Cultivating Creativity

The name of Desert Island Supply Co. is a bit of a misnomer.   

Contrary to what its name or acronym may suggest, DISCO is not an Army-Navy surplus outlet, nor is it a retro dance club.

Rather, DISCO is a Woodlawn-based community nonprofit that helps students cultivate their creative energy through writing, poetry and other forms of storytelling. Founded in 2010, DISCO has become a multifaceted platform that offers in-school instruction, after-school workshops and serves as a venue for community events. 

“We really love that idea of a desert island as a metaphor,” DISCO co-founder Chip Brantley said. “On a desert island, you have your wits. You basically have nothing but your wits. You have to create solutions to all your problems. You have to use your imagination, both to figure out how to survive, how to get off, but also how to create a good life there.”

 Students in the Woodlawn Writers Corps, one of DISCO’s in-school initiatives, took advantage of that opportunity in May. Before a packed crowd of parents and teachers at DISCO’s community center, Corps members stepped on stage, lowered the microphone and read poems they had penned for “The Stars Are Lying,” a student poetry collection published by Desert Island. 

“I saw a lot of students who came to that reading who I wouldn’t have pegged as most likely to attend the reading of their own work,” said Chris Izor, a DISCO employee. “But when they were here, they were standing in line ready to read their poem, and as everybody is coming up, everybody is clapping, and then they read their poem, and then they’re celebrated for the work that they did.”

Identifying a need

Brantley and his wife, Elizabeth Hughey, originally launched DISCO for reasons Brantley said were both practical and personal. Brantley, a journalism professor at the University of Alabama, and Hughey, a professional writer, are both graduates of Mountain Brook High School. The couple and their two children previously resided in Massachusetts, but they moved to Crestwood in 2009, not far from Woodlawn High School. Brantley’s grandmother attended Woodlawn High, which emotionally bonded him to the school and surrounding community, he said. 

While living in Massachusetts, Brantley said he and his wife recognized a need in the education system for programs that specialized in creative writing and storytelling. Although they had considered starting an initiative of their own, it wasn’t until they returned to their home state that the idea began to take shape.

Brantley said the prospect of implementing a creative writing program first gained traction after he attended a community breakfast at Woodlawn High near the start of the 2009-10 school year. 

“I met the community coordinator at the time there, who’s since retired, and just asked him if they ever needed any help, if they needed any volunteers to help with tutoring English or writing or anything like that,” he said. “I went back to meet with him the next week, and we walked around the school, and I left there and there were like 15 things.”

Brantley began making phone calls to friends who were writers, editors and retired teachers, hoping they would express interest in donating time to Woodlawn students. 

Before too long, he said a stream of volunteers emerged, bringing DISCO to life. 

“Our goal is not to turn everybody into a writer,” Brantley said. “Our goal is to sort of nurture that love of creativity that’s already there, that impulse and imagination.”

Making an impact

Like the organization itself, DISCO’s impact on the community has grown continually since its inception. 

Although it only served Woodlawn High at the outset, DISCO has now expanded its in-school reach to every academic institution in the Woodlawn Innovation Network: Avondale Elementary, Oliver Elementary, Hayes K-8 and Putnam Middle School. 

To connect directly with students, DISCO developed two initiatives that extend throughout the school system: the Woodlawn Writers Corps and the Woodlawn Story Lab. 

The Woodlawn Writers Corps emphasizes poetry and creative writing, while the Woodlawn Story Lab promotes audio storytelling and journalism. At Woodlawn High, DISCO also works in conjunction with the Tattler student newspaper, which was revived after years of dormancy. 

“What we do so often is not teach, but you provide an opportunity for students, for kids to do what they’re already inclined to do, which is make stories, which is be creative, which is use their imagination,” Brantley said. 

During the 2015-16 academic year, DISCO volunteers — often times professional writers, poets and illustrators — visited classrooms four days a week. In that allotted space, students were given time to exercise their imagination through a number of creative activities, including writing and drawing. 

Izor, the DISCO employee, said the programs offered to students provide a deviation from standardized learning methods. “There’s this tremendous value in anything that allows for you to be yourself and to create something of your own,” Izor said. “Anything that’s creative is almost in a way an act of resistance against this very structured way of doing education. It’s something that’s very freeing.”

In addition to DISCO’s in-school programs, it holds free after-school workshops both on campuses and at its community center. The workshops hosted at DISCO’s brick-and-mortar location are open to all area students, not just those in the Woodlawn feeder system. 

At 5500 First Ave. N., DISCO also serves as an event venue, where its hosts everything from musical performances to book readings.

 “We love the idea of a place where you can supply yourself, where you could actually come and do creative work,” Brantley said. “I think for so many people it’s something that’s not nurtured, regardless of where you grew up.”

For more information about the Desert Island Supply Co., go to discobham.com or visit its Facebook page.