TTP Staff Recommendations for National Poetry Month

April might be the “cruellest” month but it also has a reason to celebrate. Since 1996, April has been declared National Poetry Month. Following the successes of Black History Month and Women’s History Month, the Academy of American Poets felt the need to promote awareness and increase poetry appreciation with a month dedicated to readings, workshops, and even book giveaways.

The Poetry Capital of America

TTP expanded our programs to Chicago in 2015, a city where every month feels like National Poetry Month. In fact, Chicago has made quite a run at being the Poetry Capital of America. It is the home to the Poetry Foundation and the inimitable monthly Poetry Magazine. There’s the Chicago Poetry Center as well and Young Chicago Authors (who we’ve had the pleasure of partnering with in the past). Chicago is home to historical poets Gwendolyn Brooks and Carl Sandburg, and to contemporaries like Eve Ewing and Kevin Coval. It is also the home to the last two National Youth Poet Laureates: Patricia Frazer and Kara Jackson.

Not to be outdone, our cohorts in Washington DC have a rich poetic history of their own. Langston Hughes lived in Washington D.C. and worked as a busboy. He eventually befriended poet Vachel Lindsey who helped publicize his work. Robert Penn Warren, Elizabeth Bishop, and many others have been inspired by Washington. Today, art galleries and cafes around the city bustle with live spoken-word and readings. Busboys and Poets has made an indelible mark on multiple locations in the city.

We are fortunate to work in cities that have such a strong foundation and community of poetry to inspire the families we work with. With that in mind, members of the Turning the Page staff wanted to share some of their favorite poems.

 

 

Langston Hughes

Sherrell Lewis, Partnership Manager:

 

  • “Harlem” by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
      Does it dry up
      like a raisin in the sun?

 

Jen Morse, Partnership Manager:

So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
and eddieandbill come 
running from marbles and 
piracies and it’s 
spring 
when the world is puddle-wonderful

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

 

Jasmine Jones, Partnership Manager:

In this world, nothing brittle prevails,
So in this world, grease is a compliment,
No, it’s a weapon

 

Chicago poet Kevin Coval leads a poetry workshop with TTP families.

 

Andrew Hertzberg, Development and Communications Specialist

And the twig-brown lizard scuttles up the branch
like fingers on the struts of a guitar.
I hear the detonations of agave
the stuttering outbursts of bougainvillea,

we who are 
your closest friends
feel the time
has come to tell you
that every Thursday
we have been meeting
as a group
to devise ways
to keep you
in perpetual uncertainty

Exposed on the cliffs of the heart. Look, how tiny down there,
look: the last village of words and, higher,
(but how tiny) still one last
farmhouse of feeling. Can you see it?

 

Ta’Lisa Turner-Pitts, Volunteer and Program Specialist

and i don’t dream 
bad dreams like i used 
to have that you 
were leaving me 
anymore 

 

Inspired to start reading some more poetry? Stop by a Carpe Librum bookstore today!

If promoting artistic literacy to students and families is important to you, please consider a donation to Turning the Page.

By: TTP Staff
April 18, 2019
Blog post | News & Events