YELLS Board, Fall 2014.
Executive Board:
President: Daneea Badio McCray
Founder and Executive Director: Laura Keefe
Treasurer: Kevin Keefe
Secretary: Ruthie Yow
I serve on the board of Marietta YELLS (Youth Empowerment through Learning, Leading, and Serving). YELLS is a metro-Atlanta-based non-profit that equips vulnerable kids and teens to be leaders and change-makers in their communities. Check out a powerful documentary produced by YELLS youth, and if you are moved to, please offer your support for YELLS here.
I also work as a writing tutor in the Common Good Atlanta Writing Studio at Phillips State Prison in Buford, Georgia. Common Good Atlanta, founded in 2008 by Sarah Higinbotham and Bill Taft, offers accredited college curriculum to men incarcerated at Phillips State. Their program is "based on the belief that studying the arts and sciences will contribute to the flourishing of human dignity in a place where people are the most marginalized."
CGA Conference, February 2015. Photograph by Sarah Higinbotham. Incarcerated scholars presented their work on subjects ranging from James Joyce to Carl Jung to Shakespeare to assembled Georgia Tech faculty . Mine and Sarah's reflection on the experience can be found here.