(upbeat music)
- Hi, my name is Toyia Tynae Taylor
and I'm the Executive Director of WeAPP.
We Act, Present, And Perform, the Speak With Purpose program
which is the only public speaking class
offered in Seattle Public Schools,
at many of your schools
and we're so proud of that.
I'm here with my team today.
This is Ms. Sophie.
- Hey.
- Ms. Krystal
- Hello.
- And today we are working on a free write.
So some of you know what a free write is,
but some of you are like what in the world is that,
is it a free write
that you give away to somebody, or what?
This is an opportunity, and we love doing this
in Speak with Purpose, for you to freely express yourself,
it's all about letting go of judgment,
allowing yourself to really just say what it is
that you are feeling in the moment,
nothing more, nothing less.
It doesn't matter how old you are,
how young you are, we do this with students
as young as 4th grade, all the way up to 12th.
And you can't imagine the amazing pieces that people
come up with when you allow yourself just to be free.
Alright, so I'll say this, for me, free writing
was really important when I was probably in 9th grade.
Ninth grade for me was hard, you guys,
it was a time that I felt
like nobody, I mean, no adult really listened to my voice.
I felt really alone and like I had things to say
I just didn't know how to say them,
have you ever felt that way?
- [Ms. Krystal] Yes
- [Ms. Sophie] Yeah
- Yeah, middle school, elementary.
- Mm-hmm, middle school for me.
- Yeah, I think at some point it was even elementary
through high school, until I learned,
I found this thing I could do called free writing,
and this became my voice, it became my opportunity
to talk about whatever was on my mind,
and I began to talk about my community,
my life, how I felt about school,
and how I saw myself in the future,
and so I say to you, if I can do this,
anybody can do this, and you should,
and we will today, alright,
so first thing about free writing,
is I'm gonna show you how we get started.
First of all, you want a journal.
If you don't have a journal, no sweat, it's not a big deal,
get something to write in or on,
so a piece of paper, what else you could use?
- You could use your phone.
- Use a laptop, tablet.
- Alright, you just want something you feel comfortable
writing in, for me it's a journal for today.
Alright, we're gonna give you 10 seconds
to go and get something to write in.
You ready, I'm gonna break it down for you.
- And something to write with.
- A pen or a pencil, either one.
- Thanks Ms. Sophie.
- I got you.
- Thank you, so we gonna break it down for you.
Go get it,
♪ 10, here we go ♪
♪ Nine, where you at, where you at ♪
♪ Eight, go get a pen or a pencil ♪
♪ Seven, what what ♪
♪ Six, five, five, five ♪
♪ Four, three, here you come ♪
♪ Two, find a place so you can write ♪
♪ One, one, one, one (imitates record scratching) ♪
♪ One ♪
Alright, cool.
Now that you have something to write with,
or in, show you how we do our free writes.
Here's a free write that I did the other day.
You're going to put your name in the left hand corner,
so open up to any page that's a free page,
write your name in the top left hand corner,
and then right across, on the opposite side,
you're gonna put today's date, whatever that is.
Today is 4/24 in the studio, correct.
And then, whatever we choose as a topic,
or two words, that's what you're gonna put in the middle,
and then you always want to find some place
to put the exact time that we start,
and we'll tell you what time to start,
and you'll put the time there then.
Alright, so put your name, left hand corner,
date, right hand corner, we'll tell you what the topic
is today, and then you'll also put the time we start.
Cool, now we're almost there you guys,
we're almost about to free write,
few things in WeAPP that are truly important
to us so that you really get the ultimate
experience with your free write.
You have to find a sweet spot,
a sweet spot is a place where you can concentrate,
that there are gonna be no interruptions
from your little sister or brother
or your television, your phone, put it away,
find your sweet spot, it can be under a table,
on a table, on the floor, left up to you.
Next, when we say pen to paper, once that timer starts,
you just write, don't stop writing.
Don't think, just do.
Allow your mind to get comfortable with writing,
if you get to a place where you're writing,
and you're like, "I don't know what else to write",
write it, "I don't know what else to write, this is crazy,
why am I writing, maybe the sky will show something
open up to me and I will see and be free"
and you'll just start, let your mind get there, 'kay?
The other thing is, most importantly, inner coach.
It's important that you find your voice,
cause I can't even tell you how many songs I've tried
to write or poems and didn't finish because I thought
nobody wanted to hear them,
or I didn't know what else to write, or I just
gave up on myself.
