|
|
|
|
|
CONTENTS |
Pictured Veronica Cunningham, Jackleen Holton, Claudia Poquoc, Terri Glass Seretta Martin, Johnirrenee Nelson, Brandon Cesmat. Not pictured Jill Moses who was taking the photo. |
| WHAT'S NEWS | ||||
|
Update in San Diego On January 20, Terri Glass, CPITS Program Director, held a meeting with San Diego poets hosted in the home of Seretta Martin. Terri learned where all poets were teaching this year and what schools were lost due to state education cutbacks. Area Coordinator Jill Moses discussed the grant proposal she wrote to the California Culture of Humanities and brainstormed a couple of fundraisers they plan to implement in the spring. Border Voices, a local poet in residence program in San Diego still produces a county anthology and lists CPITS poet teachers on their website. Despite the economy, CPITS remains very visible in San Diego County thanks to all the residency work of veteran poet Veronica Cunningham, and other poet teachers, including the Poetry Out Loud work of Brandon Cesmat and Border Voices teacher coordinator, Seretta Martin.
Great Way to Connect our Program to Community
Poems Wanted |
||||
| SAVE THE DATE | ||||
|
Poetry Out Loud state finals will be held March 20-21, 2011 in Sacramento. The first round of the competition is held on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 pm at the Sheraton Grand Hotel. The dinner by invitation only will follow Sunday evening and rounds 2 & 3 of the competition will be in the Senate Chamber on Monday. This year the CPITS annual symposium will be held at the beautiful retreat center of Casa de Maria, 800 El Bosque Road, Santa Barbara on September 9-11, 2011. return to top |
||||
|
IN THE SPOTLIGHT |
||||
|
Terri: Seretta, you have been active in the San Diego poetry scene in several ways. Can you briefly tell me all the poetry related things that you do in your community? Seretta: For the last 8 years I have been a volunteer poetry host for a Barnes and Noble Poetry Series in San Diego. I schedule the featured poets, do the publicity, and occasionally arrange a workshop for a visiting poet from out of town to teach while he or she is in San Diego. I am on the steering committee of the new Haiku San Diego society with Billie Dee, Naia and Megan Webster. During the Spring and Summer we hold haiku walks in Balboa Park, at the beach, at lakes and other inspiring places. These walks are open to the public. I am the assistant to the director, poet-teacher coordinator, and web site designer for the Border Voices Poetry Project that is celebrating its 17th year. Last year Border Voices launched a new type of fair — a virtual fair. At the ITV station we have two studios adjacent to one another. One studio is for the talent and the other for the audience and refreshments. I am the production manager of the fair and last year I witnessed the excitement of the audience of parents, teachers, donors and fans, as they watched the filming take place in “real time” on a wide screen. It was fun for them to hear the camera directions and see all the “behind the scenes” activities. These TV shows are aired throughout the year on the ITV station. To see clips of these shows and read the last two years of award-winning student poems visit bordervoices.com. There is also a study on how Border Voices Poetry in the schools has improved the grades of students. At SDSU I am working on my MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis on Poetry. I’m an assistant editor of the Poetry International Journal and the current editors are Ilya Kaminsky and Bruce Boston. At the AWP convention we will have a PI display table to promote the journal, which has a strong emphasis on international poetry. My first book, Foreign Dust Familiar Rain (Blue Vortex Publishers) is available on barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com. My new translations of the contemporary Lithuanian poet, Sonata Paliulyt are forthcoming in the San Diego Poetry Annual, 2011. Terri: You joined CPITS in 2003. Were you first affiliated with Border Voices? How did you know about either organization? Seretta: In 1999, I met Jack Webb, the founding director of Border Voices Poetry Project and was impressed by his dedication and mission to take poetry into hundreds of classrooms in San Diego. I attended the poetry fairs and got excited about the prospect of becoming a poet-teacher in this wonderful program. I had taught in private schools. I learned that the teachers were required to be CPITS members and to go through the same training as CPITS poet-teachers. I was trained by Veronica Cunningham, Jill Moses, and Julia Doughty and felt that I had found my own mission to excite students about writing and reading poetry. Since then I have taught grades 3rd through high school and sometimes I am call on to do workshops at