Welcome back! In this week’s post, we want to share an incredible project that the students in Professor Susanne Davis’s Introduction to Creative Writing class completed last semester.

The English 253 class created podcasts as part of the course curriculum, aiming to delve into a range of common human experiences in order to deepen and enrich their creative writing practice. The resulting podcast series is called “Writer as Witness: Finding Our Common Humanity.” Prof. Davis asked students to enact the writer’s role to witness by giving a platform to a few of the many marginalized voices and populations within our culture.

Students chose their own podcast topics and who they wanted to interview. With titles like “Dance is Political,” “The Cultural Relevance of Christian Hip-Hop,” and “Healing From Head Trauma: A Patient’s Experience,” these 5-minute podcasts feature interviews that offer multiple perspectives on the chosen issue. Interviewees range from Hope students from under-represented groups to Holland community members to the broader society—for example, Detroit auto workers involved in a Women’s Alliance. Through this assignment, the students sought be become more observant witnesses and therefore better storytellers, but we as listeners also have much to gain from these impactful bursts of audio insight.

Check out their incredible work here. Happy listening & have an enlightened weekend!

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