Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Tuesday, October 19, 2010

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For creative writing students from Bryan Station High School, the field trip began at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

For a dozen or so creative writing students, a crisp fall morning spent in Lexington’s historic district provided a wealth of sensory-based material.

“It’s given me a new way of looking at things – the way things used to be. It’s good to see the original beauty in something,” said Eric Lancaster, a senior at Bryan Station High School.

The opportunity came through “Places on Purpose II,” a program funded by an EcoArt grant from LexArts and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government.

The teens meandered around Gratz Park, toured the Hunt-Morgan House and walked to a nearby community garden, all the while focusing on the purposefulness of urban green spaces then and now. Between rotations, the students paused for a few minutes of reflection and journaling.

“Where you live, you need to create a purpose for it, and green spaces should always be part of it,” said project director Doris Settles.

“Kids tapping into their creative potential and understanding it can bring the most joy to their lives is exceptionally important,” she added.

The partners for this project include Ashley Ellison’s Creative Writing II class, the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation, the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, SeedLeaf, Good Foods and the Kentucky Young Writers Connection. Capping Tuesday’s field trip was Beth Dotson-Brown, who spoke about how gardening affects her life as an author and food blogger.

Ellison, whose class also participated in “Places on Purpose” last spring, said one key is being conscious of oneself in relation to one’s location and how that plays out in one’s writing.

“There’s an authenticity to being on onsite locations,” she said.

The teens found that true as Alison Carter of the Bluegrass Trust led the small-group tours of Gratz Park.

“We’re right here at the beginning of Lexington,” she said, pointing out original buildings and homes dating from the late 1700s.

The Georgian and Federal style houses were built close to the street, with yards in the back for gardens and animals.

“Their green space was to work and live in,” Carter explained as red, orange and yellow leaves crunched underfoot.

She also talked about how the area grew up over decades with diverse populations living in close proximity, as opposed to modern subdivisions that spring up with cookie-cutter houses catering to a common socioeconomic demographic. In one example, she noted how carriage houses and horses were kept in the rear, while today’s two-car garage often dominates a home’s façade.

“What does that say about our society and the way we use our spaces?” she asked the teenagers.

Urging them to preserve the open land outside of town, she offered suggestions for restoring natural areas within the city, such as building vertically and adding rooftop gardens and creating community gardens for entire neighborhoods to tend and harvest.

“We’re finding places to fit in the green spaces where we don’t feel suffocated by concrete and towers,” she said.

The students on Carter’s tour and their counterparts across the way took notes as they went along, jotting down words and phrases in the five sensory categories.

“It really gives you more to think about,” Eric said outside the Hunt-Morgan House, where the hardwood floors particularly impressed him. “The wood has a certain smell to it because it’s older,” he added.

Jan Isenhour of the Carnegie Center had opened the day’s exploration by asking the students to record their sensory perceptions inside the former library – even a whiff of a classmate’s fruit-flavored candy.

“It’s funny how when you make yourself still, you notice things that might not have come through,” she said.

After the turn through Gratz Park, senior Jesi Hoelzer settled into an armchair in the Carnegie lobby and wrote a short piece from the perspective of a tree, ending with “Why did they wipe us out just to bring us back?”

Jesi said the project has enabled students to become more attuned to their environment and to nature.

“We’re learning to write from a conscious perspective and connect with what’s around us.”

Follow their progress:

As part of “Places on Purpose II,” a different student will blog each week at http://www.youngwritersconnection.org/.