Poetry Week - a wonderful occasion at ArtSpace

Seeing as how I wish to celebrate the creative things NC charter schools are doing, I suppose I'll start with my own. One event at ArtSpace that is very popular and successful is our annual Poetry Week. Usually held in the spring, Poetry Week is full of activities about - you guessed it - poetry! The walls of the school are covered with poems by a wide variety of well-known writers. One afternoon during the week we have a school-wide assembly called "Fools for Poetry" when staff members take to the microphone and share their own poetry or poems by others that they love. The elementary and middle schools both hold their own poetry slams. The winners of the middle school slam go on to compete at the Lake Eden Arts Festival a few weeks later. Also during poetry week we have moments of "Random Acts of Poetry" when students or staff may interrupt another class with a poem or two. Student poets also read their poems during morning and afternoon announcements on the intercom. Parent volunteers sign up to read poetry to classes. We also always try to have professional poets perform. This year we were excited to have Glenis Redmond in residency all week. She was terrific!

Obviously all these activities take organization and thought. We have a poetry committee that meets throughout the year to plan the event. I doubt it could succeed otherwise. (Big hurrah to Juliana Caldwell for her excellent leadership this past year!) So, planning, creativity and school/community-wide involvement is crucial for a successful Poetry Week. Does your school have a similar event? Share it please!