Youth Programs
Springfield Housing Authority celebrates National Poetry Month
Children at five Springfield Housing Authority after-school programs are making the most of National Poetry Month by sharing some of their favorite verses.
And their performances will soon be on video and available for public consumption, thanks to collaboration between SHA and American International College.
The 10-minute video, entitled ‘Springfield Housing Authority Celebrates National Poetry Month,’ is being produced through Resident Services and Community Relations. AIC senior Joseph Glanz is lending his talent as part of a video-based internship he is completing this spring.
Pamela Wells, SHA manager of Resident Services, said the poetry project is part of an ongoing quest to infuse more literature into the after-school programs. Participating children came from Duggan, Sullivan, Moxon, Pine James, and Riverview apartments.
“This is literacy learning at its finest,” said Wells. “Children are reading good poetry, memorizing their lines, and performing. It’s fun, and it puts the emphasis on reading and speaking, which can only be a good thing.”
At Riverview Apartments, after-school site coordinator Adreana Caldwell said the children practiced every day for over a week to memorize their lines in the poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost.
“They were really excited about the whole idea of it, and they did a great job,” said Caldwell. “First we read it as a story, and then they just repeated their lines over and over. Repetition is a great thing for kids.”
Camera in tow, Glanz visited the five locations in recent weeks with Karen Guillette, who provides training and technical assistance for SHA’s after-school programs, and Mary Ellen Lowney, manager of communications and community relations at the agency.
National Poetry Month is held every April, when schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets throughout the United States band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture.
The SHA poetry video will be published on this site as well as on YouTube by the end of the month.
This is the second video project SHA has done with AIC. Several months ago the after-school program participants were filmed performing the Dr. Seuss book ‘Oh the Places You’ll Go’ (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhpsXRfX4a0). The poetry project is another literacy-based initiative to support the development of children’s ability to communicate with skill and confidence.