Dancing Pencils was established by Felicity Keats-Morrison who has a grand vision of building literacy in sub-Saharan Africa. There is an enormous need for literacy in Africa and a lack of suitable material in indigenous languages for children to read. This literacy project is comprised of writing clubs. The aim is to encourage creative writing world wide through skills transfer & the sustainability of writing clubs
The Dancing Pencils Writing Clubs
Clubs are being established comprising of people that are passionate about writing. These writers are coached by a mentor, who has been personally trained by Felicity in her unique right-brain method of creative writing. Mentors run clubs in their areas. Stories are written, shared and the best ones are selected for publishing by umSinsi Press, which is a niche publishing house owned by Felicity. These writing clubs allow people to develop their craft, to share life experiences, and express their feelings in a nurturing environment. Annually they have a book launch which is exciting for the children.
The club system allows for peer evaluation of work and the selection of publication material to remain in the hands of communities. We capture (often for posterity) stories of people from all walks of life for example, stories written by children, which are read by other children. The children writing the books are given the opportunity to be “heard” and recognised, and the children reading them have the opportunity to read about other peoples’ life experiences.
Dancing Pencils Literacy Development Project
Over a thirty year period, Felicity Keats-Morrison has developed a unique method of unlocking creativity in different fields of creativity i.e. writing, maths
and science subjects, arts and culture and storytelling. She also established a publishing company for the purpose of documenting all the above talents.
In 1998, she presented the method to ELITS – Education Library Information Technology Services (KZN). She trained mentors for this department in 2002.
ELITS project was a success and since then, most of the other Departments of Education in South Africa have incorporated this right brain method, in
small or big ways.
The Dancing Pencils Literacy Development Project was born as an initiative of heads of libraries and education departments in different provinces, The
company, a non-profit making organisation, called Dancing Pencils Literacy Development Project, was established mainly to assist develop the Dancing
Pencils Writing clubs nationally.
Read More about the Dancing Pencils Literacy Development Project
