Tearing Down the Playground
Published by The Telling Room
A collection of Portland neighborhood stories and photographs, our 2009 anthology Tearing Down the Playground is the end result of year's worth of hard work by hundreds of young area writers. Students' collected words and images create a vivid neighborhood of their own in its pages, documenting every sidewalk and stoop, every basement and backyard, every cut-through and cornerstone to be found in Portland. Here you'll find the truth of the city's streets, byways, and neighborhoods: Sherman, Valley, Sagamore, KP, Riverton, Deering, and the wharves. Come explore the city with fresh eyes. Let our young guides lead you - we promise you'll never see your streets, your neighbors, or your playgrounds the same way again.
Each year, the Telling Room publishes a theme-based anthology of student work. We crisscross Greater Portland to ask groups of students to come visit our writing center where we work intensively with young writers of all ages and abilities. We begin by creating lists and stories, song lyrics and poems. We read and talk and try to describe the particular smell of Commercial Street on a given day. Some students work with us for a few hours, others we meet during an intensive week or two, and still others we have the pleasure of coming to know over the better part of a year.
The Telling Room is a nonprofit writing center in Portland, Maine, dedicated to the idea that children and young adults are natural storytellers. Focused on young writers ages 6 to 18, we seek to build confidence, strengthen literacy skills, and provide real audiences for our students’ stories. We believe that the power of creative expression can change our communities and prepare our youth for future success.
