The Philadelphia Writing Project at the Penn Graduate School of Education is introducing a new initiative that focuses on the histories of Black youth in Philadelphia through a living archive.
PhilWP, the local site of the National Writing Project, is a network of over 850 teachers supporting the instruction of literacy and writing in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia. The initiative, supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation, aims to incorporate digital, written, art, performance, and other forms of media to create a dynamic archive focusing on stories of Philadelphia’s Black youth.
PhilWP is executing the initiative in partnership with Independence National Historical Park and the Colored Girls Museum.
Penn GSE Postdoctoral researcher and Spencer Initiative Program Director Barrett Rosser said that the goal of the living archive initiative is to work towards educational equity and “challenge racial narratives” in schools.
“I think this is a unique opportunity to bring together multiple different or diverse perspectives of people that I also love and care about in our writing community at the Philadelphia Writing Project,” Rosser said.
The structure of the program involves a curriculum team and an archive team, each of which has five youth and five teacher researchers.
Diane Waff, the former director ofPhilWP, said that the initiative aims to use the research to both develop a curriculum and a living archive that will “make visible the important contributions of Black Philadelphians to Philadelphia, as well as the country.”
“We're giving teachers and students and museum partners an opportunity to come together and collaboratively work on this initiative and figure out together how we impact practice, not only in schools, but also in community based organizations,” Waff said.
Penn graduate students in the GSE have the opportunity to be educators in Philadelphia through the PhilWP's curricula. PhilWP faculty director and GSE associate professor Amy Stornaiuolo emphasized that the model is “teachers teaching teachers.”
“The idea of learning in a network and learning through close inquiry and reflection with other people about your own practice is a really powerful form of learning,” Stornaiuolo said.
According to Rosser, an important aspect of the initiative is the connection between teachers, students, and museums, linking community-based organizations with schools.
“I’m excited to let students take the center stage here and see what they create in the classrooms from the curriculum and implementation that their teachers enact,” Rosser said.
The initiative arrives close to the 250th birthday of the United States of America, the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, and the 20th anniversary of African American history becoming a part of the graduation requirements for Philadelphia schools. Waff said that the work from the initiative will be featured during the celebrations for America’s 250th birthday in 2026 in Independence National Park. The first year of the initiative will involve preparation and research, while the second year will focus on execution and collaboration.
“As a Philadelphian, I know that the Black community has made significant contributions to civic engagement in Philadelphia,” Waff said. “A lot of those contributions have not been recognized.”
According to Stornaiuolo, the grant from the Spencer Foundation is “incredibly hard to get.” PhilWP is the first National Writing Project site to get a grant from the Foundation.
“We’re really at a critical juncture in American history,” Stornaiuolo said. “We’re living history and writing it as we’re living it.”
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