Celebrating Creative Expression During National
Poetry Month
By Matilda Raffa Cuomo
In April, the Academy
of American Poets will celebrate its 10th annual National
Poetry Month, a program that the Academy established to promote
appreciation of contemporary poetry. In addition to the month-long
celebration, the Children’s
Book Council has designated the week of April 11th as National
Young People’s Poetry Week, during which poetry readings,
contests and other activities are planned across the country.
In its long history
as one of New York City’s largest
mentoring organization, Mentoring USA knows the power of creative
expression in developing self-expression skills and building
self-esteem among children. Mentoring USA encourages relationship
development through sharing stories, thoughts and emotions,
whether through journal writing between mentors and mentees,
poetry, autobiography projects, or artwork.
Throughout April, our mentees and mentors will explore together
how to express themselves through poetry. At each of their
sites, they will have an opportunity to write and recite poems,
learn about poets, and participate in poetry activities throughout
the city. Mentoring USA is proud to join many other youth-serving
organizations across the country in celebration of National
Poetry Month.
This year a project
entitled “MY NYC!” was developed
by Mentoring USA Program Manager Neda Semnani as a creative
way for English as a Second Language (ESL) students to explore
their new city and express their feelings about their lives
in the United States. As promoting literacy is a priority for
Mentoring USA, the project is designed so that mentees will
use resources at neighborhood libraries to research areas of
the city that they would like to explore. The final product
will be a presentation to their fellow mentees and mentors.
In addition to projects
geared at building literacy, Mentoring USA sponsors activities
to expand mentees’ exposure to
the world around them. For example, in March, artist Jessica
Lotner facilitated a project with two Mentoring USA sites.
She shared her experiences and photographs from her life in
Africa with elementary school children and led a mural project
in which mentors and mentees painted African animals. Mentees
will sign the back of the finished mural and it will be mailed
to Israel as a gift from Mentoring USA, where it will hang
in an orphanage where Jessica volunteered earlier this year.
The value of showcasing
children’s creativity, whether
in an orphanage in need of brightening or in another forum,
cannot be underestimated. It is critical to make our young
people feel proud of the ideas they express in their artwork
and writing. Magazines such as Nick Jr. Magazine, Teen Voices,
Stone Soup, as well as countless websites (a simple Google search
will find many of them), recognize young artists and writers
by publishing their work. But there needs to be more magazines
that demonstrate commitment to nurturing young talent. In addition
to enhancing the artists’ confidence and self-esteem,
publishers give their readers the benefit of beautiful pictures,
poems and stories created by promising young talent.
There
are many other innovative opportunities to support children’s creative endeavors.
Fortunately because of Mentoring USA’s outstanding
mentoring partnership with Bloomingdales, every year during
National Mentoring Month in January Bloomingdales dedicates
their corner window at Lexington Avenue completely to their
mentees artwork of Public School 59. Bloomingdales’ employees
adopted this Mentoring USA school site, which is our largest
mentoring site with one hundred Bloomingdales employees as
trained mentors. The memorable experience for the mentees
of seeing their artwork and written expressions of gratitude
to their mentors exhibited publicly had an extraordinary
effect on these mentees. This ongoing opportunity, thanks
to Bloomingdales Chairman Michael Gould, and more occasions
for story and poetry writing activities through the year,
are important components of Mentoring USA’s mission
to support the holistic learning and growth of our young
people.
If you are interested in
more information about Mentoring USA or want to learn how
to become a trained mentor, contact Recruitment Manager
Leslie Kelly at 212-400-8286. To learn more about National
Poetry Month visit www.poets.org/npm/
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