About Us

For over a decade, we’ve united writers to share personal narratives that capture untold family histories, moments of resilience, and social justice experiences. Through workshops, mentorship, and our annual Snapshots publication, we aim to inspire, heal, and connect generations through the power of storytelling.

Who We Are

CWGLA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization comprised of African-American writers who gather once a month to share stories. Our stories are expressions of "Blackness"; tales of notable family events that have gone undocumented for far too long. Our mission is to record family history through the medium of personal narratives. The stories are real-life experiences, some funny, some sad, and many deeply personal recollections of incidents of social injustice as experienced by the writers or by their family members. Some writers showcase an investigative flair as they search through obscure documents looking for pieces of family history.

As a group, we try to fill in the blanks for future generations to help them discover who they are and from where they've come by the stories that we leave behind. For ten months out of the year the writers of CWGLA gather to review our works -- sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, but always in support of each other, which not only helps us to grow as writers, but also to heal through this cathartic process. In February of each year, the stories are published in a book series called Snapshots: Personal Narratives of the Community Writers Group of Los Angeles. New writers are invited to join CWGLA starting March 1st of each year.

Submit your contact information and any questions that you may have via email to info@cwgla.org. Please explain why you would like to share your personal narratives and your level of volunteer commitment if selected to join CWGLA.

Bio

Legacy

Our Founder

Elise Woodson, the founder of Community Writers Group, worked as Education and Film Curator at the California African American Museum (CAAM) when she planted the seed for the writing group. In September of 2013, she created a one-day program: The Power of Story: Writing the Personal Narrative, which drew a huge public response. At the end of the program, the attendees pleaded with her to continue meeting to further the workshop process. As a former English teacher, Elise always wanted to lead a group interested in capturing and documenting powerful personal stories from their lives. She agreed to facilitate a writing workshop and to meet the second Saturday of each month. Approximately ten committed writers stayed the course, and met each month at the beautiful Vision Theatre in Leimert Park. These persistent writers became The Community Writers Group (“CWG” rebranded “CWGLA”), and in February of 2015 published Snapshots: Volume 1 to create a permanent record of their pieces of family history. Currently, CWGLA publishes a new volume of Snapshots annually in the month of February.

In January of 2019, Elise filed documents with the California Secretary of State and the Franchise Tax Board for CWGLA to become a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, and during the summer applied for grants to offset publishing costs and to expand the reach of the group farther into underrepresented communities by creating a Snapshots collection specifically for young people to tell their families’ stories.

On December 7, 2019 Elise received her Heavenly wings, but the Snapshots series is part of her legacy.