English PEN works to promote free speech education to young people and adults. Our Free Speech Education work involves:
Creative Writing with Young People who have recently arrived in the UK. For example, we have produced a 10 week programme of creative writing and reading for young newly arrived people in Wembley, in collaboration with the Tricycle Theatre, supported by John Lyon’s Charity.
Projects. Our new project Speak for Yourself! starts in October and involves creative writing, free speech and project management training for young people aged 16-21. To find out more, please see the following information.
Our latest project with under-18s, in collaboration with Pop-Up Projects and Free Word, explored surveillance and free speech with young people from the City of London Academy. Find out more about our project, Who’s Watching You?
Competitions. Our latest competition, Right Words, in collaboration with the London Network of Human Rights Watch, will involve giving young people the chance to write a piece of fiction, non-fiction or poetry based on the theme “Freedom of Expression”, along with prizes and the opportunity to be published. Visit the Right Words competition website!
In an article on 21st century literary citizenship, English PEN Director, Jonathan Heawood, said: “The freedom to write depends on much more than a purely legal framework. It requires a society that is able and willing to educate, to inspire and to support developing writers and readers, and a state that understands citizenship as something that embraces conflict and change as much as respect and stability.”
If you are interested in finding out more about our Free Speech Education work, please email philip@englishpen.org. We are particularly interested to hear from Citizenship and English teachers, who would be keen to help us develop resources and educational experiences for young people around free speech and literature.
