Northport school to host “Voices Carry Forward: A Youth Poetry Slam”
Poetry Month is right around the corner and Northport will be a central hub once again for artistic and poetry-related events.
Observed every April, Poetry Month invites all community members to join in the art of the spoken word. With upcoming events scheduled at Northport Public School and the Leelanau Township Library, there will be opportunities for people to both watch and participate in the month-long celebration.
On April 10 at 6 p.m., Northport students are set to perform in the school’s auditorium for the program titled “Voices Carry Forward: A Youth Poetry Slam,” which has been months in the making.
Professional spoken word artists Joel Fluent Greene and Peace Bell from Building Bridges with Music, a Traverse City-based nonprofit, have been working on a monthly basis with Northport 7-12th graders since September. The students work on everything from writing poetry and discovering a new form of self-expression to finding and projecting their individual and unique voices.
The nonprofit’s founder and artistic director, Jeff Haas, began the Building Bridges program in 1996 in Detroit after responding to local schools whose arts and music programs had all been cut. Madelynn Brady, director of operations and programming with Building Bridges with Music, said three decades later, their assembly program serves 150 students at a time. In addition, they offer poetry programs and a Northern Michigan chapter of Sisters in Jazz: a jazz education mentorship program with nationally acclaimed jazz musicians Laurie Sears and Marion Hayden. These programs are free to schools and students and serve Building Bridges’ mission to spread open-mindedness and respect through the universal language of the arts.
“It has been a year of growth and beautiful vulnerability that our poets and team have been able to witness in Eric Wynn’s classes,” Brady said in an email. “Students have opened up to the art form, spoken aloud in their classes for the first time, and supported each other through it all. Kids are writing about personal experiences, causes that they care about, and questions they have as they are growing up and learning what it means to be a person in this world. It’s powerful moments that we have been so fortunate to foster and be a part of.”
Eric Wynn, Northport School English teacher, said the focus in the fall was to really hone students’ skills and abilities as poets. What the students learn in the poetry work sessions has carried on into what Wynn does in his classroom as well.
When Northport Art Teacher Jen Evans first launched the wide-scale community project “Connected by Cause,” Wynn said it was a wonderful segue for these poetry work sessions. Through that project, students have selected a cause they’re passionate about and are creating visual art and poetry relative to that cause. The poetry slam event on April 10 will feature some student poetry inspired by the Connected by Cause community project as well as original pieces.
Wynn said he thinks this is a really unique opportunity for the kids to showcase not only their initial talent but also what the end of a rigorous and determined creative process looks like.
“And some students have done both, they’ve focused on their cause, and they’ve also written some really amazing, personal, well-crafted poetry. So it’s been really beneficial, and students really look forward to it,” Wynn said. “To have professionals come into the classroom that have a seasoned track record and have the bonafides to show students that poetry is a possibility and there is a professional realm to poetry is so inspiring to these kids.”
Alison Arthur of the Friends of Leelanau Township Library will be one of the community members present for the upcoming poetry slam event as they are helping to promote the program for their Poetry Month festivities. Arthur said they always envisioned poetry festivities having more youth community involvement, so when she discovered that the school was working with Building Bridges, she knew it would be a great collaboration to promote. In addition to promoting the poetry slam, the library will celebrate Poetry Month with an open mic night open to all on April 30 at 7 p.m.
“I feel it’s imperative that everyone’s voice is heard as early as possible. Encouraging emotions and putting words on the page, shared if desired by any young human is important to confidence building and the development of our character,” Arthur said.
The Northport School’s Connected by Cause art exhibition at the Northport Arts Association will also debut on the same day as the library’s open mic night, April 30, at 2:30 p.m. Art teacher Jen Evans said the Connected by Cause community art project will allow different generations to intermingle and will give people a voice through various creative mediums like poetry to showcase the environmental causes meaningful to them. Students performing for the poetry slam will be recorded and accompanied by Kevin LaRose on double bass, which will then be used in a video at the Connected by Cause art exhibition. That video recording will be played on a loop in the gallery for two weeks at the Northport Art Association to accompany students’ other completed artwork.
