Click to read this year's Anthology and to view photos and videos from the "Final Reading & Open House" on Friday, July 26, 2024:
Directors’ Note 
Dear Families and Friends of Rising Loaves,
“Let me tell you a story…” Lawrence middle school students in the Rising Loaves program, a three-week placed-based writing camp at the Lawrence History Center, were presented with this invitation to write when visiting the Addison Gallery of American Art. This line - “let me tell you a story” - encompassed the writing we did each day. Our students filled notebooks with their lived experiences through journalling, storytelling, and poetry. As our theme this year states: “We Are Story Weavers”
Rising Loaves is celebrating its tenth year, and we are excited to share our tenth anthology of student-selected stories and poetry. Visiting director Lee Krishnan and I can attest that these writers are budding poets, artists, photographers, and actors. Each day at camp students chose different activities including art, crochet, volleyball, self-care, and photography. Volunteer Sheila Barry guided our students crochet work and writing alongside our youth writing leaders.
Our guest speakers encouraged our writers to be creative and thoughtful. Students were inspired by local poets Edwin Santana and Nathan Baez. They visited Andover Bread Loaf at Phillips Academy to listen to poet Anthony Febo. They enacted their stories with theater teachers Julia Perlowski, Nurilys Cintron, and Yaneris Collado. They told their stories with photos and scrapbook pages with Lawrence photographer Destiny Medina. They learned about the fall of the Pemberton Mill, an often-overlooked moment in Lawrence history, with Professor Robert Forrant. They visited the exhibit “Somos Latinos” at the Lawrence Heritage State Park with curator Sara Morin and thought about how our stories are told in history. They transformed everyday objects into magical objects for their stories with Heather Silva. Addison Gallery Educators, Christine Jee and Sabrina Codrington, visited Rising Loaves and inspired our imagination using doilies to create art.
Each year we have been excited by the creative work our students can do when they take the time to write, and this year has been no exception. The heart of the program though has been our junior and high-school-age writing leaders who have connected with the students and encouraged them to believe in their stories and in their writing. We are also proud of Gabrielle Anderson who stepped from writing leader into a ‘director-in-training” role this summer!
Our thanks to Lawrence History Center staff Susan Grabski, Amita Kiley, and Kathy Flynn. Without them there wouldn’t be a program.
Until next year,
Lee Krishnan and Mary Guerrero
"The Rising Loaves” is hosted by the Lawrence History Center, developed in collaboration with Andover Bread Loaf (ABL), and funded in part by ABL, ECCF Greater Lawrence Summer Fund, Mass Humanities, Charles G. Pringle Foundation, Artemas W. Stearns Trust, Rogers Family Foundation, Josephine G. Russell Trust, and the Lawrence Public Schools ‘Summer Meals’ Program.
