Real Conditions Magazines

The Community Writing Project (CWP) is in its 17th year offering writing workshops in poor and immigrant neighborhoods in the Chicago area and beyond. Our workshops are inspired by the belief that every person is a thinker and an artist, that the stories people tell about their lives contain important insights for themselves and their neighbors, and that the seeds for change can be found in the artistic and intellectual renderings of ordinary people. At the end of each workshop, participants’ writings are published in a Real Conditions magazine. 

Publishing writers’ stories is an integral part of CWP workshops, offering writers a forum in which to share their work within and beyond their communities. Previous Real Conditions magazines have been distributed to classrooms, community centers, and other venues within and beyond writers’ neighborhoods. These magazines represent not only the writings of women and men across the city of Chicago, but also the collective effort and wealth of experience and artistry they have poured into developing their stories together. 

Because of our belief in the collective efforts of ordinary people as a force for change, the CWP relies on volunteer efforts and personal donations to produce Real Conditions magazines. We invite you to participate in our work by contributing to the cost of publication for our Fall 2017 magazines. Each magazine costs about $1.50 to print, and all contributions will go directly to printing costs.

Please contribute, and help us spread the word! As thanks for your contribution, we will send you one of our Fall 2017 Real Conditions magazines.