Gather. Write. Share.
Speak Up Writing Communities connect the disconnected, build cultural and social bridges, give voice, and lead to true friendship.
Online polarization. False connections. Social isolation.
We’re divided.
Outrage-amplifying algorithms, media siloes, and crumbling social institutions have created a sense of Perpetual Division.
We feel alone. We don’t know how to make connections and cross the divisions. It’s a perpetual us versus them.
We’re wary of The Other—those terrible person who believe and prioritize and votes differently. It seems like we can’t even be in community with them. Who can we trust?
We’re divided. We’re alone.
There’s a better way: Writing Communities.
In Speak Up community writing workshops, people come together across so-called impassable chasms—homeless versus non-homeless, this race versus that race, left versus right—and do the deeply human work of creating, writing, sharing together.
“I want to say thanks for helping me to find my voice.”
“I’ve found friends. I’ve found community.”
“You know me better than some people in my family.”
“I don’t want to imagine what things would be like without this writing community.”
Writing Communities bring people together.
And we want to see them everywhere.
Join the movement — attend, start, and support writing communities.
There’s more to Speak Up…
Homeless Magazine
For the first dozen years (2011-2023), Speak Up focused on publishing work only from writers facing homelessness.
Here are a few essential pieces to get you started.
No Idea Why
Gun violence. Loss. Redemption. By Edward Smalls.One Week on the Streets
A daily journal of homelessness from Vince Shumate. Winner of the INSP Award for Best Vendor Writing.Unmentionables
Renee Rop writes on the physical and emotional hazards of being female and homeless.
