There are no right or wrong answers when it comes to sharing a poem, youngsters in the Skeels Summer Youth Program learned recently. And writing a poem can be a lot of fun, especially when you team up to do it.
Those are some of the lessons shared by Isaiah Hunt, a student at the Wick Poetry Center at 91²Ö¿â, during a visit to the Skeels-Mathews Community Center in Ravenna, where he led a poetry workshop.
Hunt shared a poem, "100% Me," written by Xander Obeng, a seventh-grader, which the youngsters read aloud and discussed. He pointed out the young poet's choice of words and how the work flowed. "You're not just writing. You're creating music," he said. "The rhyme creates the music."
After discussing the poem, Hunt led the group in creating a poem depicting a famous person. The youngsters chose Chance the Rapper as their subject.
The session concluded with the group members composing a poem about themselves, using "100% Me" as a model. All shared their work.
Young people in the program visited the Wick Poetry Center and the Department of Pan-African Studies at 91²Ö¿â earlier this summer. Hunt was invited to the Skeels center to build on what they had learned.
Skeels-Mathews Community Center is located at 4378 Skeels St. in Ravenna Township. The center is an agency of Family & Community Services.
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