Once upon a time, a journalist and a poet, both natives of Birmingham, got married and wondered what they could do for their community to enhance literacy. After living in sunny California and encountering a writing organization called 826 National, Liz Hughey and her husband Chip decided to model a new organization in a similar way. Thus, Desert Island Supply Company – affectionately known as DISCO — was conceived, and scores of students in the Magic City found their voices.
“We chose the name DISCO thinking that the desert island is the blank page,” Liz Hughey explained. “We offer tools for kids to navigate the blank page so they can make their writing better, use their words and advocate for themselves and others — as well as think critically about the world.”
DISCO had modest beginnings, as the best organizations often do. It began nine years ago with a Kickstarter Campaign and the goal of building out a space in the Woodlawn neighborhood. The initial workshops were successfully held on-site, but the Hugheys realized that in order to reach more students and spread literacy, they would need to go to the schools themselves. By the second year, they created the Woodlawn Writers Core, an arduous group of almost 60 volunteers who visit area schools and teach students the art of the written word. The program started with just two schools, but more recently, before the pandemic, a handful of schools throughout Birmingham were on the list.
“We’ve been seeing fewer kids because of the pandemic, but we’re still virtually seeing kids every week and teaching them writing and thinking,” Hughey said. “We’re eager to go back to the normal program. When we started going to schools, we were committed to making a plan and providing consistency — with the same volunteers and teachers — and working steadily for an hour every week. Kids know the routine, and they know it’s going to be fun.”
Families and educators have shared positive feedback about DISCO’s mission, and the Hugheys make sure everyone can reap the benefits of students’ hard work at community readings, held each May at the Woodlawn space. Additionally, an anthology containing the words of each student is published once a year.
Most of all, the Hugheys have learned that kids have something to say as well as a perspective — even on sophisticated works of the literary canon.
I’ve put most of my energy into DISCO,” said Liz Hughey. “It has changed the way I think about poetry and teaching writing. Even with elementary students, we don’t do much with kids' poems. Kids are great at reading poems — sometimes better than adults. You can hand them anything: John Donne, Chen Chen. I believe you should be able to read a poem without a backlog of knowledge.”