MY TURN
Inside Job: The Elegance of
the Personal Essay
30 Washington FAMILY APRIL 2023
discovering what matters to them— how
they feel about an issue or thing, or an expe-
rience they have had.

The Inside Job Institute, a four-week writ-
ing program for girls ages 13 to17 presented
by Esther Productions, Inc., attempts first
to help participants find that experience
that matters—a moment in family history; a
relationship, whether with a friend, teacher
or an accidental encounter, that has left an
impression; or a public or civic episode that
lingers longer than anticipated. Then, we
encourage students through discussion to
explore their feelings—their connection to
that occurrence or event.

One young lady, who subsequently
entered our “Discovering Me…Without
You” personal essay contest, wrote about
the man who worked in a nearby grocery
store: “I wonder whether he ever feels guilty for
only being there to direct me towards
the right aisle whenever I can’t find
something in the store on my own,” she
wrote. “We never talk about anything
else. More importantly, we never talk
about the reasons why we never talk
about anything else.

“My father is the man who works
across the street from where I
live,” she added.

The writer deliberately—not
accidentally—takes the reader
to her interior landscape, expos-
ing along the way anger, sadness,
regrets, love and eventually the
resilience that has allowed her
to walk into that store at least
once a week.

She squeezes the last drop—bit-
ter and sweet—from her experience
of father absence, making it nearly
impossible for the reader to look
away, to mute her voice, to not con-
sider how they might react under
similar circumstances. Thus, the
writer not only makes the connec-
tion with the reader but takes that
reader to a new, unexplored place in
their own interior.

Esther Productions Inc. hopes that Inside
Job Writing Institute helps participants
to appreciate the essay beyond the meager
confines of five paragraphs. We students
understand its power to give voice to their
experiences and stories—many of which are
frequently not presented in books.

Ultimately, the intent of Inside Job is to
ignite inextinguishable literary fires—one
essay at a time. ■
Jonetta Rose Barras is the founder and president
of Esther Productions Inc., a Washington D.C.-
based nonprofit organization that uses the arts,
including writing and literature, to heal, inspire
and empower girls and women. With the Black
Student Fund, Esther Productions Inc. presents
writing institutes thorough the year focused on
mastering the personal essay.

PROVIDED PHOTO
M ention the personal
essay and immediately
minds flash back, or
maybe forward, to
college admission applications. It
seems forever imprisoned inside
that box, consistently presented
within the utilitarian standard
structure of five paragraphs
with an introduction, body
and conclusion.

I can hear it screaming, “Help me.”
Too often the narrative or per-
sonal essay is treated like the
Cinderella of the American lit-
erary canon. It’s seen as shabby
and undesirous; after all, it is not
a book. Its limitations are too
numerous and, therefore, mostly
incapable of exciting or satisfying a
reader’s imagination, causing read-
ers to leave unfulfilled.

No one at Esther Productions
Inc. shares that view. In fact, with
our Inside Job Writing Institute, we
and our partner, the Black Student
Fund, are on a mission to grow
more essayists.

If it is executed properly, the
personal essay can be an exquisite piece
of literary art. We need only consider Joan
Didion’s “Goodbye to All That” or James
Baldwin’s “Notes of A Native Son” as exam-
ples of its potential. How many times have
critics cited both as among the best of
American writing? More than a few high
school or college English programs have
them on the list of required reading.

The messages we at Esther Productions
Inc. have tried to convey is that if the essay
is Cinderella, it’s Cinderella at the ball. It’s
Cinderella when the lost glass slipper is
placed on her foot. She is no longer covered
in fireplace soot or looking at a life of pov-
erty and servitude.

Freedom and magic await.

To achieve those results, we take stu-
dents on a treasure hunt, exploring and
BY JONETTA ROSE BARRAS