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About This Journal

The BW program thrives through its community collaboration. By aligning with universities, cultural centers, and libraries, BW participants are exposed to diverse activities provided in the surrounding areas while in turn supporting the local cultural arts and community resources. Currently, we have active chapters in Santa Ana, California and Austin, Pflugerville, San Marcos, Nacogdoches, and Corpus Christi, Texas.
BW participants are between the ages of 13 to 19 years old and reside in the surrounding area of the local chapters. By opening workshops to all levels of students from local schools and neighborhoods, Barrio Writers includes teenagers from diverse circumstances to participate and share their lives with our society. We also encourage college students up to the age of 21 years old to participate as peers obtaining higher education.
The program strives to present alternative forms of expression through cultural art collaboration in the community. The summer workshops culminate with a live reading, which allows Barrio Writers to present final pieces to our community and reach a wider audience by potential media coverage and book sales. The BW program is designed to empower the teenage community while establishing a self-sufficient educational program that will represent community pride, perseverance, and endless possibilities for following generations.
One goal of the program is to publish an annual collection of written works demonstrating the diverse backgrounds of teenagers that can be used in and out of the classroom.