Poetry hung on the walls as the library filled with young poets sharing their work, tuning their skills, and offering constructive criticism for improvement. The second Poetry Festival, complete with workshops and a Poetry Slam was held Friday, April 25 during Ac Lab.
“It’s just a fun day, we try to make it fun and interactive to really celebrate poetry,” librarian Ms. Brigid Dolan said.
The Poetry Festival consisted of multiple stations for students to work on poetry skills, a Poetry Slam contest, and an anonymous gallery for those not wishing to read their works out loud.
“We definitely wanted some way to celebrate poetry in April and we wanted a poetry slam to be a component of it,” Dolan said. “We also thought it would be cool to have stations where kids could do different types of things with it.”
The various stations included one focused on technology, which used apps that give writing prompts or teach about the formation and other aspects of poetry. Another station was focused on music.
“We did one with music so kids listen to music and practiced writing poems to music,” Dolan said. “It was instrumental music, so what kind of scene did they imagine in their head, and it inspired them to write poems.”
In addition to the poems, a published poet, Ms. Jennifer Goldring, attended the festival to read her poetry, talk about what inspires her writing, and hold a poetry workshop for the students in attendance. Among these students was sophomore Jennifer Wayland.
“I really like writing poetry and I’ve been writing for a couple of years now, so I figured I would get it out there and see if I got any good feedback from people,” Wayland said.
Wayland read her poem in the contest, in which she was runner-up. Freshman Danae Smith won the competition after voting by the other poets and Goldring.
“[The poem] is about a car accident I was in a couple months ago,” Wayland said.
“It’s kind of about how that has affected my life, and a dramatization of that situation.”
Themes of the poems shared by students ranged from comical to serious on a wide variety of topics.
“It takes a lot to go up and read your poem in front of a lot of people,” Wayland said. “I think everyone did really well.”
Dolan agrees, but believes that the audience’s respectful and attentive nature assisted the student poets.
“It’s really nice to have such an accepting audience when you’re sharing something so personal,” Dolan said.
Wayland highly recommends any aspiring poets, or those interested in poetry, to participate in similar events.
“Kid really wrote amazing poems, it’s a great way to share what they’ve written,” Dolan said.
