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Letters to the Future with NBCU: An Intergenerational Journey Through Past, Present & Possibility
Tuesday, December 3
4:45-6 pm ET
virtual event; open to NBCU employees & Girls Write Now young leaders
It’s peak holiday season so let’s celebrate together! Holidays across cultures are a time to reflect on what we have, and what lies ahead. Perhaps no piece of literature highlights this more directly than Dickens’ iconic book—also screened annually on NBC—A Christmas Carol. This season, NBCU and Girls Write Now join forces for a special event where NBCU employees—Mentors for the Day— will be guided by a team of young leaders for an intergenerational exchange engaging with the present, looking back at the past, and envisioning a hopeful future.
After an opening exercise on the present moment, mentors will learn from a panel of young people at Girls Write Now about their diverse journeys navigating personal passions and professional goals. Mentors will then write letters to their younger selves, collage out their unexplored futures, and share their thoughts and stories in small groups with both their peers and young leaders.
While fostering a deeper connection with their own team, NBCU employees will have the opportunity to offer encouraging advice and wisdom to young people on setting goals, facing challenges, developing resilience, and charting their own futures. Both live in person, and through writing and art to be shared broadly with Girls Write Now mentees, Mentors for the Day will pass on their craft and enrich the next generation of writers and leaders. Together, we aim to create space to learn from each other and move forward stronger into the new year.
To attend, create a Girls Write Now account and register for this event through the portal.
Meet the Teaching Artists
Azia Armstead
Azia Armstead (she/her) is a poet from Richmond, Virginia. She holds an MFA in Poetry from New York University where she received the Goldwater Fellowship. In 2019, Azia was a finalist for the Furious Flower Poetry Prize judged by A. Van Jordan and honorable mention for the Arts Club of Washington’s Scholarship Award for Poetry. Azia was chosen as a finalist for the 2023 Nine Syllables Press Chapbook Contest. Her work has appeared in Boston Review, The Quarry, Obsidian, Rattle and elsewhere. She currently lives in Brooklyn.
Kathryn Destin
Kathryn is a nonprofit researcher and writer and also was the 2022-23 Editor-In-Residence for Girls Write Now. An only child from Harlem, NYC, Kathryn looks for community in many spaces centered on her interests such as cooking, comedy, Blackness, queerness and investigative journalism. She is a Girls Write Now mentee and is fascinated by film, media and writing as avenues for social advocacy and activism. As a young creative, she is excited to utilize various mediums to speak against injustice and share stories from marginalized voices.
Annaya Baynes
Annaya Baynes (she/they) is excited to join the Girls Write Now team as a Fellow after being a mentee. They recently graduated from Spelman College with a Bachelor of Arts in English and French. As an undergraduate, she worked on Spelman’s social justice podcast, The Blue Record, and the reproductive justice-oriented podcast Black Feminist Rants. Annaya has interned at various publishing houses, including Penguin Random House, Macmillan, and The Feminist Press. They have a deep love for literature and film. In her free time, she enjoys baking.
Julia Andresakis
Julia Andresakis is a writer born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is a former mentee, intern, and digital media producer for Girls Write Now — if you’ve scrolled through the Resources section of the website, you are familiar with her work. She holds a degree in film and creative writing from Brooklyn College. While an undergraduate, she placed first in fiction in the 2019-2020 CUNYwide LaborArts “Making Work Visible” contest. An aficionado for all things surreal, uncanny, and liminal, her work typically focuses on lonely souls pursuing unconventional obsessions. Julia is excited to support Girls Write Now in a more involved capacity.
This event is open to:
all mentees, all mentors and members
