The Schooled On Poetry spoken-word event takes place at the Lincoln Theatre on Saturday, May 11, starting at 7 p.m.
Poetry can be a great tool of self-expression for anyone, and maybe even more so for adolescents trying to find their place in the world.
This was true for educator-poet Cynthia Amoah, who is originally from Ghana and grew up in Reynoldsburg. She says poetry has been a way for her to explore her own identity as a West African woman in America.
“There was no other art form that allowed me to be valued, seen and heard,” Amoah says. “It allowed me to create a world of my own on the page because I didn’t fit in Ghana, and I didn’t really fit in America, so it allowed me to create and imagine what my own world might look like and sound like.”
Now, a new generation is being exposed to poetry writing through educator-poet Peter Kahn’s Schooled On Poetry program.
Working as a high school teacher in Chicago, Kahn developed a poetry education program to assist English teachers in teaching poetry and later showcase their work through performances and competitions.
“I think student voices have always been very important, but particularly after COVID when everybody was isolated, it’s more important now that students are heard by their classmates, by their teachers, by their administrators, and by the wider community,” Kahn says.
Kahn’s program was successful as he was able to expose many young people and their instructors to the benefits of instructing and writing poetry.
“There are a lot (of students) that experience some sort of epiphany where they realize the importance of it and how valuable (poetry) can be to them as individuals, and teachers are able to learn more about their students,” he says. “Oftentimes students will share about stuff that they wouldn’t share in conversation or even in an essay or a personal message.”
When Kahn relocated to Columbus from Chicago, he decided to implement his successful program within the central Ohio community. He currently works with English teachers at Dublin Scioto, Grandview Heights, Independence, KIPP and Northland. He also offers students the opportunity to attend slam poetry competitions leading up to their annual showcase.
But he hasn’t been working alone; the project is a collaboration between CAPA, Thurber House, the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (ESCCO), the Poetry Foundation, the Columbus Foundation.
“We were able to get a grant from the Columbus Foundation to get gift cards for the kids who have given up their Saturdays being with us from about noon until nine at night. … If they participate in the whole thing, they’ll get a gift card at the end of the month, so that’s one thing that’s kind of an incentive and a reward,” he says. “And then we also got some funding for Uber gift cards, so if there’s anyone where getting to the event is going to be problematic, we can at least offer that as something that might be helpful to get them there.”
CAPA supports Kahn’s program as it ties heavily to uplifting youth in the community and the importance of performance art.
“Our mission here is to make the transformative power of the arts available and accessible to everyone in our community,” says Amy Handra, education and engagement director at CAPA. “We really use education and engagement as a way of connecting our community with great art programs that we know will impact them and enrich their lives. We really work hard to make all of our programs either free or reduced in price so that we are able to make them accessible to anyone who might want to participate.”
This year’s inter-school showcase takes place at the Lincoln Theatre on Saturday, May 11, starting at 7 p.m. It will be different and much grander compared to the slam poetry competitions and showcases the students are used to attending.
“Spoken word poetry is we’re going to write poems, make them strong on the page, and then you’re going to speak them out loud, and you’re going to try to say it with sincere enthusiasm. The students vote anonymously for one another and then guest judges will score and choose their champs.”
Not only will winners from each school’s contest read their personal work, but on the day of the event, students will arrive earlier in the day to meet with other students, instructors, local poets Hanif Abdurraqib and Cynthia Amoah, Chicago-based poet/musical artist Christian “Rich Robbins” Robinson and National Book Award finalist Tim Seibles from Virginia.
The students will spend the day collaborating on a piece that will be performed later that night, something that isn’t too common when it comes to poetry writing.
“Poetry is often solitary but anytime I can be in community with other colleagues and write with other poets, I think that that’s what this event is about,” Amoah says. “It’s like finding the communal aspects of poetry and the communal aspects of writing.”
Maisie Fitzmaurice is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mfitzmaurice@cityscenemediagroup.com.
