Past Events
YWE 2019
July 1 to July 22, 2019
The first installment of our workshop welcomed 9 participants, led by 2 facilitators. It covered ARTICLES, POETRY, and SHORT STORIES.
YWE 2020
June 28 to July 21, 2020
The second installment of our workshop welcomed 26 participants from 13 countries, and was led by 4 facilitators. It covered POETRY, COMICS, and SHORT STORIES.
The Family Fast Festival 2021
March 6 & March 13
This two-weekend event during the Baha'i Fasting season welcomed 20 youth and 13 of their families, along with 3 facilitators, to reflect on the significance of the Fast, the role of writing and the arts, and how we can build community.
YWE 2021
July 3 to July 26, 2021
The third installment of our workshop welcomed 33 participants from 13 countries, and was led by 4 facilitators. It covered ARTICLES, COMICS, and SCRIPTS.
The Family Fast Festival 2022
February 26 & March 12
This two-weekend event during the Baha'i Fasting season welcomed 15 youth and 7 of their families, along with 3 facilitators, to reflect on the significance of the Fast, the role of writing and the arts, and how we can build community.
YWE 2022
July 2 to July 26, 2022
The fourth installment of our workshop welcomed 41 participants from 15 countries, and was led by 5 facilitators. It covered POETRY & SONGWRITING, STORIES, FILM & THEATRE SCRIPTS.
The Family Fast Festival 2023
March 4 & March 17
This two-weekend event during the Baha'i Fasting season welcomed 16 youth and 8 of their families, along with 5 facilitators, to reflect on the significance of the Fast, the role of writing and the arts, and how we can build community.
YWE 2023
August 4 to August 20
The fifth installment of our workshop welcomed 23 participants from 13 countries, and was led by 5 facilitators. It covered the theme of friendship, explored through ARTICLES and COMICS.
The Family Fast Festival 2024
March 2 & March 3
This two-weekend event during the Baha'i Fasting season welcomed 9 youth along with 3 facilitators, to reflect on the significance of the Fast, the role of writing and the arts, and how we can build community.
2022 Collaborators
From advising the workshop development process, to advising participants, these friends volunteered their time to accompany YWE participants.
Chloe Liu
Facilitator
Chloe began her artistic journey as a toddler when she covered her walls with crayon. Her love for the arts has expanded ever since. She grew up in Beijing and moved to New York City seven years ago. Dealing in all things visual, Chloe is an aspiring filmmaker, screenwriter, illustrator, and 2D animator. She is currently studying film and television at NYU with a focus in animation. It is her dream to tell meaningful stories to children and reignite childlike hearts in adults.
At The Young Writers' Endeavor, she hopes to bring her insights into fiction and writing for visual media. She is excited to see the spiritual light shine through in young writers as they embark on this endeavor!
Andrea McLean
Songwriting, Poetry, and Performance
An emerging artist and ongoing student of the arts, Andrea McLean studied voice performance at the University of Waterloo as a music major. She now lives in Toronto, Canada, and is working on a Royal Conservatory of Music Associate Diploma in voice performance while working as an apprentice voice teacher at Voices of Colour Music, and as the Education and Outreach Affiliate with No Strings Theatre.
Emiliano Morondos (DVRSL)
Hip Hop Artist
Baha’i-inspired Hip Hop artist and Emcee “DVRSL” (Diversoul) has been a participant in Hip Hop culture for 20+ years. Emiliano collaborated with other Bahá'í artists to produce the Hip Hop album “The 7 Cities,” inspired by The Seven Valleys by Baháʼu'lláh, and has also collaborated with FRMWRK, a Bahá'í-inspired Hip Hop collective which recently produced a series of songs inspired by the Universal House of Justice’s July 29, 2021 letter on eliminating racial prejudice.
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Esther Maloney
Writer & Multidisciplinary Artist
Esther Carmel Maloney is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, coach and educator. Her work as a storyteller includes performing with professional theatre companies, and a number of film and voice credits. Esther founded Illumine Media, a community-based film project connected with the Junior Youth Empowerment program in 2012, with which she has written and produced a dozen narrative films. Her short film, Another World, is a futurist pandemic-poem to her son, and is currently being featured in a number of film festivals. She is also the author of The Lovebird’s Freedom, a children’s book about grief and loss (Plant Love Grow, 2018). She has contributed articles on themes of community, land and motherhood to the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and Medium, and was a panelist on the topic of media and gender at the 2018 United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women. Esther holds an MA in Education from the University of Toronto, and a BFA in Theatre Performance from Concordia University. She loves going on bike rides, building lego with her son and helping people make/write/dream things into reality.
