYS grant with support from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention provided additional funding for the exhibit.
Here are some photographs from the exhibit and reception. (Photos by Robin Cooper)
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A view of the panels (Photo 7028)
A view of the panels in the Old Supreme Court Library in the Alabama State Capitol
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A view of the panels (Photo 7062)
A view of the panels in the Old Supreme Court Library in the Alabama State Capitol
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Jeanie Thompson and Sen. Greg Reed (Photo 7082)
AWF Executive Director Jeanie Thompson discusses the exhibit with Sen. Greg Reed (R-Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Winston, District 5).
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Kelley Parris-Barnes (Photo 7049)
Kelley Parris-Barnes, director of the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, with two poems from Open the Door IV
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J. Walter Wood Jr. (Photo 7038)
J. Walter Wood Jr., DYS executive director, poses with his panel.
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Sen. Greg Reed and Kelley Parris-Barnes (Photo 7075)
Sen. Greg Reed (R-Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Winston, District 5) and Kelley Parris-Barnes, director of the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, discuss the exhibit.
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Two poems from Open the Door IV (Photo 9520)
Two poems from Mt. Meigs Campus anthology Open the Door IV
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Sandra Whately Washington (Photo 9556)
Sandra Whately Washington, Mt. Meigs Campus cooperating teacher, poses in front of her panel.
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Tyrone Yarbrough (Photo 9550)
Tyrone Yarbrough, DYS superintendent of education, pauses to read a panel.
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Priscilla Hancock Cooper (Photo 9563)
Chalkville Campus teaching writer Priscilla Hancock Cooper
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Marlin Barton, Tony Crunk, and Rachel Prosser (Photo 9674)
Teaching writers Marlin Barton and Tony Crunk and exhibit designer Rachel Prosser discuss the cover of Vacca Campus anthology Happy & Free with art by Belle Prosser, Rachel’s teenaged daughter.
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Nancy Hutcheson, Christine Carl, and Frank White (Photo 9683)
Nancy Hutcheson, Forum arts management specialist, Christine Carl, Capitol site director, and Frank White, Forum treasurer, discuss the exhibit.
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A view of the panels (Photo 7026)
A view of the panels in the Old Supreme Court Library in the Alabama State Capitol
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A view of the panels (Photo 7067)
A view of the panels in the Old Supreme Court Library in the Alabama State Capitol
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Sen. Greg Reed and J. Walter Wood Jr. (Photo 7093)
Sen. Greg Reed (R-Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Winston, District 5) and J. Walter Wood Jr., DYS executive director, pose a panel.