Poetry Object Producer Emma Rose Smith presents a workshop at the July 2019 ALEA conference Literacy Empowering Voices: Reflecting the Past, Viewing the Present, Scripting the Future.

About the workshop: Voicing the Imagination with Poetry

From Refugee Week workshops to Poetry in First Languages Storytelling and EcoSlams, Red Room Poetry’s (RR) programs empower voices of the future. By actively engaging students in personal poetic storytelling we help explore identity, improve creative engagement, and foster cultural awareness in learning environments.

This workshop shares practical poetic tools to engage students with poetry to reflect on the past, interrogate the present, and voice the future.

Through case studies of RR’s poetic projects and learning programs in schools and juvenile justice, this session helps teachers to empower voices through contemporary poetry. Whether it’s connecting to nature and culture, calling for change, or listening to memories in the places and objects around us, RR’s targeted poetic learning programs provide literacy tools to awaken students’ imaginative and critical thinking.