Book of Dreams: Sacramento children’s writing program opens door to creativity, empowerment

Nine-year-old Bea De León of Sacramento listens intently as her coach leads her into a creative writing exercise outdoors on a recent sunny afternoon.

“Write a poem or a story around anything having to do with the word ‘seasons.’” said Brenda Nguyen, who leads the session for 916Ink, a Sacramento nonprofit dedicated to empowering children to express themselves through the written word.

Nguyen uses large sweeping strokes of a marker to make the word stand out large on a white board.

At a spot a stone’s throw from 916Ink’s writers’ garden, she gives Bea and three other young participants the next step. “Now write a list of words that come to mind,” she encourages them.

Heads down, pens in hand, the children ponder the prompt, and then start listing single words on a blank piece of white paper.

“Find words that use your senses,” she says as she waits. “Like smell, taste. Think of objects that go along with it…”

When everyone is done, she gives the final command: “Now put a big red underline around your favorite word. That becomes your title.”

Bea’s word was “smell.”

“At Christmastime, when all the presents are wrapped, and all the decorations are up,” she writes, “then on Christmas Eve, when all you can do is wait til morning; when morning has come and you run out to the Christmas tree to see your presents and watch the family open up what you gave them…” - - that, she says is the smell … of Christmas trees.

Bea is one of the 4,300 students who have come through 916Ink since it opened in 2011. The organization’s goal is to improve students’ literacy skills and stimulate self-expression. It operates several writing programs out of the Maple Neighborhood Center in space rented from the La Familia Counseling Center.

In addition, it hosts workshops inside schools and is a favorite of children who come there as part of a field trip.

The main building is called the Imaginarium. It has bookcases and shelves teeming with objects, including 187 volumes of student work collected over the years. The room features quotes from famous people on the walls to inspire writing.

Executive Director Ian Hadley says the current workshops are going well, but he laments the arrival of summertime, because students can’t use an adjacent writers’ garden.

The quaint, whimsical space provides nature as a launching pad for creative writing, Hadley said. But it can’t be used year round because it doesn’t have an awning overhead to shield against Sacramento’s blazing hot sun.

Hadley is hoping Book of Dreams readers will consider helping raise $5,000 to add a quality roof-like structure so more students can take advantage of the surroundings during summer writing sessions.

The funds would also cover replacing and rehabbing some outdoor furniture already ruined by heat.

“We use the garden in the winter and spring,” he said, “but in the summer, let me tell you it cooks. I don’t know, it might be like a vortex here, but everything out here bakes. I’ve had to sand four benches twice already.”

The benches frame the centerpiece of the garden, a colorful mosaic square with a stylized rabbit hole design reminiscent of Alice and Wonderland. Its lower right edge features an image of a rabbit about to venture down the hole.

Everywhere one looks there are “word prompts” on the ground – objects like a few manual typewriters with sprigs of green popping through; and a small raised vegetable garden next to some fragrant fruit trees.

“We might say, ‘Here’s an antique key,’” said Hadley finding one on the rabbit hole. “’Does this open a door, and through the door, is there a treasure chest? What is your version?’ These are the types of prompts we give.”

916Ink uses 14 “Wordslingers”, people with a background in writing, as coaches. They are mostly college students and retirees certified in their teaching method.

Nine-year-old Noah Saldana, a student at Phoebe Hearst Elementary who has been coming to the workshops for a year, says the secret sauce is individual attention.

“I like it that there are people who are helping us who actually want to help us,” he said. “It makes me happy, they aren’t just like, do this and put it on the table and when you are done I’ll take a look at it.”

He said the coaches work with him throughout the writing process, including when he has a writing block.

“A writer’s block is I think where you can’t decide what to write or what you are doing is not good,” he said.

He has learned to draw a picture first when that happens, “because if my story is following a picture I don’t have an excuse to say that it is bad. It makes me feel good that I got it and can do it.”

Hadley said students who participate in the program leave with increased self confidence, improved academic ability and are inspired to continue writing.

“We have a ton of aspiring authors that have come through our program and who are in the process of writing novels. One of them is up to 80,000 or 100,000 words in a manuscript,” he added.

The potential for year round use of the garden is unlimited, said Allison Stelly, director of development.

She pointed to a poem written by Lyndsey Bridges, a member of the third-to-sixth grade after-school “word squad” group, that was drawn from her experience in the garden last spring.

“Pretty flowers, blooming in fields. The flowers are purple. The field is colorful. Buzz. The bee’s buzz, the wind blows the grass, spring is here.

The flowers dance happily. I sit under the trees. My hand continues to draw. Beautiful spring!”

She said the team at 916Ink hopes by summer, students will be able write stories and poems from the same spot as Bridges, and be inspired by the full bloom of summer minus the blistering sun.