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As a precaution to help limit the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and care for our community, Just Buffalo Literary Center has postponed a number of events, and we will follow the guidance of Buffalo Public Schools in terms of Just Buffalo Writing Center programming.

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A conversation about writing, disability studies, and the politics of legibility with Youth Fellow Angelina Tang & project mentor Jessica Lowell Mason I want you, dear reader, to better understand those who perceive the world differently from you, and kindly be able to ask them, “So, what do you think?” - Angelina Tang “Is the way this narrative is constructed helping or harming those within the community being represented?” This is a question I think we, as writers, especially of fiction but within any genre, should be asking ourselves. - Jessica Lowell Mason

Presenting an excerpt of Autumn Flowers written by 2022 JBWC Youth Fellow Angelina Tang. Autumn Flowers is a story about being human. It is the journey of a girl who rises above her suffering and embraces herself, learning to accept her past and future; at the same time, it is an exploration of Chinese culture, flower language, and the effects of a schizophrenia diagnosis.

[caption id="attachment_32952" align="alignleft" width="700"] photo credit: Brendan Bannon[/caption] During the fellowship, I explored songwriting in unconventional way. I used the cut-up method of David Bowie, which  yielded interesting results for my own work. I wrote about 12 songs in total. The overarching theme of my project was inspired by the relationship between myself and nature, which helped me explore a lot of interpretations of that relationship. Some pieces express the natural instinct to love, and some reflecting the beauty of chaos in the natural world. The performance below features many of the songs that Trinity wrote during her fellowship. Trinity Ridout is a young writer and musician. She attends City Honors High School, the Just Buffalo Writing Center, and Community Music School. Her work is inspired by her strong feelings toward environmental activism, and focuses on the relationship between humanity and nature. Check out her soundcloud. [audio mp3="https://www.justbuffalo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Trinity-Ridout-08282018.mp3"][/audio] live musical performance by Trinity at Mohawk Place on August 29, 2018