Each April at ETHS we celebrate National Poetry Month by offering exciting workshops and presentations to inspire students and stimulate their creative writing. Returning once again to lead off the week’s activities is New Jersey poet and story teller, Jim Flanagan, with writing workshops Monday and Wednesday. Students are easily engaged by Jim‘s down to earth approach to writing their stories in verse. His humor and style are incomparable, and really get our students writing—we don’t tell them that he is a retired college professor and author, just having fun.

Kevin Coval, another ETHS favorite, returns this year with Idris Goodwin, an award-winning playwright, poet, educator and essayist who works with students of all ages, from K-12 to college, and uses hip-hop to promote cross-cultural literacy. Both will perform Tuesday morning for classes in the Upstairs Theatre (per. 1-4). Kevin and Idris will also offer writing workshops in the afternoon (per. 7-9). Kevin has worked with students in 150 high schools, and he is a co-founder of “Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Teen Poetry Festival”, the largest youth poetry festival in the world.

 

The culminating event of poetry week, Open Mic, will be held on Thursday, April 14^th during lunch periods: 4, 5, and 6. Students have the opportunity to read their poems and support their friends who read. Teachers can sign up to bring classes. It is always a very thrilling event as we often have nearly 500 students who participate. The Culinary Arts class will again provide us with dessert to accompany our light lunch.

 

Graphic Design student, Bennett Nidenberg, won our contest for this year’s poster design, which appears at the top of this page by capturing the essence of our theme: expression without limitations. Another Graphic Design student, Ma Kristina Madlangbayan, won our contest for her graceful yet edgy button design (bottom right of the page) which will be given to readers during Open Mic.