Writing Poems to Foster Hope
I recently completed a poetry and zine making workshop with youth (ages 14-19) at Ennis Center in Flint. All of the participants have experienced foster care as a part of their everyday like and though they are young in age, they often would refer to their childhood as something that was far away in some distant past. I wanted to use poetry as a tool to heal from childhood trauma and also a way to develop resiliency or to even remember the resiliency already stored up in one’s collective self.
The workshop consisted of six sessions which included four poetry lessons and two zine making tutorials in a local computer lab. Each session was about two hours long which included a thirty minute dinner that Ennis Center provided each week. During the sessions, I would set up opening and closing rituals as well as bring in therapeutic poetry writing prompts, often developed by Pongo Teen Writing, an organization focused on the art of poetry therapy.
From the first session, I wanted to establish a safe environment that had high expectations. In order to do this, I incorporated a technique I learned from the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools called a Cooperation Contract. A cooperation contract is a list of expectations set up by students to keep themselves accountable to what they are hoping to learn. The cooperation contract allows for immediate student ownership of their experience by creating the expectations and then visibly signing the document as a reminder of the commitment the class requires. The cooperation contract also allowed the group to “access networks of power and resources beyond their immediate community.”(Wilding, 2011 p.12) I like to put the cooperation contract up in each class so that we can refer back to it when necessary. Some students may be gifted in different areas so as the weeks progressed I tried to incorporate different segments of the contract into what we were doing whether that was through group discussion, role playing or writing prompts.
When I started teaching the poetry and zine making workshop many youth admitted that they were not fond of writing and did not know what a zine was. I did not see these things as barriers but as opportunities and with the help of the therapists who worked beside me in the class, I provided non-intimidating writing activities that were based in topics such as identity, community and hope vs fear. These themes provided access to things that the participants dealt with all the time and often include Pongo-inspired prompts which were basically statements the participants could use as a foundation for carving their poem.
Towards the end of the workshop as the youth came up with silly titles for their Zine, it was obvious that they were cultizating resilience and social capital. Autumn Heddy who is an art therapist and the director of Fostering Creativity, pointed out to me that most of these youth do not get to connect on a deeper level with one another or perhaps even anyone in their lives. All of the particpants went to different schools and lived in different towns in the Flint area so they were not really in each other’s lives outside of Ennis Center and Fostering Creativity art classes. Even though we set up the cooperation contract together, there was often push back toward actually doing writing and I often felt defeated in those moments. However, when we compiled the zine which is titled “ We Couldn’t Think of a Title”, I was surprised to see more poems by the students who I did not think actually wrote anything due to their constant talking and apathetic mindset than anyone else. This could have been because they were subtly increasing their social capital and resilency.These were “ties between people in similirar situations to…build trust, reciprocity and a shared sense of belonging and identity.” (Wilding, 2011 p.12)
I liked how resilience was defined in many different scenarios. For example the Community Resilience : Models, Measures and Metaphors described the scientific definition of resiliency as , “the ability to return to its original form after being bent or compressed.” I see these children and a lot of the youth I have worked with over the years return to their original form even if they do not realize it yet. A lot of times experiencing childhood trauma means not remembering that you are still a child because you have had to face hard things that forced you to grow up. Creating poems and having a community with a shared experience I think allowed the participants to soften their edges even though they were writing some tough stuff. Ultimately, they did something they said they did not like and they all wrote amazing and genuine poems. This in turn built their resiliency and replace apathy with ability and hope.
References
Kirmayer, L., Sehdev, M., Whitley, R., Dandeneau, S., Isaac, C. (2009). Community Resilience: Models, Metaphors, and Measures. Journal of Aboriginal Health. p. 62-117. Retrieved from www.buildabridge.org.
Wilding, N. (2011). Exploring Community Resilience in Times of Rapid Change. Fiery Spirits Community of Practice. Retrieved from www.buildabridge.org.
I recently completed a poetry and zine making workshop with youth (ages 14-19) at Ennis Center in Flint. All of the participants have experienced foster care as a part of their everyday like and though they are young in age, they often would refer to their childhood as something that was far away in some distant past. I wanted to use poetry as a tool to heal from childhood trauma and also a way to develop resiliency or to even remember the resiliency already stored up in one’s collective self.
The workshop consisted of six sessions which included four poetry lessons and two zine making tutorials in a local computer lab. Each session was about two hours long which included a thirty minute dinner that Ennis Center provided each week. During the sessions, I would set up opening and closing rituals as well as bring in therapeutic poetry writing prompts, often developed by Pongo Teen Writing, an organization focused on the art of poetry therapy.
From the first session, I wanted to establish a safe environment that had high expectations. In order to do this, I incorporated a technique I learned from the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools called a Cooperation Contract. A cooperation contract is a list of expectations set up by students to keep themselves accountable to what they are hoping to learn. The cooperation contract allows for immediate student ownership of their experience by creating the expectations and then visibly signing the document as a reminder of the commitment the class requires. The cooperation contract also allowed the group to “access networks of power and resources beyond their immediate community.”(Wilding, 2011 p.12) I like to put the cooperation contract up in each class so that we can refer back to it when necessary. Some students may be gifted in different areas so as the weeks progressed I tried to incorporate different segments of the contract into what we were doing whether that was through group discussion, role playing or writing prompts.
When I started teaching the poetry and zine making workshop many youth admitted that they were not fond of writing and did not know what a zine was. I did not see these things as barriers but as opportunities and with the help of the therapists who worked beside me in the class, I provided non-intimidating writing activities that were based in topics such as identity, community and hope vs fear. These themes provided access to things that the participants dealt with all the time and often include Pongo-inspired prompts which were basically statements the participants could use as a foundation for carving their poem.
Towards the end of the workshop as the youth came up with silly titles for their Zine, it was obvious that they were cultizating resilience and social capital. Autumn Heddy who is an art therapist and the director of Fostering Creativity, pointed out to me that most of these youth do not get to connect on a deeper level with one another or perhaps even anyone in their lives. All of the particpants went to different schools and lived in different towns in the Flint area so they were not really in each other’s lives outside of Ennis Center and Fostering Creativity art classes. Even though we set up the cooperation contract together, there was often push back toward actually doing writing and I often felt defeated in those moments. However, when we compiled the zine which is titled “ We Couldn’t Think of a Title”, I was surprised to see more poems by the students who I did not think actually wrote anything due to their constant talking and apathetic mindset than anyone else. This could have been because they were subtly increasing their social capital and resilency.These were “ties between people in similirar situations to…build trust, reciprocity and a shared sense of belonging and identity.” (Wilding, 2011 p.12)
I liked how resilience was defined in many different scenarios. For example the Community Resilience : Models, Measures and Metaphors described the scientific definition of resiliency as , “the ability to return to its original form after being bent or compressed.” I see these children and a lot of the youth I have worked with over the years return to their original form even if they do not realize it yet. A lot of times experiencing childhood trauma means not remembering that you are still a child because you have had to face hard things that forced you to grow up. Creating poems and having a community with a shared experience I think allowed the participants to soften their edges even though they were writing some tough stuff. Ultimately, they did something they said they did not like and they all wrote amazing and genuine poems. This in turn built their resiliency and replace apathy with ability and hope.
References
Kirmayer, L., Sehdev, M., Whitley, R., Dandeneau, S., Isaac, C. (2009). Community Resilience: Models, Metaphors, and Measures. Journal of Aboriginal Health. p. 62-117. Retrieved from www.buildabridge.org.
Wilding, N. (2011). Exploring Community Resilience in Times of Rapid Change. Fiery Spirits Community of Practice. Retrieved from www.buildabridge.org.