Drexel Writers Room
Creative placemaking and art for social justice
Drexel's Writers Room is a university-community literary arts program focused on building co-creative places. Photo: Devin Welsh.
Established in 2014, Writers Room is a university-community literary arts program engaged in creative placemaking and art for social justice. This diverse, intergenerational collective of students, alumni, faculty, staff and West Philadelphia neighbors is focused on building co-creative places that foster connection and a sense of belonging. Writers Room provides its members with the time, space, and expertise needed to tell their stories, listen to others' stories, and examine their experiences for commonality, discord, and meaning.
Writers Room has steadily grown into an experiential home for students across majors — offering a place for them to make meaningful connections between their formal education and their civic lives. This collective also serves to support, amplify, and celebrate the intellectual work of faculty and staff across the campus.
Visit Writers Room at Ross Commons, 3rd + 4th floors, 229 N. 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Mondays–Fridays, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
We start by asking: What is possible?
Writers Room works to address disparities across complex lines of class, gender, race, age, and geography by bringing diverse interests together and by asking: what is possible? Hosted by the Drexel University College of Arts and Sciences, Writers Room began co-creating its programming in 2014 at the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships. The Dornsife Center serves as Drexel’s urban extension center and is located along the edge of the University’s campus at the border of the Mantua and the Powelton neighborhoods of West Philadelphia.
Creative co-living and community
Writers Room spearheaded the vision and cross-sector partnerships needed to build Second Story Collective, an innovative shared housing network that responds to students and neighbors’ urgent need for affordable housing and aging-in-place options in West Philadelphia. The Second Story Collective also serves to position Drexel University as a model for colleges and universities across the nation.
Everything is free and open to all
Writers Room events are specially curated to bring students, faculty, and staff together with local residents for productive conversation and exchange of ideas through a wide range of programs: side-by-side classes, monthly writing workshops, visiting writers series, photography/media sessions, and cultural events.
Events hosted by the Drexel Writers Room are free and open to the public.