Writing Workshops for Youth, Teens, and Tweens
Marjolaine Whittlesey shares images from the ABCs of African American Poetry with the Museum & Theatre’s Beautiful Blackbird exhibit in the background.
Brittany Liscord works with a youth writing workshop participant in the Museum & Theatre’s Makerspace.
Youth writing workshop participants attach their words and phrases to the Poet-Tree in the Museum & Theatre’s Beautiful Blackbird exhibit.
A reflection by Brittany Liscord, Youth Coordinator
What is poetry? Telling Room Lead Educator Marjolaine Whittlesey and co-teacher Hipai Pamba posed this question to the group of youth eagerly gathered in the arts classroom at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine. Afternoon light filtered through the windows, no computer screens in sight. A large drawing of a tree, (soon to be a poet-tree!) and the colorful pages of Ashley Bryan’s ABCs of African American Poetry waited to be explored.
This first Telling Room workshop at the Museum & Theatre (there are two more to come!) took place in partnership with Indigo Arts’ Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival. The Festival offers online read-alouds, templated workshops and large scale celebrations to lift up and honor Black and Brown characters, authors and illustrators and further their positive impact in the community. The setting for this workshop—the Museum & Theatre’s Beautiful Blackbird exhibit was inspired by our experience as a partner in Indigo Arts Alliance’s festival last year. Indigo Arts Alliance’s efforts to support and promote black authors and illustrators in storytelling for children planted the seed for our collaborative work on this project.
Since the new Museum & Theatre just opened over a month ago we have greeted thousands of families who have explored Our Neighborhood, met organisms in our aquarium, made in the Makerspace, and been participants in world class theatre.
In addition to exhibit exploration, our institution has a wonderful opportunity to host programs such as the Telling Room workshop that target specific ages from infant to teen. Now more than ever, we do not take for granted these moments to gather and learn together in a safe environment designed specifically for the ages present.
So what is poetry? Along our journey to find out, youth participants read excerpts of poetry from famous poets such as Eloise Greenfield, Henry Dumas, Maya Angelou. We chatted about the colors and characters in Ashley Bryan’s vibrant illustrations of these poems and we came up with words to describe what we saw. Different parts of the pictures and poems popped out to different people. The words chosen to describe what we saw were varied and wonderful.
We all have the possibility to become poets. We all can look deeply and draw inspiration from incredible multi-talented artists such as Ashley Bryan. We find familiar things and new things and then find the words that describe our own experience. There is no wrong way to do it!
I cannot wait for the next two Telling Room Beautiful Blackbird Festival workshops hosted by the Museum & Theatre in September for tweens and teens ages 10-16. Register below or head to the Telling Room website to learn more!
Writing Workshop: Creative Characters
September 1st, 4:30pm - 5:45pm
For ages 10 - 16
This writing workshop will use Kwame Mbalia’s story Tristan Strong Punches a Hole In The Sky as inspiration for some character creation. Mbalia’s book is full of memorable characters: from West African gods and African American folk heroes to the central character himself: Tristan, who discovers that he has fantastic powers, too. Together we will create our own mythical characters, using collage and some tried and true techniques by Telling Room teachers. These characters can then be used to develop a story, a tale, a game...wherever your imagination takes you!
Writing Workshop: Object Writing - The Poetry of Things
September 8th: 4:30pm - 5:45pm
For ages 10 - 16
In this poetry workshop we will use Andrea Davis Pinkney’s novel in verse The Red Pencil as inspiration for our own object poems. Like the central character Amira, we will explore the interplay between text and drawing and create our own celebratory poems.
The Poet-Tree
Hipai Pamba works with a youth writing workshop participant in the Museum & Theatre’s Makerspace.