Mighty Writers, a Philadelphia-based initiative to make kids better writers, will be holding its first student-literacy festival this weekend, with a dance party Friday, a writing carnival and talk by a “genius-grant” recipient Saturday, and a gospel-music breakfast Sunday.
The highlight of MightyFest will be the free carnival at Aviator Park across from the Franklin Institute, where there will be more than 40 tents with writing activities for all ages. “The writing carnival is the day when you can really come and see what we do as Mighty Writers,” says Mighty Writers’ education director Rachel Loeper.
Created in 2009, Mighty Writers seeks to “teach kids to think clearly and write with clarity so they can achieve success.” It offers after-school writing academies, evening and weekend writing classes, and college-prep and college-essay writing classes.
“We want to take Philadelphia from worst to first in literacy because we know that Philly kids have excellent stories to tell,” says Loeper.
There are six Mighty Writers locations in the city and a seventh in Camden, NJ, all of which offer programs for kids seven to 17.
“(My daughter) enjoys Mighty Writers so much … She has made significant progress and enjoys writing much more than in the past,” said a parent in a testimonial on Mighty Writers’ website.
Although the MightyFest carnival is free and open for all ages to attend, tickets are required for Friday night’s over-21 dance party at the Franklin Institute Planetarium and Saturday night’s keynote talk by Nikole Hannah-Jones, a New York Times reporter and 2017 MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient.
The festival closes with a gospel breakfast at Girard College Sunday morning featuring a tribute to the Dixie Hummingbirds. Tickets for that and the other events can be purchased at Mightywriters.org.
Matthew Brooks is a MetroKids intern from Drexel University.
