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About the Tumblewords Project

The Tumblewords Project is a not-for-profit grassroots literary project that has been in existence for 11 years, through donations, grants, and a huge amount of free labor. Our focus is the presentation of free writing workshops and performance events to the community, but from the very beginning have always collaborated with other disciplines, particularly the visual arts. Many prominent artists from the region have presented workshops for us, or donated their work to raise funds, or exhibited in art shows we have sponsored. We have worked under the 501(c)(3) tax exempt umbrella of various local organizations, including the Bridge Center for Contemporary Art, JUNTOS Art Association, and Black Chamber of Commerce, and with tax exempt public institutions such as El Paso Public Library, Juarez Public Library, Las Cruces Public Library, El Paso Community College, NMSU, and UTEP, as well as various local public schools. We have previously received grants from New Mexico Arts Department, El Paso Arts Resources Department, and Texas Commission for the Arts, and from private corporations.

We have presented workshops and performances by the most prestigious writers in our three state region (Texas/New Mexico/Chihuahua), and internationally renowned writers from throughout the US, Latin America, and even Europe. For a minimally funded grassroots project, the scope of our reputation, reach, and diversity is phenomenal.

I am a part-time, volunteer coordinator of the Tumbleword Project, as well as the founder, and work on it from home or on brief breaks here at my work. Our most recent project, in addtion to our ongoing workshops and performance series, has been to coordinate donations for the restoration of a wall and the re-painting (not a restoration, it was done totally anew) of a 25 foot mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe across from the Isleta Mission at one of the busiest intersections of El Paso.

—Donna J. Snyder