Girlspeak

Girlspeak

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A Chicago program called Girlspeak aims to get girls and young women to put their feelings and thoughts on paper.

Girlspeak publishes the girls’ poems, prose and art in an online literary journal.

The program is an offshoot of the Young Chicago Authors project.

The poems offer glimpses into each girl’s life – one girl is nostalgic for making rice pudding with her mother, another recalls the traumatic first days of school when she didn’t know English.

Girlspeak is getting national recognition.

The program just received funding from a foundation run by television host Tyra Banks, who will highlight Girlspeak on her show tomorrow.

In honor of that, we’re sharing a poem by one of the Girlspeak authors, Diamond Sharp.

She’s 18 years old and a senior at Oak Park and River Forest High School.

Here she reads her poem, “While I Was Gone, a War Began.”