Our organization is founded on the principle that all voices deserve to be heard, and that creative expression has a healing effect on the suffering. Seven Cities Writers Project is a 501(C)(3) non-profit corporation which brings cost-free creative writing and literacy programs to underserved communities. Since 2015, we have been guiding memoir and poetry, journaling, and personal growth workshops for men and women incarcerated in the Norfolk City Jail. At Portsmouth’s Community Colored Library Museum we held Resistance & Resilience: A Memoir Workshop for Survivors of the Jim Crow Era. In 2019, we began offering a memoir workshop of the LGBTQ+ Experience at the LGBT Life Center in Norfolk. In the spring of 2020, 7CWP was scheduled to begin offering creative writing workshops for men and women incarcerated in the Portsmouth City Jail. We look forward to getting that program started as soon as it’s safe to do so.

We are always on the look-out for new communities to serve.

Our workshops and literacy programs are guided by one or more of our project directors who all hold masters degrees, and have considerable teaching experience. We design our workshops according to the interests, needs, and restrictions of the participants and/or facility. Projects are always cost-free, and 7CWP generally provides all necessary materials. In the city jails we also provide used books for the writers reading pleasure.

Our classes typically meet once a week for 6, 8, or 12 weeks, 90 minutes to 2 hours at a time. Our project directors offer students writing prompts to get them started, engage the students in discussions about their work and offer reading supplements. Students are encouraged to share their work as they feel comfortable.

We publish work generated in our workshops on our blog: sevencitieswriters.wordpress.com with the permission of the author.

We understand that populations in these facilities are often fluid, and it may be challenging to maintain a sense of continuity from week to week. Our project directors welcome writers as they join on ongoing group.

At the end of each session, we hold readings designed around the limitations of the facility, to give the writers an opportunity to share their work. We distribute student surveys to give participants the opportunity to evaluate our program and suggest improvement.

Our mission is to develop our participants’ confidence, self-expression, and self-knowledge in an inspiring, safe, and nurturing environment.