At a recent "coffeehouse" reading, a lucky audience was treated to a tear and joy-filled evening of stories and poems about political struggles in Haiti, a first job on a landscaping crew, and a dream deferred. The reading was the culminating event for the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Local 2020 members immersed in a 10-week creative writing workshop organized by SEIU's Worker Ed-ucation Program (WEP). Workers at more than 10 sites across the country will participate in similar workshops as part of a national labor writing initiative funded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Geared to providing a forum for workers to write and share their stories, the idea for the initiative took shape in 2000 when poet Jimmy Santiago Baca conducted a writing work-shop to give voice to workers' lived experiences at an Indiana steel mill.

Participants in WEP's creative writing class are full-time health care workers; with only one two-hour meeting each week, students had a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time! To provide a basis for their own writing, students began by reading, discussing and writing about a variety of poems, short stories, and personal narratives drawing primarily on Working by Studs Terkel, Working Writers, a collection of stories written by WEP students and The Heat: Steelworkers Lives & Legends, an anthology of stories and poems developed in Baca's workshop. Through written responses to the readings, students gathered ideas and material for stories that they would draft, revise, edit, and present at the final reading.

One of the highlights of the workshop took place when Barbara Neely, an African-American novelist, short story writer, and author of the popular Blanche White mystery series, visited the class to share her experiences as a writer. The students had many questions for Neely about her ideas, process, and method of writing. Much to their relief, Neely emphasized that worrying about nit-picky editing is one of the last steps in the writing process and that getting ideas down on paper is what writing is all about. Students were surprised to hear that—and from a published writer no less! Neely also explained to the class that everything she has published has gone through at least 12 drafts. What a perfect introduction to the writing and revision process.

The second half of the series was devoted to the students' writing. Participants worked in class and at home to develop and revise their stories with help from classmates and the teacher. One student wrote a story about how her mother never gave her praise, only criticism. The student said that she had kept this story to herself for years, and telling her story was therapeutic. The author Zora Neale Hurston wrote, "There is no agony like having an untold story inside of you." This was definitely true in this creative writing class.

In the final phase of the labor writing initiative, stories written by union worker participants around the country will be published in an anthology.

Excerpts of SEIU Student Writing

On my first day at my landscaping job a guy named Dugard asked me, "Where do you think you're going?"
I said, "I'm going to work."
He was teasing me and he said, "You don't have to be mad. You're so small and skinny, but you are going to have to dig a big hole and break through many rocks."
We walked to the farm and I saw a wheelbarrow with a shovel, a broom, a pitchfork and other tools in it. The poor people use the wheelbarrow at home to carry other people's stuff. When I saw that I thought I would go back home, but I had to finish the day.
—Lermond Mettelus

On my wedding day after everything was over, the preacher told me of the dream he had about me the night before. He said, "Daughter, I saw you in a dream walking alone, and I saw you approaching a mountain and you was standing at the bottom looking up." It was then he said, "BUT YOU WILL MAKE IT." Just to hear those words made me feel that there must be a great challenge before me, and I did not know what to expect. I pondered the dream and the words he spoke to me in my heart for many years and with each challenge that life would present I found myself asking the question, "Lord, is this my mountain?"
—Lilly Fountain

Sometimes I ask myself a question: "What makes me so afraid to go to school?" When I think back, I remember sitting in the kitchen with my mother. I was 12 or 14 years old. I don't remember what I did, but I remember the words my mother told me, "You will never be nothing!"
—Marie Mylluste

Killing will not solve the problems of Haiti.
When the sun sets, we are afraid it might not rise in the morning.
When our stomachs are full, we are afraid of indigestion.
When our stomachs are empty, we are afraid we may never eat again and when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed.
—Pierre St. Loth

Shana Berger teaches high school diploma classes with the SEIU Worker Education Program, the Cambridge Community Learning Center, and GED Plus. She can be reached at: shanadberg@yahoo.com.