Poetry Slam: Promoting Children's Voices

It may be a rare occasion to hear children quote T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, and Rudyard Kipling, especially on the streets of southwest Baltimore. But in the Washington Village and Pigtown communities, nearly 50 elementary and middle school students gather everyday to learn about such poets, read sonnets and ballads, and write their own poetry. At Promoting Children’s Voices, poetry is the norm. And poetry is power.

Last November, Pigtown resident Helen Keith earned an Open Society Institute Baltimore Community Fellowship to launch Promoting Children’s Voices, an after-school and summer program that inspires 5th–8th graders to learn about poetry and write their own. For 9-year-old Tyasia Cole, the program already has made an impact on her reading, writing, and speaking skills—and her outlook on life. Tyasia says that writing poems has helped her better understand and express her feelings. Though she once wrote poems that were sad and dark, Tyasia’s more recent poems reflect spunk and happiness.

Keith, a childcare provider and 32-year-old mother of three, has long believed in the power of poetry to help people emotionally, to express themselves freely, as well as socially, to resolve conflicts and bring about change. As a child, Keith learned to love poems and writing and as an after-school care provider, Keith often advised children to write letters to communicate with their parents when they were upset and felt unheard.

Promoting Children’s Voices will host a poetry workshop and competitive poetry slam for about 50 local youths who are part of the program and from other programs. Workshops held from 12 to 4 p.m. will teach the history of poetry, music, and writing poetry. At a poetry slam at 4 p.m., participating students will read their newly constructed poems in competition for prizes.

Location

Church of St. Paul the Apostle
859 Washington Boulevard
Baltimore, MD