Open Book Program, a multi-faceted after-school program for young adolescents in which participants are engaged in activities that encourage the development of reading, writing and critical thinking skills.

My Journal

Where I'm From
by the 6th Grade Class, 9 a.m.
University of Chicago
Office of Special Programs College Prep
Summer/2001

Where I'm from I smell garbage

but donuts and danishes, too -
turkey bacon and pancakes and cereal,
hair spray and my brother's smelly breath,
car pollution and train gas in the morning.

I can hear dogs barking where I'm from,

Mama yelling "Time to get up!"
and my brother laughin' at me..

I can hear my step-dad singin' in the shower

and Mama singin' in the kitchen cooking
breakfast - there's bacon popping,
there's news on the radio.

and then BEEP BEEP! on the way to school

Norman Brown on the radio and
Doug Banks and P-Diddy on the radio
and Gospel Slide on the radio
on the way to where I'm going,
coming from where I'm come from.