Najee Brown
Playwright
Najee A. Brown can be described as nothing else than a young entrepreneur. After starting his media company, Mindlezz Thoughtz, in 2011 he has helped provide numerous resources to aspiring artists. In addition to running his own media and arts company, Najee Brown also produced his own music and has danced on every stage from the Apollo to Carnegie Hall. Most recently, Najee wrote and produced his play The Bus Stop, which sold out six times in New York City, and recently featured at the Seacoast Rep last summer. He co-wrote and directed the musical Glimmerings Of Hope, which premiered in New York City and toured Michigan in the spring of 2019. He also directed and choreographed the award-winning musical Henry Box Brown A Musical Journey, in Edinburgh Scotland in the summer or 2019. Brown oversees the “Sol,” series at Seacoast Repertory Theatre, which will focus on presenting Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color (BIPOC) narratives. Stokley and Martin and Nevaeh’s Brother, are his newest plays to premier at Seacoast Repertory Theatre.
Bahá’í Publishing Trust
Nonprofit
Established by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States at the instruction of Shoghi Effendi in 1955, the U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust (BPT) is a nonprofit business that functions under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and receives its charter, as well as general and specific guidance, from the Universal House of Justice. This year, BPT is offering guidance to YWE participants who may be interested in pursuing publication.
Juliet Bogan
Kiara Ehsani
Facilitator
Juliet Monireh Bogan is a storyteller, artist, writer, and performer currently studying at Barnard College. Juliet writes graphic novels, novels, scripts, and, when she's feeling particularly emotional, very moody poems. She enjoys watching people on the subway, and sketching in the park. She loves animating junior youth groups. In her work, she draws heavily on Baha'i conceptions of justice, truth, friendship, and the union between body, soul, and nature.
Juliet has worked as a freelance artist and graphic designer, and is currently working on a comic book zine in collaboration with her university. She has also performed in multiple theater productions including Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Lorca's Yerma, in which she played an independent young woman and an independent old lady respectively, which she would say are pretty good reflections of her real-life self.
Facilitator
Kiara grew up in Kenya, and the beauty of the land and the people have always inspired her passion for community and nature. She is currently in university studying conservation and when she’s not studying, serving in the community or hanging out with friends, she’s doing something with a pencil, a paintbrush or a guitar. She currently lives in Vancouver area, and is serving in the Guildford community of Surrey. Kiara is learning constantly about how to coherently live a life of service and how she can use her passions for the betterment of the world.
Having dabbled in poetry, story writing and article-writing, she has grown a love for the creative expression, and is always hoping to learn more. Back in 2019 when she was a YWE participant, Kiara remembers feeling a little nervous on the first call, but has grown to love this little writing family so so much and is so grateful for it!
2021 Collaborators
Aaron Schmidt
Comic Author & Illustrator
Aaron Schmidt has been working in the field of animation, TV and film for over 19 years. Over the last 12 years Aaron has combined his love of art with his love of teaching. He taught animation at Mahidol University for 10 years. His most recent works include work on the short film “Prodigal” by director Tod Polson, 3D animation for a documentary on whale conservation in the Gulf of Thailand and production of a horror comic titled “Beasts and Children”.
Aaron feels the language of storytelling is one of the most powerful tools available to us humble humans. He is interested in storytelling in all its forms but is most passionate about visual storytelling.
Liz Dwyer
Journalist
Liz Dwyer is a Los Angeles-based journalist, writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering parenting, education, and social justice. Her work has appeared in national websites and print publications, including New York Magazine, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Ebony, Angeleno, and Good Housekeeping. She was previously the managing editor for Shondaland.com and prior to that worked as the education and culture editor for TakePart.com. Before her career in media, Liz taught third grade in Compton, California and worked in the educational nonprofit sector. In her spare time she volunteers in schools, spends time with her sons, and listens to Depeche Mode.
Najee Brown
Playwright
Najee A. Brown can be described as nothing else than a young entrepreneur. After starting his media company, Mindlezz Thoughtz, in 2011 he has helped provide numerous resources to aspiring artists. In addition to running his own media and arts company, Najee Brown also produced his own music and has danced on every stage from the Apollo to Carnegie Hall. Most recently, Najee wrote and produced his play The Bus Stop, which sold out six times in New York City, and recently featured at the Seacoast Rep last summer. He co-wrote and directed the musical Glimmerings Of Hope, which premiered in New York City and toured Michigan in the spring of 2019. He also directed and choreographed the award-winning musical Henry Box Brown A Musical Journey, in Edinburgh Scotland in the summer or 2019. Brown oversees the “Sol,” series at Seacoast Repertory Theatre, which will focus on presenting Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color (BIPOC) narratives. Stokley and Martin and Nevaeh’s Brother, are his newest plays to premier at Seacoast Repertory Theatre.
2020 Collaborators
Aaron Schmidt
Comics facilitator, Featured comics artist
Aaron Schmidt has been working in the field of animation, TV and film for over 19 years. Over the last 12 years Aaron has combined his love of art with his love of teaching. He taught animation at Mahidol University for 10 years. His most recent works include work on the short film “Prodigal” by director Tod Polson, 3D animation for a documentary on whale conservation in the Gulf of Thailand and production of a horror comic titled “Beasts and Children”.
