James Shields School Poetry: All Shields Reading!

About Hands on Stanzas

Hands on Stanzas, the educational outreach program of the Poetry Center of Chicago places professional, teaching Poets in residence at Chicago Public Schools across the city. Poets teach the reading, discussion, and writing of poetry to 3 classes over the course of 20 classroom visits, typically from October through April. Students improve their reading, writing, and public speaking skills, and participating teachers report improved motivation and academic confidence. You can contact Cassie Sparkman, Director of the Hands on Stanzas program, by phone: 312.629.1665 or by email: csparkman(at)poetrycenter.org for more information.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

All Shields Reading!

This past week was the All Shields Reading. An amazing sixteen (!) classrooms participated, including both 3rd and 5th grade students from the main and branch buildings. Their classmates cheered them on, along with parents and other family who made a special trip to Shields for the reading.

Here are some pictures showing students reading their poems. Even though the microphone was sometimes cutting in and out, poets-in-residence, Mr. Dean and Ms. Bell (Ms. Javellana could not be present), used their technical expertise (banging the mic in their hands) to keep the assembly running as smoothly as possible.

Congratulations to all the students, and a big thanks to teachers and administrators for making this annual event the best All Shields Reading yet!

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About the Poets in Residence

Lindsay Bell
Lindsay Bell is a native of small-town Iowa, where there's not much to do but a lot of space in which to do not much. She recently completed her MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. Her poetry has appeared in Contrary, Black Clock, Columbia Poetry Review, Wicked Alice, and elsewhere. She resides with her husband, David, a seminarian at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and her cat, St. Alphonsus, patron of theologians and vocations, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. When she is not writing poetry or teaching, she enjoys singing (in concert and in the shower), learning new instruments, attempting new languages, and spending time outdoors.

Larry O. Dean
Larry O. Dean was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan, during which time he won three Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing, an honor shared with fellow poets Robert Hayden, Jane Kenyon, Frank O'Hara, and Marge Piercy, among others. He is author of numerous chapbooks, including I Am Spam (2004), a series of poems “inspired” by junk email; his poetry has also been internationally anthologized. In addition to writing, he is a singer-songwriter, performing solo as well as with several pop bands, currently, The Injured Parties; he has released several critically-acclaimed CD’s, including Fables in Slang (2001) with Post Office, and Gentrification is Theft (2002) with The Me Decade. Dean was a 2004 recipient of the Hands on Stanzas Gwendolyn Brooks Award, presented by the Poetry Center of Chicago. Contact him at larryodean.com.

Rachel Javellana
A Michigan native, Rachel Javellana is a poet and teaching artist in Chicago, by way of San Diego. She received a BA in English and creative writing from Kalamazoo College, and has spent the intervening years in community work, writing, travel, and trying to find an apartment that won’t go condo. In 2007, she received a Community Arts Assistance Program Grant from the City of Chicago.

James Shields School Poetry

About Hands on Stanzas

Thursday, April 17, 2008

All Shields Reading!

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