Freeman Foundation holds poetry program for high school students

Over the span of two weeks in September, the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation held a three-part poetry program for students from nine Sussex County high schools. The program was part of the foundation's Arts in Education initiative, now in its second year.

Delaware's poets laureate, The Twin Poets, Al Mills and Nnamdi Chukwuocha, led a presentation. Students also participated in a voice and movement workshop hosted by Brown Box Theatre Project and a writing workshop led by JoAnn Balingit, the state's Poetry Out Loud coordinator.

The objective of the Arts in Education program is to provide creative practices in the arts that impact higher-level thinking skills while embedding the arts within the schools' core curriculum, according to Denise DiSabatino Allen, the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation's community outreach, education and volunteer coordinator.

The addition of the writing component to the poetry program not only aligns the classroom curriculum, but also supports student-learning outcomes that align to state standards, Allen said. The writing workshop also encourages and inspires students to write. "One additional goal is to increase participation within our Sussex County high schools in the state's Poetry Out Loud program," said Allen.

Poetry Out Loud is a national program created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation; it is administered in partnership with state arts agencies. It encourages students to learn about poetry through memorization and recitation as well as helping students master pubic speaking skills, build self-confidence and learn about literary history. The program uses a pyramid structure that starts at the classroom level where winners advance to a schoolwide competition and then a state competition before advancing to nationals.

"It's very moving; it's amazing to see [these high school students] channeling the emotions and the excitement and the imagination, the experience and knowledge of what it means to be human," said Balingit.

For the writing aspect of the poetry program, Balingit, a past Delaware poet laureate , concentrated on American poetry and highlighted five poems during each class, which the students or she read. She would also play audio clips of the poems performed by the poems’ authors as well. Then students would participate in a free write, where they were asked to write their own poem.

"The students are shy at first, but everyone gets up to read what they wrote," she said. The free write passed quickly, and everyone came up with something. "They had fun with it, even the kids that seem the most resistant."

Indian River High School English teacher Joe Bellistri said the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation's poetry program is a great way for kids to release their creativity. And while his students might have been apprehensive at first, ultimately he thinks the program was successful. "Whether it's moving or listening to the Twin Poets, the kids start to get a little more excited about school. We need to keep them moving and fascinated and busy with their own ideas," he said.

"Being able to create and being able to speak brings confidence. It takes a lot of guts to do that, and so if we can get kids to do that more, the more confidence they have, the more they will carry those skills out into the real world," said Bellistri.