As April, which is National Poetry Month, approached, Timia McCoade (VI) and Lena Habtu (VI) sought to create a space within the Fieldston community for aspiring poets to share their own pieces, an event they described as \u201cour love letter to the art form of poetry.\u201d The 2022 Annual Fieldston Poetry Assembly, held on March 31, showcased eight student works (Soren Stearns (V), Grace Negroni (III), Lena Habtu, Catherine Hou (VI), Remy Lipman (IV), Hannah Mayerfield (V) (read by Michael Morse), Timia McCoade, Wesley Mitchell (III)) and four faculty speakers (Vincent Drybala, Robert Greenwald, Gia Moreno, Arhm Wild). Featured topics included trans identity, mental health and self-renewal, and even math. Math teacher Moreno attests that Greenwald \u201cbrought down the house\u201d with the upperclassman performance of his playful calculus poem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McCoade, who will head to Northwestern University this fall as a creative writing and cognitive science major, received a 2021 Scholastic Art & Writing National Gold Medal and a 2021 Scholastic Art & Writing American Voices Medal. Habtu, co-president of Fieldston Student Government and a soon-to-be Swarthmore sociology major, was awarded an honorable mention in the poetry category of the 2021 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and won a silver key in the personal essay & memoir category of the 2020 National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, to name a few. To truly appreciate Habtu and McCoade\u2019s talent, however, one need only have attended the assembly, where they performed their original poems, \u201cspacetimecontinuum,” and \u201cShe\/Her\/Hers,\u201d respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her assembly introduction, Habtu marveled that she has been writing for \u201cas long as I can remember, really. Looking back on the poems I wrote when I was seven or eight years old, I\u2019m really shocked by the extent to which my poems allowed me to be perceptive and introspective before I really knew how to tap into that consciously.\u201d McCoade also began writing poetry early (fifth grade), and it has since become one of the most important aspects of their life. \u201cThrough poetry I feel as though I am able to express my emotions and my lived experiences in a way that I cannot do through speech or other forms of writing,\u201d they say. Other poets, including Hou, agree that writing can frequently function as a mode for processing and reflecting on emotions. \u201cWhen I go back to proofread my work, and to not only explain it for myself, but for others, it allows me to go through the layers of my experiences,\u201d Hou says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hou’s poem challenges societally accepted misogyny and sexual harassment. \u201cIt was based on personal experiences for sure,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing a woman and some of the things I\u2019ve gone through. But it was also inspired by a number of things that I\u2019ve read about women and gender inequalities that we\u2019ve normalized and don\u2019t even realize.\u201d She rarely shares her work \u2013 and when she does, \u201cI certainly don\u2019t read it aloud.\u201d After boredom turned into creativity over spring break, Hou\u2019s friends encouraged her to submit the piece. Though it was a daunting feat, the poet admitted she might even consider participating in something similar in the future. Moreno, also initially hesitant to participate, shared the poem \u201cWarning\u201d by Jenny Joseph. \u201cThe biggest thing was I feel like we need to be a bigger part of our community,\u201d Moreno said, \u201cSo, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, and did that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The assembly was widely received as a success and had a clear positive effect on audience members. \u201cPeople really put their heart into this work,\u201d said Hou. \u201cI think that\u2019s one of the biggest takeaways. If people listened to the messages and felt compelled to look into them, even if it just reached one person, that\u2019s great.\u201d Gregory Brooks (III), feels similarly. \u201cThe nature of poets is to be poetic by proximity \u2013 if you\u2019re around good poetry, it can influence anyone,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1996, the Academy of American Poets tapped into the same idea when they implemented National Poetry Month. Inspired by Black History Month and Women\u2019s History Month, which successfully drew attention to their causes through the mainstream media, the Academy hoped that national recognition would revitalize appreciation and respect for the craft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an increasingly technological world, where dopamine flows fast and cheap with each slavish scroll, April provides a reminder to relax, reset, and return to a more organic gratification. Ceaseless rains plunge the earth into a cycle of renewal, inviting us to luxuriate in the brilliantly raw creations of our own glorious minds. Even on social media, popular trends include \u201cEscapril,\u201d which prompts poets to write and share a poem based on a new daily theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poets, too, attained a more profound awareness of those around them through the assembly. McCoade explains, \u201cIn reading and listening to poetry, I feel as though I am offered insight into others\u2019 ways of thinking and living, both artistically and more literally.\u201d Morse agrees, \u201cI can think of no greater tool for empathy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Certainly, poetry provides an incredible avenue for enriched mutual understanding \u2013 throughout human history, oral storytelling has been the very root of connection. The songlines of indigenous Australians, the griots of West Africa, and the epics of the Greeks all stand as testaments to our innate desire to seek comfort in shared experiences, and to narrate our own. Over the years, this necessity has blossomed into myriad modes of visionary self-expression, including poetry. The Fieldston School itself has produced a number of notable poets of the years, including Muriel Rukeyser (\u201830), Howard Nemerov (\u201837), and Gil Scott-Heron (\u201867). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interested, but unsure of how to get started? \u201cStarting to write is honestly such a personal thing,\u201d says Hou. \u201cI think my one piece of advice is to never write if you don\u2019t want to. If it\u2019s going to speak to you and to other people, it has to come from your own experiences and own voice. The world has so many different voices, and a lot of those voices are trying to be exactly the same. So, when you write, just \u2013 don\u2019t do that. Infuse your own voice into it, and it\u2019ll stand out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As April, which is National Poetry Month, approached, Timia McCoade (VI) and Lena Habtu (VI) sought to create a space within the Fieldston community for aspiring poets to share their own pieces, an event they described as \u201cour love letter to the art form of poetry.\u201d The 2022 Annual Fieldston Poetry Assembly, held on March 31, showcased eight student works (Soren Stearns (V), Grace Negroni (III), Lena Habtu, Catherine Hou (VI), Remy Lipman (IV), Hannah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":6477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,347,318],"tags":[],"coauthors":[481],"class_list":["post-6475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-community","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screen-Shot-2022-04-24-at-10.21.58-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/330"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6475"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6478,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions\/6478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6475"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}