Chicago Do the Write Thing Recognition & Celebration Dinner
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
5:30pm-8:00pm

University of Illinois at Chicago Student Center East
Second Floor Conference Center
750 S. Halstead St.
Chicago, IL 60607

Students’ Words Paint Scenes of Violence in Writing Competition

One Chicago middle school student walks his neighborhood scared that one day he'll be mistaken for a gangbanger. Another watched as a friendly basketball game escalated to a young man being held at gunpoint.

These and other encounters with youth violence were the subject of nearly 1,000 poems, essays and other writings by students across the city, all submitted in the 17th annual Do the Write Thing competition. A Tuesday night ceremony at theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago honored the 100 finalists whose submissions conveyed personal experiences with violence and offered solutions ...

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100 Middle School Students Honored for “Doing the Write Thing”

They may be young, but 100 of Chicago’s residents may be among the bravest when it comes to speaking out about violence. Thousands of middle school students accepted the Do the Write Thing Challenge and the Top 100 were honored on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The challenge – which encourages students to submit an original essay, poem, fictional story or play about youth violence – is issued each year by the National Campaign to Stop Violence (NCSV) and since 1998, over 36,000 Chicago students have valiantly written about their experiences in their communities ...

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