"This class makes me believe again in who I am."
What is Elder Project?
Isolation is a growing health epidemic, most pointedly amongst seniors who are affected by a complex of factors including a lack of access, health issues, and major life changes. Now in its fifth year, the Elder Project seeks to reduce isolation and build supportive groups in residential communities around the Bay Area by empowering and engaging seniors where they reside by presenting ways to access, write, share, and record their stories. After opening new pathways to self-expression and greater socialization, each class publishes an anthology and performs at a live reading for friends and loved ones.
Testimonials
|
"...urges us to dig deeper, go forward...it’s powerful."
"this project has been one of the best things I’ve experienced as a (somewhat begrudging) elder." |
"I just can't imagine my life now without the wonderful people I met in these classes."
"...helped me look for the poetry that's in everyday life." |
Our Teachers
Elder Project sites to date:
Downtown Oakland Senior Center
San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living
Cayuga Community Center
On January 15th and January 19th of 2020, two of our Elder Project participants had their poems selected to be a Poem of the Day by the San Francisco Public Library. You can read them here.
Litquake's Elder Project is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency. Learn more at www.arts.ca.gov.
Our Mission
Litquake’s diverse live programs are created with the aim of inspiring critical engagement with the key issues of the day, bringing people together around the common humanity encapsulated in literature, and perpetuating a sense of literary community, as well as a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing.
Litquake’s diverse live programs are created with the aim of inspiring critical engagement with the key issues of the day, bringing people together around the common humanity encapsulated in literature, and perpetuating a sense of literary community, as well as a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing.