Update 5/12:

Thank you to everyone who has helped me reach my goal of $800!! You are all amazing!

While I've reached my personal goal, NYWC's overall goal has yet to be met. Any donation you make will help them get that much closer to their target. So go for it! :) And thank you!!

tamiko

"I gather myself  / onto my day raft, your voice / lost under me: / first other tongue"
- Jean Valentine, from "October Morning"

Dear friend,

Thank you for visiting my NYWC Write-a-Thon Fundraising Page! I'm happy to be participating in the fourth annual NY Writers Coalition (NYWC) Write-a-Thon. This is the third time I'll be joining writers from around New York City for a daylong writing marathon and festival that benefit NYWC's free creative writing programs.

I'm asking for your support and generosity as I write my a** off for a great cause on May 16th. Your pledges will help NYWC continue to offer more than 1,000 free, unique and powerful creative writing workshops each year for the homeless and formerly homeless, at-risk, and economically disadvantaged young people, seniors, war veterans, the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, cancer survivors and many others.

Last year, I raised $765, and this year I'm going for $800. I know it's a difficult economic climate, but I am continually impressed and awed by how people come through for each other in difficult times. As I'm sure you know, nonprofits are particularly challenged during times like this, and NYWC needs support from those of us who believe in this work.

Many of you know that for the last several years, I led writing workshops for homeless LGBT youth through NYWC. These youth were contending with so much: finding safe, stable housing, finding ways to support themselves financially, dealing with drug or alcohol additctions, navigating troubled/abusive relationships, etc.. You would think that coming together once a week to write wouldn't be high on their priority list. But the space to find their "first other tongue" (to borrow from the great poet Jean Valentine) and to write fiercely in that tongue meant something to them. They did show up - maybe not every week, maybe not every time, but they came when they could, and wrote their hearts out.

Because of this and 900 other reasons, I think it’s vital that NYWC’s work continues, and I hope that you will join me in supporting them.

with love and poetry,

tamiko