California Poets in the Schools turns 50

California Poets in the Schools, an artist-in-school program, is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. One of the nation’s oldest and largest visiting writers programs, CPITS began as the Pegasus Project at San Francisco State in 1964 is active in more than 25 counties—from San Diego to Del Norte, Marin to Inyo counties and reaches 26,000 students annually.

CPITS is a collective of professional poets who bring their literary craft into schools. Noted CPITS poets include California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, Jane Hirshfield, Alison Luterman, Opal Palmer Adisa, Richard Garcia, devorah major, Duane BigEagle, John Oliver Simon, Jonathan London, and Molly Fisk: hundreds of poets have led workshops in K-12 classrooms, juvenile halls, hospitals and other community settings. In partnership with the California Arts Council, CPITS also delivers the national Poetry Out Loud poetry recitation program to high school students.

Events to mark the anniversary include a Poetry & Teaching Symposium, Voices of Gold, to be held in Marin at the Earthrise/IONS retreat center October 10-12. Keynote speaker will be former California Poet Laureate Al Young. An intensive “method writing” workshop will be led by Los Angeles poet and screenwriter Jack Grapes. The symposium also features spoken word artist Josh Healey, and 15 visiting poets from around the state who will share proven strategies to deliver hands-on and out-loud poetry in schools. For last-minute registration: tina@cpits.org

Poetry Crossing: 50+ Lessons for 50 Years, an anthology of teaching resources designed for ready-to-roll use in busy classrooms, delivers poetry of diverse styles and literary traditions, including bilingual examples. Contributors with a California connection include former United States Poet Laureate Robert Hass along with Jane Hirshfield, Brenda Hillman, Ellen Bass, Juan Felipe Herrera, Al Young, Gary Snyder, Francisco Alarcón, David St. John, and many more—all of whom have donated their poems in order to further the mission of inspiring youth. The collection includes a foreword by master poet-teacher Susan Wooldridge, author of Poemcrazy, and is edited by poet Phyllis Meshulam, CPITS area coordinator from Sonoma County.

Poetry Crossing makes tangible decades of CPITS creative writing pedagogy, aimed to stimulate the intellectual curiosity and creative problem-solving skills of today’s students. If you’d like to become involved as a teacher, poet, donor or school, please find us on the web at www.cpits.org to help build the future for young writers in California.