Writing camp inspires teens to draw upon city's diversity

By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
ADY BIRD JOHNSON WANTED THE painting for the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, Texas, but the 9-foot-tall panels wouldn't fit through the doors.
So it stayed in Youngstown's Butler Institute of American Art, where the faces from 1960s Youngstown made an impression on Aphton Rheins on Tuesday morning.
"It inspired me," Aphton said, referring to the "Americans: Youngstown, Ohio" painting she and about 50 other high school students saw when they toured the museum as part of a Youngstown State University writing camp.
The piece features 10 people who were part of the YSU community when artist Alfred Leslie painted two of the work's three panels in 1977 and 1978. They were asked to pose (for 30 hours each) in clothes that they would wear to go see "Star Wars."
Aphton, who will be a senior this fall at Choffin Career & amp; Technical Center in Youngstown, called the painting "unique." She said she might be inspired to try to write about the characters she saw.
Explore diversity
Organizers of the "Writing Home: Voices, Stories, Songs" writing camp hope that students and teachers involved will explore the diversity of the Youngstown community and use it to generate ideas for writing and teaching.
About 50 youngsters and 50 adults -- including local teachers and YSU students -- are part of this year's camp, said Dr. Jeffrey Buchanan, an assistant professor of teacher education at YSU. The second annual event runs through Friday. Students have heard from local storyteller and Rayen School librarian Jocelyn Dabney and will meet Dr. Steve Reese, a YSU professor, local poet and musician. They'll visit Mill Creek Park fellows Riverside Gardens and the YSU Planetarium.
At the Butler, visitors were acquainted with Joseph Green Butler Jr., the industrialist, philanthropist and museum founder, through a 1920 oil painting by Ivan G. Olinsky. Butler established the museum in 1919 after a fire in his Wick Avenue home destroyed most of his personal art gallery. A signature work of the museum is one that was a favorite of Butler: Winslow Homer's "Snap the Whip."
The students also saw William Gropper's depiction of a 1916 strike at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube plant, and one artist's landscape portrayal of the "Isaac Powers Farm and Mine," circa 1800, that sat on what is now Poland Avenue.
Students watched women "In Flanders Field -- Where Soldiers Sleep and Poppies Grow" (Robert William Vonnoh, 1890) and they enjoyed a sports room, where they were told about "Minor League," by Clyde Singer, 1946, set in Idora Park.
Food for thought
Students said the visit gave them much to think about.
"I see how more things are coming out -- like holograms and new styles -- with technology," said poet and artist Rachel Britton, who'll be a Canfield High School junior.
Michael Wakefield, who'll be a senior at Struthers High School, said he writes music, poetry and short stories and he'll draw upon a western landscape he saw at the museum.
The camp is the culmination of a school-year partnership between YSU's English Department and local teachers through the Early English Composition Assessment Program's Project ARETE II, funded through a grant from the Ohio Board of Regents. The project is coordinated by Buchanan, Dr. Kevin Ball and Terry Benton, all in YSU's English Department.