Ditmas Park Bookstore Highlights Work of Bensonhurst Student Writers

By Jada Camille, Brooklyn Paper

The shelves of a Ditmas Park bookstore are temporarily stocked with the works of some talented local Bensonhurst students.

Almost 90 young writers from the Leaders High School, a public school focused on project-based learning, entered a writing contest by Taylor & Co. Books as part of a school project. Each entrant wrote a collection of brief vignettes or personal accounts similar to Sandra Cisneros’ famous novel “The House on Mango Street,” which chronicles a year in the life of a 12-year-old girl in Chicago.

Gabriel Fontes, a 10th grade English teacher at Leaders, organized the competition as a way to encourage students to develop their writing voices and to inspire literary creativity.

“The idea was really to give students a place to shine and have a lot of affirmations going into the school year,” Fontes told Brooklyn Paper. “We’re always searching for ways to make projects meaningful and authentic and have an authentic audience of purpose.”

Fontes said he wanted the kids to walk away from this project with an internalized confidence, as they often come to the 10th grade with little to no belief in their writing abilities.

“Sadly, so many students enter 10th grade without a writer identity. They don’t see themselves as a writer,” he said. “Maybe they’ve had discouraging comment or feedback in the past and I think it can be a very narrow idea of what it means to be an excellent writer.”

One winner, Aiman Sajid, a 10th grade student at Leaders, said that while she isn’t sure if she’d consider a longtime career in writing, it was nice to have her work recognized. Participating in the contest gave her a new perspective on writing.

“I just wrote about random life experiences and how they affected my mindset and it just kind of showed how I observed things,” she said.

Only three winners were selected by local poets Andrew Colarusso, Sampson Starkweather, and Paige Taggart, and chosen to have their work displayed in Taylor & Co., one of southern Brooklyn’s only independent bookstores. Colarusso, the owner of Taylor & Co. and a former writing professor, jumped at the opportunity to form an encouraging environment for budding novelists, as he had created similar writing opportunities when he was still teaching. He said he considered it a “joy and privilege” to be on the other side of helping students showcase their work to the community.

“I love any opportunity to foster relationships, develop talent, develop competence, and encourage young people to recognize that they are more capable than they might realize,” he told Brooklyn Paper. “They’re more capable than society might give them indication of.”

Winners were invited back to the bookstore for an official meet and greet on November 6. Patrons got to meet the writers, purchase signed copies of the vignettes, and ask the authors questions.

“It was very sweet,” Colarusso said. “We wanted to know what some of their aspirations were and what were some of their thoughts on writing.”

The authors also held a book launch at the Lafayette Campus Library where they posed for pictures, met with other students, and read some of their work. The books are periodically showcased in Taylor & Co.’s window displays, and bookworms are able to purchase the works, with all proceeds going directly to the authors.

Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.

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