Introducing Redbud Community Classes
Announcing our new pivot towards a more community-minded, equitable set of literary goals.
At Redbud, we’ve always valued equity, community, and accessibility: from the beginning, we’ve been committed to offering as many scholarships as possible so that students from marginalized or under-represented backgrounds can participate in our classes. We’ve also received generous funding and grants from organizations like the Orange County Arts Commission and the Durham Public Library to offer completely free classes to community members.
Students at a one-day event at the Durham Center for Senior Life in April 2022. This event was funded by generous donors.
However, we’ve realized lately that there’s so much more we can to to make Redbud even more inclusive and to make our literary community even more equitable.
So: we’re thrilled to announce that we are going to be dramatically increasing the number of free and community-based classes that we’ll be offering in the coming year.
(Don’t worry, the normal six-week classes and events that you all know and love will not be going away! All of that will still proceed as normal. This announcement concerns an addition, not a replacement!).
Over the coming months, we’re going to be offering courses to groups that have been traditionally marginalized in publishing, such as BIPOC and low-income writers, as well as courses specifically geared towards writers who have gone through experiences like domestic violence and assault. We’re incredibly excited about this expansion and about the writers we can reach and the stories we can help them tell with these new resources and opportunities.
You may have already heard about an inaugural example of the kind of work: our Storytelling for Reproductive Justice class, which will begin August 15, and is funded through a generous grant from Planned Parenthood and therefore free for participants. You can learn more about that class and apply here!
This fall, we’re also planning on rolling out:
A six-week class that will serve as a safe space for people who have experienced domestic violence and assault to write their stories
A drop-in weekly class for BIPOC writers, taught by local writer and activist Taari Coleman
A six-week memoir class at the Durham Center for Senior Life
How can you be involved?
If you have an idea for an organization for us to partner with to offer more classes (for example, an organization that works with recently incarcerated people) or just an idea for a class that we should offer under the community umbrella, then please let us know! If you are affiliated with a nonprofit and are interested in learning more about what kinds of partnerships we’re looking for, please download our fact sheet here.
If you work for a company that does philanthropic giving or have a connection to another funder that you think would be interested in helping Redbud, and you would be willing to connect us, then also please let us know! We have a one-page fact-sheet for companies available for download here, which outlines our sponsorship opportunities.
If you’re an individual looking to support a more equitable literary community in the Triangle, then please get in touch or make a tax-deductible donation here!
And spread the word about these new offerings!
Thanks, everybody! We’re so excited about what we can accomplish with these new offerings and we look forward to working with you, our community, to make that happen.