“Outside the Wire,” the Writers House veterans’ narratives program encompassing monthly writing workshops, a public program focusing on veterans’ experiences, and an exhibit of wartime communications, has received a second year of funding from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. This year, the program centers the experiences of people of color, women, and LGBTQ people serving in the armed forces.
NJCH support will enable a multi-format humanities project including generative writing workshops for student and community veterans led by program partner Warrior Writers; a public program featuring scholarly and first-person perspectives on the experiences of service people with marginalized identities; and an exhibit of letters or other media sent between service people and loved ones, to be featured in New Brunswick and Camden.
The goals of “Outside the Wire” are to highlight stories of service that may not always appear in the dominant narratives about the armed forces, as well as to close the gap between civilian and veteran experiences in the era of an all volunteer military. The Writers House is proud to partner with the Office of Military and Veterans Programs and Services and Warrior Writers for the continuation of this program highlighting the stories of an important population for Rutgers and Southern New Jersey.