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APRIL 2005

Celebrating Creative Expression During National Poetry Month

By Matilda Raffa Cuomo

In April, the Academy of American Poets will celebrate its 10th annual National Poetry Month, a program that the Academy established to promote appreciation of contemporary poetry. In addition to the month-long celebration, the Children’s Book Council has designated the week of April 11th as National Young People’s Poetry Week, during which poetry readings, contests and other activities are planned across the country.

In its long history as one of New York City’s largest mentoring organization, Mentoring USA knows the power of creative expression in developing self-expression skills and building self-esteem among children. Mentoring USA encourages relationship development through sharing stories, thoughts and emotions, whether through journal writing between mentors and mentees, poetry, autobiography projects, or artwork.

Throughout April, our mentees and mentors will explore together how to express themselves through poetry. At each of their sites, they will have an opportunity to write and recite poems, learn about poets, and participate in poetry activities throughout the city. Mentoring USA is proud to join many other youth-serving organizations across the country in celebration of National Poetry Month.

This year a project entitled “MY NYC!” was developed by Mentoring USA Program Manager Neda Semnani as a creative way for English as a Second Language (ESL) students to explore their new city and express their feelings about their lives in the United States. As promoting literacy is a priority for Mentoring USA, the project is designed so that mentees will use resources at neighborhood libraries to research areas of the city that they would like to explore. The final product will be a presentation to their fellow mentees and mentors.

In addition to projects geared at building literacy, Mentoring USA sponsors activities to expand mentees’ exposure to the world around them. For example, in March, artist Jessica Lotner facilitated a project with two Mentoring USA sites. She shared her experiences and photographs from her life in Africa with elementary school children and led a mural project in which mentors and mentees painted African animals. Mentees will sign the back of the finished mural and it will be mailed to Israel as a gift from Mentoring USA, where it will hang in an orphanage where Jessica volunteered earlier this year.

The value of showcasing children’s creativity, whether in an orphanage in need of brightening or in another forum, cannot be underestimated. It is critical to make our young people feel proud of the ideas they express in their artwork and writing. Magazines such as Nick Jr. Magazine, Teen Voices, Stone Soup, as well as countless websites (a simple Google search will find many of them), recognize young artists and writers by publishing their work. But there needs to be more magazines that demonstrate commitment to nurturing young talent. In addition to enhancing the artists’ confidence and self-esteem, publishers give their readers the benefit of beautiful pictures, poems and stories created by promising young talent.

There are many other innovative opportunities to support children’s creative endeavors. Fortunately because of Mentoring USA’s outstanding mentoring partnership with Bloomingdales, every year during National Mentoring Month in January Bloomingdales dedicates their corner window at Lexington Avenue completely to their mentees artwork of Public School 59. Bloomingdales’ employees adopted this Mentoring USA school site, which is our largest mentoring site with one hundred Bloomingdales employees as trained mentors. The memorable experience for the mentees of seeing their artwork and written expressions of gratitude to their mentors exhibited publicly had an extraordinary effect on these mentees. This ongoing opportunity, thanks to Bloomingdales Chairman Michael Gould, and more occasions for story and poetry writing activities through the year, are important components of Mentoring USA’s mission to support the holistic learning and growth of our young people.

If you are interested in more information about Mentoring USA or want to learn how to become a trained mentor, contact Recruitment Manager Leslie Kelly at 212-400-8286. To learn more about National Poetry Month visit www.poets.org/npm/

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