Poetry Alive!

I don’t know you remember, but we talked about getting a group called Poetry Alive to perform in our school – they had agreed to do it for free in support of our project, as well. Our date could not be set before the new year, but we have two new possible dates – I’m in the middle of emailing the administration to set it up now! We are so excited, and are praying that this can be organized quickly so we can confirm the date! Woo hoo!! Wish us luck!

Cedar Drive 12/13

Today was soooo much fun! We had another outreach with the Cedar Drive kids, and it was definitely a success. We started out with this video of Alicia Keys at Def Poetry, a spoken word performance.

The kids really seemed to enjoy it, and even though they didn’t like answering our questions (“How did she make her speech effective?” or “What did you notice most about her performance?”), they got the point – that the tone, inflection, volume, speed, and body language of a person can affect the audience. With our example over, we passed out copies of two songs: Imagine by John Lennon and Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel. And then we had them, in groups of three or four, do what Alicia Keys did with her poem – plan and present. They were creative, and even though many of the presentations were similar, they liked working on it and showing the rest of us what they came up with.

Their reflection afterwards was pretty good, too. They noticed the similarities in the interpretations, and even though they didn’t pick up on the differences, once Rachel and I pointed them out they understood. Some had one person speak, other groups had multiple people speak it; even though the acting was similar, there were some nuances that altered the interpretation. They weren’t as successful in the reading of the poem as they were with the acting, but we think that they’ll get there.

We gave them “homework” since we’re not going to see them until after the New Year. Their job is to either write or find a poem or song and work on a presentation of it for our next meeting. They are allowed to work with one other person, if they would like. We can’t wait to see what the kids come up with; they are very creative, and we know that they’ll make the next outreach even more enjoyable with their success.

Even though we think that today could have gone better, this quote pretty much sums up what we’re hoping to do, even if we don’t have an immediate success each time we visit: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.” ~Robert Louis Stevenson. That’s not to say that the student’s were unsuccessful, but that we hope we have planted a seed that will grow over the course of their entire life.

So Excited!!!

Okay, so Rachel and I are back on track! We rescheduled the meeting with one of the middle schools and are back in contact with another; she’ll let you know how are meeting next week goes. But, here’s the big news:

Instead of a field trip to a theater, a group called Poetry Alive is going to come in to our school and act out poetry for the ELL program and the freshman class! And the best part? They offered to do it for free due to their interest in our project. Of course, the details still have to be finalized, but as long as the school administration approves, we’ll be emailing them back tomorrow to set the date for December 7th!!

When we saw the email with their offer last night, we had a text squeal-fest for a good ten minutes. We can’t wait to be able to share this opportunity with our school. Wish us luck!

“There are two good things in life – freedom of thought and freedom of action.” ~ W. Somerset Maugham
(I’ll take the liberty of adding a third – freedom of speech!)