By Lexi Palma '13
Author Sassafras Lowrey visited Siena College recently to work with students during a writing workshop and to raise awareness about the issues of homelessness and the challenges facing members of the LGBTQ community.
Lowrey is the award-winning author of Kicked Out, an anthology filled with stories about homosexual teen homelessness. She is also a monthly columnist for Curve magazine. Lowrey said 40% of homeless youth are identified as LGBTQ. During her workshop, Lowrey helped students improve their expressive writing.
“Everybody has a story to tell,” Lowrey said, “Everybody can be writers and everybody should be writers.”
The students who attended the workshop said they became better writers. “I think she was a great speaker to bring to Siena,” Shelby Benson ’14 said. “I learned a lot about the issues and about writing.”
The event was organized by the Women’s Studies Department and the Gay Straight Alliance. It was sponsored by First Year Seminar, the Writing Center, the Sr. Thea Bowman Center for Women and the Damietta Cross-Cultural Center.
