Michele Kotler
Interview with Michele Kotler, Founder and Executive Director, Community Word Project
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Michele Kotler is the founding director of the Community Word Project, an arts in education organization based in New York City whose mission is to inspire New York City youth in underserved communities to read, interpret and respond to their world, and to become active citizens through collaborative arts residencies and teacher training programs. She received her MFA in creative writing, poetry from the University of Michigan and her BA from Sarah Lawrence College.
One of the CWP’s projects is the annual Writing for Our Future program, which brings kids together to read their work alongside established poets and actors. Another is The Murals, created by children 7 -17 under the guidance of artists who help them interpret a line of their poetry into a visual.
One of the objectives of CWP is to put and keep art back into public schools that have been stripped of risk-taking and imagination by the focus on testing. “Arts provide children with a way to take risk and grow without danger.”
Her advice to social entrepreneurs: “Look at other organizations to learn from and collaborate with; always be open to sharing information and working together.”
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