Dear Friends,

We are living in a time of rapid change, at an intersection of many questions. At The Telling Room, we are ever guided by youth and what they’re bringing to the page. How do we respond to our environmental crises? How is a racial reckoning lived in our care and practice for one another? How do we wholly affirm everyone’s gender identity and expression? How do we address the many challenges our communities are facing?  

Yes: Youth write about all of these things, and more.

So, with our heads and hearts full of questions, we turn to writing, to art, to reading, and to each other. Even in the face of nationwide efforts to silence vital voices and perspectives, youth are speaking up. Every day I see young writers inspiring one another and learning from their fellow artists and mentors. Together, they are lifting up their voices. Together, they are making themselves heard. 

And together is how we all move forward. With our newly launched three-year strategic plan, Reading Ahead, we’re strengthening how we elevate youth voices through our partnerships with alumni, schools, libraries, and other organizations. We will expand access to our programs, growing their visibility and long-term impact. We will holistically support our community, including our staff and youth, by centering belonging, justice, and our culture of learning in all that we do. 

With our plans in place, we now turn to our wider community and ask, “What can we all bring to the page?” Because The Telling Room needs your help to realize our vision: a future where youth make themselves heard and their communities value their voices. 

I invite you to join me and make a gift to support youth who, like Mo, are discovering the possibilities of the present and the opportunities of the future, through writing together with The Telling Room.

Kristina M. J. Powell,
Executive Director, she/her/hers

“There was life to live, things to do, places to see. Opportunity. It filled them with purpose, it pulled them from that nihilistic drifting void and put them into the real world, with the real people…Opportunity. What they’d chased for so long. Cassie led the way back to the car. It was time to change the world.” 

— Mo Drammeh, Excerpt from Where the Cryptids Fled