libraries and conventions. Terri: Can you explain how Border Voices works with CPITS poet teachers to reach more students in San Diego Schools? Seretta: As I see it, Border Voices poet-teachers and CPITS poet-teachers are one in the same. The two organizations have symbiotic relationships. There are a number of benefits to being a member of both, including the publishing of student poems in two anthologies. Border Voices, a San Diego organization, has published an anthology for 17 years, and CPITS is approaching its 50th year, although there may have been some years when CPITS didn’t publish. In San Diego, by being affiliated with both programs the poet-teachers are able to submit student poems for publication in both anthologies. And, of course, Border Voices has the ITV shows, the fair and awards. As a CPITS member the poet-teachers have the additional blessing of being part of a larger community of teachers in a statewide organization that has a long and impressive history and annual symposiums of networking and nurturing workshops. Terri: What is your favorite anecdote teaching in a San Diego school? TEARS, POETRY AND JOY – a student success story by Seretta Martin The recess bell rings, the room empties, and there is Shawn, head in hands, tears bright in the corners of his eyes. “I can’t write poetry!” he says, holding up a blank page. He is the only child who hadn’t written a line during my 50-minute workshop. Squeezing into a tiny third-grade chairs, I sit next to him and hold up a metal egg with a chime inside - - only a half hour ago - - he had selected from my music basket of writing “triggers.” “ Do you remember, when you picked this egg from my basket, you asked what kind of chicken lived inside a metal egg?” “Uh-huh,” Shawn sniffles. “And what did you decide it would look like?” “A robot…” “And what would it eat?” “Nuts and bolts, with its strong beak…” “That’s a good line,” I affirm. I write it for him, prompt him with more questions and write then...another and another line. “See, you CAN write a poem.” He wipes his cheeks. A faint smile lights up his face. The next day, no longer timid, he takes the microphone, puffs out his chest and reads his poem with pride. Later, his teacher tells me that Shawn is intelligent, but challenged with emotional disorders. His parents and doctors are helping him. I think this day of poetic success will make a difference. He is in 3rd grade. The poem you see here is his second poem. The chicken poem wandered away and we’re still searching. MIND Our mind - - Everything inside our mind - - What will our minds make? When will it be made? You must make it in your mind. Mind, Mind, Minds. Your dreams live in you. Be alert! Everyday. Your mind always makes – IDEAS. I’m happy to report that I still hear from Michelle, Shawn’s mother. He is a musician and writes song lyrics. Terri: Thanks, Seretta. It is great to know the San Diego poetry community is so active with the care and commitment you bring with the many poetry hats you wear. |
||||
|
SPECIAL EVENT |
||||
|
Sunday, March 20, 12:30-2pm, Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th and R, Sacramento, |
||||
| EVENTS | ||||
|
Sunday, February 13, noon - 4 pm, San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium on 100 Larkin St. The San Francisco County Poetry Out Loud will take place with students from 6 high schools competing from Mission, Ida B. Wells, Lincoln, School of the Arts, Lowell, and Waldorf High Schools Poet teachers serving as POL coaches at these high schools were: Dawn Marie Knopf, Laura Goode, Joan Gelfand, Kathy Evans, and Susan Terence. The public is invited to attend the event. Saturday, February 19, 7:00 pm, MCoffee, 522 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, CA Wordplay- poetry writing workshop with Emmanuel Williams. Come do things you've never done before! Plus open mic. Contact emmanuelriddlemaker@gmail.com for more information. February 18-20 - Joan Gelfand will be teaching workshops on poetry and writing business at the San Francisco Writers Conference: http://www.sfwriters.org/ February 28, 7-8 pm, Joan Gelfand will be a guest of Blake More on "Women's Voices" on KXYX&Z Mendocino County Community Radio (streams live at www.kzyx.org); the show will also be archived on Blake More's site: www.snakelyone.com/radio/womens-voices/wv-home.html return to top |
||||
|
KUDOS |
||||
|
Susan Terence's poem, "Dreams of the Mothers of the Disappeared" (about the Argentinian mothers whose children disappeared during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983) will appear in an upcoming issue of "The St. Petersburg Review." Joan Gelfand’s poem, "Music Dream Seven" will appear in Fearless Books new anthology "Touching: Poems of Love, Longing and Desire" due out February 1st. www.fearlessbooks.com |
||||
|
||||
|
