Our Projects

Seven Cities Writers Project brings creative writing and literacy support programs to in city jails, Black history museums, and LGBT community centers. We are always looking for new communities to serve.

Norfolk City Jail 

Writing in the Jails

Our Norfolk Jail Projects serve both men and women in 8 to 12 week sessions, and are ongoing.

Once a week, Project Director Lisa Hartz meets with a group of up to 12 participants who write in response to provided prompts and share their work in an environment designed to support and inspire.

7CWP publishes poetry and prose generated in these workshops on our blog: sevencitieswriters.wordpress.com

Programs like these have been shown to reduce recidivism, and the Norfolk Sheriff’s office actively supports our efforts.

We have recently added a complementary program, Creative WIsdom, guided by Lisa Cooper, that combines the visual arts and creative writing that empowers participants as they strive to re-envision their lives.

YourStory: A Memoir Workshop of the LGBTQ+ Community

Tidewater Youth Services

Write Where You Are

Tidewater Youth Services is a 501C-3 that offers a continuum of community-based therapeutic services to youth and their families.  

In this 8-week program, we meet with teenagers in the Crisis residential program and introduce them to creative writing through ekphrastic poetry exercises, short readings, and fun writing prompts. The participants, young men and women, are inspired to express themselves in a safe and supportive environment.

HER Shelter & Restore Shelter

Monthly Drop-In Poetry and Creative Wisdom Workshops

Colored Community Library Museum, Portsmouth

Resistance and Resilience: A Memoir Workshop of the Jim Crow Era

In this we draw out and collect the stories of the local response to life under the oppressive system, legal and social, known as Jim Crow. How did individuals, their families, and their community cope with the daily pressures and challenges of this system?

What lessons of resistance and resilience can be shared with younger generations for whom the struggle is not over?

Guided by a writer deeply committed to collecting and archiving this unique history, participants write in response to prompts, visual and literary.