Poetry in Motion

Our longest running Writers-in-Residence Program is at Central Valley's Barker High School. For five years, Get Lit! Programs paired local writer Renee Roehl with Barker students interested in exploring creative writing. Students meet once a week for several hours in a writing workshop that explores poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. The program continues throughout the school year and results in an amazing anthology of their collected work. Since many of the students continued with Renee year after year, she has seen so many of them grow as writers and as people.

The teenage years can bring with them a keen sense of observation as young adults explore the world around them. The students at Barker have already seen so much and they have some powerful things to say about it. While some of the students prefer to share their guts and glory on the page, I have seen the end of the year performance at the school and have even noticed some of the students sharing with the community at open mics and poetry slams.

Here is one example, a poem on film. Thanks to Eastern's Writers in the Community and local nonprofit TinCan, Jessica Andrew and several other students at Barker High produced this:



Tincan uses information technology and interactive media for education and community development. Jessica was featured in Tincan's October Newsletter. It offers info on what she is doing now.

This month's student spotlight is on Jessica Andrew. Jessica started with Tincan last May through the Subversive project at Barker High School. Since then Jessica has joined the NEA Films 4 Change program at Tincan and has found herself in the producers chair. Jessica, who is extremely organized, makes a perfect producer for the film. She has been responsible for the role of scriptwriter and production scheduler while also recruiting actors and keeping contact with all team members. Jessica is a senior at Barker High School and is currently taking running start classes at Spokane Falls Community College. Her creativity and drawing skills will prove beneficial in her pursuit for a degree in architecture at WSU. Right now Jessica's number one job is taking care of her 20-month-old son.