Redwood High School offers many opportunities to its students, one of them being a vast selection of clubs.
The Red Ink club is a great option for students in need of a creative outlet. Founded for those with all levels of skill or interest, this creative writing and poetry group is a safe space for all.
In the words of the club’s leader and founder, Jonathan Jimenez, ’23 talking about his role in the club, “Well, officially my role in the Red Ink club is as the president, but I feel that… I want to give people a place that they can feel welcome to come in and express themselves… through any kind of, you know, creative means.”
Jimenez wants the club to be a safe, judgement-free space.
He was happy to create the type of environment he wished that he would have had access to in his previous years of high school.
“We want to give people a safe and welcoming place to just be themselves, you know, and give them that welcoming comfort that I wish I would have had,” Jimenez says.
He continues, explaining how the club is open to people with all levels of interest and is a place for people of all different kinds of backgrounds and different life experiences to connect with each other.
“Everyone is going to have their different style of writing and how they create art and express themselves in this world,” he says.
In Red Ink, you can find people who you relate to by looking at other’s creative work and by sharing your own work with others.
Photo courtesy of Jimenez
“And being around creatives… is something that can create inspiration for plenty of other people creating their own work or who want to start creating their own work,” Jimenez adds.
Red Ink welcomes you if you are looking to try your hand at writing. Not only is it a club, but also “a home, maybe a group, something that you belong to, that you can feel that you can just be yourself, express yourself. That’s what Red Ink is about,” says Jimenez.
Club member, junior, Emma Sanchez-Flores has had a deep passion for writing since she was young, “I always loved creating fictional stories for my family, writing songs, and mixing rhymes together. I enjoyed the idea of getting my thoughts out into the world as a way of self expression, so I felt this was the perfect club for me since I’d be able to share that passion with others,” she explains.
Photo courtesy of Flores
Flores recommends the Red Ink club to “anyone and everyone.”
In her words, “I see writing as another form of art that bares open creativity and people’s vulnerabilities. This further allows a person to relate to each other and can overall help someone understand another person a little better.”
The club is an excellent outlet to let out your inner thoughts and feelings and to build new connections in the process.
Jimenez doesn’t want his club to be specifically for any type of artist. Just “a place for anyone that has interest.”
The club is a good option especially if you have no one to share your thoughts and ideas with.
According to Jimenez, “I was one of those people, I used to have all this stuff that I kept in my notes and I had nobody to share it with. You bottle it up and it doesn’t feel good, you know? This is something you should be proud of, this is something that you should feel that you can express to the world.”
Red Ink meets every Tuesday at lunch in room 103.
Margo Moore
Margo, 25', is a sophomore at Redwood High School and a second-year journalism student who works as an arts and entertainment writer for the Redwood Gigantea. She also loves to take photos and publish photogalleries. You can reach her at @margo.mo3574@vusd.us
Tags: clubs & lifestyles, Margo Moore, new clubs, Red Ink, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood journalism, redwood rangers