Write Here, Right Now: Shifting a Community Writing Center from a Place to a Practice

In 2013, Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah, established Write Here: A Community Writing Center in collaboration with Promise South Salt Lake. In 2016 Write Here’s operations shifted from a community center to the various spaces of Promise South Salt Lake after-school programs. The COVID-19 pandemic has further complicated this transition with the move to online workshops. The decentering of Write Here exposes the dynamics of place and practice inherent in both community literacy and writing centers. Occupying third space, Write Here consultants navigate changing locations, mentoring, and non-tutoring activities, challenging traditional writing center narratives. Accommodating community partners likewise requires dwelling in a rhetoric of respect. By remaining flexible and recognizing limitations, Write Here has opened channels of communication to reach shared understandings. This analysis models how other community literacy organizations can enter into more effective and meaningful partnerships and adapt to ongoing shifts of place and practice.