Look Who it Was Random video

Writing Our Way Out | David Coogan & Kelvin Belton | TEDxYouth@RVA

844 views · Published 12 December 2018 · 11:42 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: TEDx Talks · 2018 · Nonprofits & Activism

Watch on YouTube

Everybody has a story. We hear that all the time. But if your life is like a story, and you are the main character, with your actions making up the plot, do you think you could write the story of where you’ve been so that you can shape who you want to become? In this talk, David Coogan and Kelvin Belton share the story of how writing forged their unlikely friendship and gave them faith in our abilities to write our futures, and they challenge us to consider what might happen if we give individuals the tools to author their own destinies.  
 Dr. David Coogan is an associate professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and a co-author of Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail. Writing Our Way Out is the creative culmination of a writing class in which ten men explore the conditions, traps, and turning points on their paths to imprisonment as well as the redemptive power of memoir. He is the founder and co-director of Open Minds, which brings college classes—and college students—into the Richmond City Justice Center, and the founder and director of Writing Your Way Out: A Criminal Justice Diversion Program, which enables low-level offenders in Richmond to avoid incarceration and instead pursue education.

Mr. Kelvin Belton is a co-author of Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail, the creative culmination of a writing class in which ten men explore the conditions, traps, and turning points on their paths to imprisonment as well as the redemptive power of memoir. Belton is also a program coach in Writing Your Way Out: A Criminal Justice Diversion program, where he mentors low-level offenders in their writing and life skills. Belton is a Richmond native, an entrepreneur, and a basketball coach for Blacktop Kings and Queens. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

More from this channel