This week’s Community Corner spotlight is Nashville’s The Porch!
Brother Love sits down with co-founders and directors Katie McDougall and Susannah Felts, both experiences fiction writers, teachers, editors, and native Nashvillians. The two met in a writing group while teaching at different levels, and connected over a shared desire to cultivate a dedicated space in Music City for creative writing. The porch was described as not necessarily being a place for “capital W writers.” The goal of the organization is to bring together all types of writers, whether poets, short story authors, songwriters, or nonfiction journalists and researchers. McDougall stated, “I like to think about The Porch as a place where anyone can come to take classes and be in community in a way that encourages self expression, encourages self reflection.”
One thing the directors sought to focus on was eliminating fear. As Brother Love expressed, many avoid writing based on an anxiety of critique, thinking back to middle and high school days. The porch hopes to eliminate the anxiety around any kind of creative process. Part of the ethos of the organization is making messes and being messy. There is no emphasis on “right” or “wrong” in the classes, with an encouragement of self expression.
The Porch offers a plethora of classes, with the regular adult curriculum featuring between 150-250 classes per year. The classes are based on literary tags and genres such as romance, journalism, dialogue, and character studies. They have special programming, which includes specific classes for youth, immigrants, and more. Recently, they started the Writing For Good program, which aspires to create opportunities for people to heal through expressive writing. You can find a support tab for donations, a newsletter sign-up, and class registration on their website. Support The Porch today!