Aaron feels the language of storytelling is one of the most powerful tools available to us humble humans. He is interested in storytelling in all its forms but is most passionate about visual storytelling.
Noura Scoggin
Facilitator
Noura Scoggin recently got married to Raji Scoggin. They love to serve together and dedicate some of their time to building capacity in their younger friends. She has experience with slam poetry and performance poetry, which she used to do a lot back to when she lived in Germany. Now she is a first year Psychology student who wants to learn how to empower children and junior youth.
Noura joined the Young Writers' Endeavor this year and is excited to contribute to the building of a Bahá'í Art movement.
Raji Scoggin
Facilitator
Raji Scoggin is not only Noura's husband, but also a musician, artist and poet. As a psychology and music major, he has the wish to contribute to the betterment of the world both through his profession and as an artist. By supporting local junior youth empowerment programs and children's classes he has gained some experience and a great passion to serve the younger generation.
Raji has a strong belief in the power of art to inspire the higher nature in people and
is happy to support this initiative in order to contribute to "the dawning of a new era in art and literature".
Aaron Emmel
Featured writer
Aaron Emmel writes fiction all kinds, but he has a penchant for time travel, flying robots and international espionage. He also designs games, writes comic books and graphic novels and edits books and magazines. Aaron’s short stories have been featured in dozens of publications in print, digital and audio formats. With the artist and game designer Aaron Kreader, Aaron authored the historical fiction graphic novel Zanján and the science fiction gamebook series Midnight Legion. Aaron is also a prolific author of articles and essays. His most recent nonfiction book is Human Rights in an Advancing Civilization, which has been called “brilliant and thoroughly accessible.” Find him online at aaronemmel.com or on Twitter.
Tom Lysaght
Featured writer
Harvard graduate Tom Lysaght has written some thirty plays — published by Samuel French and produced Off-Broadway, on the main stage of the 1992 World Congress and in Andean villages of Peru (where he was Manager of Radio Bahá’í) with his El Teatro de Pan y Paz. In 2004-06, on behalf of the World Centre’s Office of Social and Economic Development, he made three trips to rural India to supplement the Institute Process with puppet theater, indigenous dance and story telling. His website, Social Drama/Sacred Space, serves as a resource for grassroots community building. A member of the Dramatists’ Guild, Lysaght has received some dozen writing fellowships. His historical novel, PERSIAN PASSION, was published in 2019. For 20 years he taught literature and writing at Brentwood School in Los Angeles, where he now lives.
June Perkins
Featured poet
Dr June Perkins is a multi-arts creative born to a Papua New Guinean Indigenous mother and Australian father. She was raised in Tasmania as a Bahá'i and combines poetry, blogging, photography, story and more to explore themes interesting her - peace, ecology, spirituality, cultural diversity, resilience and empowerment. Her first full published poetry book was Magic Fish Dreaming (2016). June's poems have been published in Nineteen Months, Tokens, Voices in the North, Under One Sky, Etchings, Cracks in the Canopy, World Order, Spooktacular Stories, Creative Kids Tales, Story Collection 2, Writing the Pacific, ABC Open, The Queensland Art Galley, Ridvan is Everywhere, and Talking Ink from Ochre. Her most recent book, is Illuminations: 19 poems and 1 story, and she is currently preparing a commissioned poetry performance for 'Panacea Poets' an online Queensland, Australia, Poetry Festival project. Visit her official website or her poetry blog, and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, LinkedIn and Instagram!
Robert Malouf
Featured poet
"I live in Wisconsin with my beloved wife, Manijeh. The simple lines I write attempt to express those promptings of the soul that well up from time to time. They originate from unexpected but welcomed insights, reflection on the more profound aspects of life, or everyday experiences.
"Poetry has the power to take flight to the high heavens and beyond; turn to the earth of the familiar and caress her gently; then dive deep into the bowels of profundity. It is this quality of poetry that allows it to walk the shores and enter the seas of receptive hearts, therein to swim, plunge, and ultimately, dive for the coral and pearls of some deeper meaning. Poetry has the ability and power to express essence, beauty, love, and a host of other qualities. For this I continually strive. I hope someday to attain it."
Robert Malouf's official website can be found here.
Dana Panahi
Artist
Dana Shomeis Panahi designed the Young Writers' Endeavor badges at the end of every week.
With her art she tries to raise and move everyone's soul. Art has been part of her life since childhood, and through her family and her own experience she learned to paint and draw. She also learned that art in all forms can have a spiritual impact and comes from the human soul. That is why she has the desire to encourage the spiritual development of children and youth, so that through each person's unique gemstones a better world can be created. Currently she supports children's classes and is learning about the community building process in a neighborhood in Germany, while studying Music-mediation and Educational Science in Cologne.