Downloadable PDF – Poet in Residence Posting ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION Mission & ProgramsThe Chicago Poetry Center’s mission is to connect people and poetry, equitably engage poets with communities, and foster creative literacy in the […]

What’s your favorite day of the week? What’s your least favorite? These are the questions I asked this past Tuesday for my second week with Terrapins and Dreamers students at the O-School. Friday and […]

Poetry @ The Green at 320 continues for the summer season this July! The Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal are proud to host this free, weekly reading and open […]

What are some things that make you feel connected to the rest of humanity? That’s the question we started with this week, before reading Roque Dalton’s like you. Students worked on pieces, where their […]

After a bit of a pause in our program, due to the spring break and a schedule conflict, I was back at Perez with Mr. Reinholdt’s 7th graders to finish up poems inspired by […]

This week we got started on poems using personification as a device in our poems. We read “A Lament” by Percy Bysshe Shelley and talked about how we could give human qualities to things […]

I ended our Perez residency with Ms. Murrays 4th graders by bringing in We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks. Students wrote some amazing poems, and we closed out by sharing what we took away […]

This week we celebrated our amazing miraculous bodies by celebrating what students thought was the most powerful part of their own. I really loved all of this week’s poems and had such a hard […]

This summer I will have a short, yet exciting residency with the students at the O-School. I will be working with the groups: The Terrapins and The Dreamers. The theme for our first session […]

A Bigger Table: 50 Years of the Chicago Poetry Center Press Release Celebrating a beloved Chicago literary institution’s legacy CHICAGO, June 12, 2024—The Poetry Foundation honors the Chicago Poetry Center’s 50th anniversary with an […]

For our final poetry class, the 5th and 6th graders worked on some Black Out and Cut Out Poetry! Check out some of their creations below.

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The Chicago Poetry Center presents BLUE HOUR, a free, public monthly in-person reading series and generative writing workshop. Each event takes place at Haymarket House (800 W. Buena) and features two readers from Chicago […]

Twain 6th graders completed their last day of poetry this week. To celebrate our 10th and final day, we wrote Ars Poetica poems. Ars Poetica is poetry that talks about the art of writing […]

This past Friday was Shoesmith’s 5th and 6th graders 8th session and last day of poetry. I decided for our last day to have a poetry art project and brought each class blank bookmarks, […]

Last week Shoesmith 4th graders reviewed our blues exploration from the previous week. Students brainstormed a ton of rhymes before closing-out our residency by rhyming and repeating and moaning and singing their blues poems. […]

Our short and sweet residency with Jordan Elementary’s 6th graders came to an end last week. For this last day, students didn’t do any writing. We all learned about slam poetry (born right here […]

Hard to believe that last week was my penultimate week working with Waters’ 6th graders! For our last session, students didn’t do any writing. Instead we learned about slam poetry (born right here in […]

Twain 5th graders ended the residency reviewing the poems they have written, re-watching Joaquin Zihuatanejo’s performance of “Abuelo’s Garden,” reading poems aloud in English and Spanish from Cool Salsa, and pitching-in to write group […]

Hamline 6th graders made it through to their last of poetry this week. To celebrate we wrote group Ars Poetica poems. Ars Poetica is a poem about the art of writing poetry and what […]

Hello hello! For my 5th week with Jordan’s 6th graders, we delved into the world of concrete poems, also known as shape poems. After students saw some engaging and graphically designed concrete poems, we […]

So many students wrote poems inspired by the classic Gwendolyn Brooks poem, “We Real Cool” that I had to publish some more. Read the first group, here. Enjoy! Ms. Bell5th Grade We real fun…by […]

Last week, Grissom students got to learn about the lovely art of revision. While many students had previous experience with revising papers, we talked about what it feels like to work on poems until […]

My time at Grissom is coming to a close and I thought it would be a fun change of pace to work on some visiual poetry. Students got to learn what a blackout poem […]

As we prepare to wrap up the schoolyear at Waters, it felt fitting to end on the Ars Poetica. Ars Poeticas are poems about the craft of poetry – how it feels to write […]

Check out some of the fantastic poems the 5th and 6th graders have written during this Spring 2024 Poetry Residency! While revising and editing are important, there’s just as much magic in first drafts. […]

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TESTIMONIALS

“Writing poetry makes me feel like I can see myself, like I can see my reflection, but not in a mirror, in the world. I write and I know I can be reflected.”
-Oscar S.

“Writing poetry makes me feel free.”
-Buenda D.

“Writing poetry is like your best friend.”
-Jessica M.

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