For the second year in a row, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers (the non-profit that presents the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards) is celebrating poets and poetry throughout the month of March as part of the Poetry Coalition. Founded by the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Coalition is a national alliance of organizations working together to promote the role poets take in shaping our culture.
The Alliance enlisted the help of its National Student Poets and Alums of the Scholastic Awards to support this poetry initiative. All month, the current Class of National Student Poets are taking over the Scholastic Awards Instagram! They’ve been posting poems and images that speak to this year’s Poetry Coalition theme: Where My Dreaming and My Loving Live: Poetry & the Body. You can check out more of their posts here.
On Facebook, artist and Alumni Microgrant recipient Karina Puente hosted a live chat with former National Student Poet Madeleine LeCesne. They discussed the poem this year’s theme is based on, Tracy K. Smith’s “Flores Woman,” and talked about the connection between art and poetry. Karina also created a piece of art based on lines from the poem using papel picado, a Mexican form of art created by carving images and text into tissue paper. Watch the video to hear Karina and Madeleine talk about poetry and see Karina’s beautiful piece of art!