APSU Community School for the Arts offers writing class to veterans, families
April 12, 2019
Austin Peay State University (APSU)
Clarksville, TN – After Ellen Taylor walked into the room, she nudged her desk slightly to face the center of the classroom. The move, whether conscious or unconscious, signaled something intrinsic to the class that was about to start.
Taylor was ready to share. Her classmates were ready to share.
Joe Shakeenab and Jeff Bagley, both 28-year Army veterans, discuss the stories they’re working on in Writing for Military and Families, a class offered at Austin Peay State University through the Community School of the Arts.
Former Green Beret to read poetry at APSU on August 30th
July 27, 2012
Clarksville, TN – In 1993, a young Green Beret named Joe Shakeenab sought shelter from the hot sun in the African nation of Somalia. Sitting in his combat fatigues under the shade of a tent, he pulled out a notebook and a pencil and began scribbling a few lines of verse.
“When you’re gone on deployments, that’s the way you go on with yourself, just to maintain your own mind,” he said. “I wrote about what I’d seen and what I thought. I told the experiences through poetry.”
Joe Shakeenab
