Mosaic Literary Magazine Helps Educators Develop Readers
New York, NY (BlackNews.com) – For eleven years Mosaic Literary Magazine has served as a crucial print venue for an eclectic mix of writers of African descent. During that time, Mosaic has grown to become one of the most important critical voices in African-American literature. Mosaic has featured such writers and poets as Gwendolyn Brooks, E. Ethelbert Miller, James Baldwin, Tony Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Junot Diaz and others.
Mosaic is the only print magazine dedicated to showcasing writers of African descent and the books that they produce. We are nationally distributed and available in many libraries and bookstores throughout the country. It’s published by the Literary Freedom Project. LFP is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt not-for-profit arts organization that supports the literary arts through education, creative thinking, and new media. LFP also develops literature-based lesson plans and workshops and hosts the Mosaic Literary Conference, an annual literature-education conference.
The current issue, which features writers Thomas Glave and Lawrence Hill, is the first to also feature a series of lesson plans and a reading list for secondary school educators to use in the classroom. The Literary Freedom Project develops literary arts lesson plans and workshops for educators based on the content of each issue of Mosaic. Each uses the work by writers of African descent as a connective tool to a variety of subjects: history, social studies, and English. Our goal is to increase self awareness while promoting reading and strengthening literacy.
On Saturday, November 7, 2009 Mosaic will introduce the new lesson plans at the Mosaic Literary Conference at Hostos Community College. Now in its fifth year, the conference is an inspiring and unique grassroots effort planned, produced, and promoted in partnership with cultural organizations and educators. Its focus is simple–to educate, empower, and reconnect this generation of educators, parents, and students to the power of books and reading. Last year of 50 educators attended the conference. www.mosaicmagazine.org.
The conference invites some of the most innovative educators and literary artists to facilitate literature workshops to an audience of teachers and administrators.
The Mosaic Literary Conference is a widely anticipated, well-attended and established literary-education conference. Our workshops and lesson plans help educators incorporate books and reading into existing curricula to strengthen literacy and further explore course work that focuses on social studies–explorations of history, geography, economics, government, and civics.
Mosaic was launched by Ron Kavanaugh. A lifelong reader, he started Mosaic in 1998. He designs and publishes the magazine out of his apartment in the Bronx, New York. In 2004, to broaden the organization’s focus on literature-arts education he formed the Literary Freedom Project, a non-profit arts organization that supports the literary arts through education, creative thinking, and new media.
To request a copy of the latest issue email ron@mosaicmagazine.org. You can also preview the current issue at http://mosaicmagazine.org/25.html. Back issue downloads are available at http://mosaicmagazine.org/backissues.html. Visit www.mosaicmagazine.org for additional information on Mosaic.