That's an inner critic, that's what we don't do.
We want to have that inner coach,
that says, "I can speak about anything I want,
the world is open to me, I believe in my words,
somebody else needs to hear this,
but I have to be the one to write it, or I'm just writing
it for myself and that's all that matters, I can do this."
'Kay, inner coach, dispel the inner critic.
Alright, so I think, did I miss anything, you guys?
- Nope.
- I think we're almost ready.
'Kay, get your journal, whatever you're writing with,
I want you to now, go find your sweet spot.
It can be on the floor, I might just stay here,
cause I'm the oldest of everybody at the table, right?
So I think I'mma, I think this feels good to me,
this will be my sweet spot for today.
I love it, Ms. Sophie, oh I like that,
that's nice Ms. Krystal.
- Thank you.
- So let's pick two words
that we're going to free write today,
I'm thinking heart, what are you guys thinking?
- What about friends?
- Yeah, I like that one.
- I like it too.
Now, remember, the beautiful thing about a free write
is be free, use your imagination, heart doesn't have to mean
the traditional definition of a heart bumping in your chest
it can be a planet called heart, a food called heart,
how can we use friends?
- You could think about the stuffed animals
you have as friends.
- Think about your pets as friends,
or even like a pet named Friend.
- A pet named Friend,
friend could be the name of a school you go to,
the name of a song that was made on planet heart,
whatever you want, that's the beauty of a free write
is you choose what the words mean to you
and explore it, be open, okay?
So we're gonna get our journals
or whatever you have to write, and I want you to,
right in the middle of that page, put heart friends,
your name in the left hand corner, remember,
and the time in the right, and the time that we start,
we're in the studio and the time is 11:35, okay.
We're gonna play a little music, find your sweet spot,
oh nice, this is gonna be my sweet spot, here we go.
(calm lo-fi music)
- [Toyia] Alright, wow three minutes goes by
really really fast, so write your last word,
I see Ms. Krystal is still writing her last sentence,
take your time.
'Kay, and put the time that we stopped.
And I'm going to share my free write, is that okay?
- Yeah, it'd be great.
- And I want you to remember, sometimes people are like,
"I don't want to share" you don't have to.
But if you want to, you can share it with a friend,
a sibling, a parent, or just read it out loud to yourself.
So you feel really good about, or you just hear the words,
you feel good about it, and know it's for you.
Alright, so this is my version of heart and friends.
Heart fill the room, flowing from speakers
like trains in Brooklyn, pouring out like Nina Simone
or Miles Davis, the song she played was friends,
a melody, a beat that reminded me of home,
reminded me of my grandmother's sweet potato pie.
I cried, the tears came from my eyes,
as I heard her pour into the bloom,
slow like sweet molasses, like sweet magnolia flowers.
I thought about friends, some old, some new,
they all crossed my mind, and in that moment,
I was lost in time.
- [Ms. Sophie] Wow, that was beautiful.
- I appreciate it, thank you.
We won't go into your free writes, but what were your
free writes about?
Really quickly.
- Mine was about my little brother who had a friend
named Heart in elementary school.
- Nice.
- So, remembering that.
- Writing about her little brother
having a friend named Heart in elementary school.
- I talked about how your heart is what keeps you alive,
and how different emotions can affect how you feel,
and the importance of having heart and friends in your life.
- Nice, so Ms. Sophie used the traditional sense
of expressing your heart and having good friends
in your life, there's no wrong or right in a free write.
So remember, find your sweet spot,
once you start writing, don't stop,
just allow it to flow, okay?
Give yourself a time,
I would say three minutes to five minutes,
more importantly, remember, always embrace that inner coach
that allows you just to be yourself and express yourself
to the fullest, and dispel that inner critic
that tells us what we can't do, cause we can do it all.
Alright, so if you want to share some of your free writes
with us, we would love to hear them,
we're gonna put up our website at the end of the video,
and you can share them right on our site,
to padlet.com, that's P-A-D-L-E-T dot com,
and if you go to our site, you'll see it,
and we would love to hear some of your free writes.
Yeah?
- We'd love that.
- My name is Toyia Tynae Taylor,
I'm the Executive Director of WeAPP, this is,
- I'm Ms. Sophie.
- And Ms. Krystal.
- Enjoy life, be true to yourself,
- [All] Speak with purpose!
- And we'll see in you in the next video.
Bye.
(upbeat music)