High School Students Enjoy 'Poetry Cafe'

Saucon Valley High School students participated in a Poetry Café last month. According to English teacher Genia Miller, the idea for this event was formulated several years ago.

"A few years ago, (English teacher) Jen Barreiros and I dreamed about a poetry café at which about 40 kids could write and read poetry," Miller said. "We never imagined what could happen when a handful of educators joined forces to make a day of poetry, music, and performance for upwards of 300 students."

What began as a “small little idea…turned into a huge thing,” noted Barreiros.

“Kids are bored with poetry, (and) we wanted to give them different ways to express themselves,” she added.

Together, the two teachers worked on their idea and ultimately approached the nonprofit Saucon Valley Foundation for Educational Innovation with a grant proposal. The foundation provides funding that enables teachers in the district to provide creative programming above and beyond that which is funded by the regular school budget.

After the grant was awarded and additional planning took place, the Poetry Café finally became a reality on May 24.

Students in grades 9 to 12 who are enrolled in English this semester were able to attend the event for one period or the entire day.

The morning kicked off with music by Free Range Folk--a group made up of Kevin Ruch, Josh Finsel and Shawn McCarty. Free Range Folk's performance was followed by a presentation by professional readers Reenie McGrath and Tom Ruch, and the morning concluded with an open mic session, snacks and music by a group from the high school band.

After an introduction by Reenie and Tom, students broke off into groups and worked their way around seven different prearranged poetry stations. The stations included Brainstorming, Six Word Memoir, Just Because, Synonym Poems, Pyramid Power, First Lines Last Lines and Haiku, and were developed to expose students to particular forms of poetry, give them examples and guide them to write their own. An eighth station spontaneously developed when the band took aside a group of students and put their poems to music.

When asked about the poetry café, student Abbey Inglis had positive things to say about it.

"I like writing different kinds of poetry," she said. "It was helpful to learn (at) the stations. My favorite was the synonym poem--fun to write.”

Student Kayli Reily said the event was "a good experience."

"I heard a lot of poems I never heard before," she added.

Poetry, Reily said, is "a great way to express yourself."

One of the station presenters, Megan Hauser, said “being this is the first year of the poetry café, the majority of students were willing to take risks. It was neat watching students help each other with ideas.”

The risk taking was especially evident during the open mic session in the afternoon.

In the beginning, students tentatively lined up to share their poems with their fellow classmates. They appeared to gain courage from their peers as the stream of students continued for almost an hour.

The open mic session was evidence of the success of the program, as all forms of poetry taught were shared by the students.

The comments overheard from students during the day expressed the true value of the program. They included:

• “The band members are cool. They actually put my poem to music right in front of me!"
• "I liked the freedom to express what we wanted."
• "The actors are a little different. They kept my attention."
• "Wow, I'm good at this poetry stuff."
• "I like the fact that we're mixed with all grades so we can see how much we grow."
• “He writes the most beautiful poems.”

At the end of the day, Genia Miller perhaps summed it up best.

"What I think amazes me most is the number of kids who volunteered to share their creations in front of an auditorium of students and teachers," she said.

"This is exciting," Miller added. "We're already devising schemes for future activities."