2009 Incarcerated Teens Poetry Workshop #1
Today was the first of 7 poetry sessions with a group of incarcerated young men. It wasn’t as bad as my first classroom speaking experience 15 years ago when I had to swallow back tears after something...
View Article2009 Incarcerated Teens Poetry Workshop #2
Today was the second of 7 poetry sessions with a group of incarcerated young men. The goal for the day was to get to a simile of 2-3 lines that they could then copy to a piece of art paper and...
View Article2009 Incarcerated Teens Poetry Workshop #3
Today was the third of 7 poetry sessions with a group of incarcerated young men. The goal for the day was survival. I’m not joking. When the teacher tells you right off the bat that they had managed to...
View Article2009 Incarcerated Teens Poetry Workshop #4
Today was the fourth of 7 poetry sessions with a group of incarcerated young men. The goal for the session was to end up with at least one poem or near poem that I could bring home, type up, and take...
View Article2009 Incarcerated Teens Poetry Workshop #5
Today was the fifth of 7 poetry sessions with a group of incarcerated young men. We are coming close to the end of the sessions. Today I wanted to work on something a bit more poetic, more sensory. I...
View Article2009 Incarcerated Teens Poetry Workshop #6
Today was the sixth of 7 poetry sessions with a group of incarcerated young men. It was not a good day. Not good at all. Before we even started the guard gave them another talking to about being quiet...
View Article2009 Incarcerated Teens Poetry Workshop #7
Today was the last of 7 poetry sessions with a group of incarcerated young men. I won’t pretend it was easy to go back there today. It wasn’t. Not after the rough day on Monday. I really had to psyche...
View ArticlePoetry Friday – Incarcerated Teens Group Poem
I recently completed teaching a series of seven sessions in a poetry workshop for incarcerated teens and on the last day they spent nearly an hour writing the following group poem. Though I posted it...
View ArticleArt Empowers Our Youth
A few months ago I had the chance to teach poetry to a group of incarcerated teens. Today was the reception and opening of the display of the student work at the de Saisset museum at Santa Clara...
View ArticleMy Pitch for the Arts Connect Program
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to speak at our county budget planning session in support of the Arts Council program that gave me a grant for my incarcerated teens poetry project. There were...
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