Our new Free Speech Education work
Image: From our free speech project, Who's Watching You?
English PEN is working to promote free speech education to young people and adults.
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."
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 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!
- Night classes. We are currently running Free Speech night classes for adults in partnership with the Bishopsgate Institute. Sign up to our next course!
- Resources. We are developing learning resources for young people and adults around Free Speech. Watch this space.
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.