To celebrate Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, The Writers Guild at Bloomington held a prose reading Sunday at the Juniper Art Gallery. The program featured five writers who read original prose followed by two open mic guests who shared short pieces with an audience of nearly 20 attendees.
Each of the five featured prose writers has a developmental disability. The Writers Guild at Bloomington collaborated with both Stonebelt, a local nonprofit that supports people with disabilities, and Women Writing for (a) Change, which has a writing circle at Stonebelt. Three of the readers came from Stonebelt, while the other two were friends of event coordinator Molly Gleeson.
Gleeson has worked with The Writers Guild, an association of Bloomington writers, for over a year, organizing prose reading events.
“I know some people who are developmentally disabled, and I knew that they wrote and I thought this would be a really great program,” Gleeson said. “The Writers Guild and I both, we’re all pretty serious about including all different kinds of voices in our programming.”
Gleeson has organized several events to showcase a diverse range of voices, including teaching a “writing for public speaking” class for international English as a Second Language learners.
“There are a lot of interesting folks out there, and I think they have important things to say,” Gleeson said. “I think they’re worth listening to.”
Soft piano music played as attendees trickled in the front door, taking a seat in the open room adorned with framed paintings on every wall.
Once everyone was seated, Gleeson began the event with a brief introduction, thanking Juniper Art Gallery for hosting the prose reading before introducing the first reader to the front. The first reader shared a brief piece about falling in love with someone at first sight.
The last reader to present was Cindy Brandes, who read several short pieces. In one piece, she discussed how spring is her favorite season despite her pollen allergy, and in another, she told a story about losing her cat from a liver issue.
“I remember writing stories when I was little, little, little, like as soon as I learned how to read and write,” Brandes said. “I think I probably started writing stories about, you know, kings and queens, castles and princesses and all that good stuff.”
After the five readers shared their prose, there was a brief recess before the open mic portion of the event. Guests mingled near the café getting refills of coffee and tea and perused the shelves of the art gallery gift shop.
Two readers from the audience presented at the open mic portion of the event; one read original prose and the other shared a chapter from a story that their friend had written. Between each reader, the audience applauded and nodded with approval.
Bloomington resident Meera Popkin-Darack attended the event to support her friend who shared her writing.
“My friend Virginia Baude is reciting poetry and I’m coming to support her,” Popkin-Darack said. “(I hope to) just listen to her poetry and support her and be into the words of it and sort of the language.”
Gleeson said some of the readers said the event was a good opportunity for them to present their work and be recognized, and said they want more exposure as disabled people in the public eye.
“It’s too easy to ignore those who are different from us, or worse, to vilify them,” Gleeson said. “Stories help humanize us, both the writer and the audience. It’s important to recognize that, to celebrate people’s lives.”
