I also introduced myself by reading my poem, Ode to the Chancla, a piece about the power of the very underestimated foam flip-flop, then I shared a bit about my journey into poetry, and how it completely changed the trajectory of my life. I shared how poetry opened the doors to so many opportunities in my life that I couldn’t have imagined when I was in High School, and how my mission was to teach them how powerful poetry can be. We then spent some time talking about what we think poetry is and created agreements for what we need to have a safe space for writing. The most important impressive one this group of young women came up with: Always write from the heart! Stay tuned for our next blog post where we’ll be sharing poems about place and home!
Getting Started
For our first session at Simpson Academy for Young Women, we spent the session introducing ourselves. I asked the class to share their names, what part of the city they reside in, and what their super hero power would be if they had one. We had quite a few telekinetic and flying folks in our midst, along with some mind readers!