WWU Poetry Camp

Last weekend I had the time of my life steeped in poetry with 150 other people who love it as much as I do. On October 1, Western Washington University’s PoetryCHaT center was the proud host of “Poetry Camp 2016,” the first-ever national conference dedicated solely to poetry for children and teens. Nearly forty children's poets, including the first Children’s Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky, came from Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Ohio, Oregon, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, Washington, DC, Wisconsin, and even Canada and Japan to join teachers, librarians, and poetry fans in a day packed with sessions on poetry performance, writing techniques, curricular connections, and s’more(s). These were the participating poets:

The Friday before Poetry Camp, Janet (Wong) and I spent the day with the 38 poets meeting one another (many for the first time), getting acquainted, chatting informally, and engaging in lively discussions about the value of performing poetry out loud while honoring those who prefer quiet reading or savoring visuals. We had several guest speakers including Kathy Humphrey on using social media effectively, Paige Bentley Flannery on school and library visits, Michael Salinger and Sara Holbrook on conference presentations and Julie Larios on poetry writing tools and techniques. The camaraderie and energy was something to behold! Then in the evening, poet and artist Robyn Hood Black led a Makerspace workshop that was so fun and inspiring. 

Saturday was the BIG day of Poetry Camp and Janet and I led two keynote talks and featured all the 38 poets reading their own poetry in rapid fire succession. The audience was so thrilled to hear so much poetry read by the poets who wrote it! In between everyone chose three sessions to attend all led by poets on a wonderful variety of topics including: playing with sound, playing with visuals, metaphor and simile, verse novels, poetry performance, writing for journals, publishing anthologies, blogging about poetry, and poetry and STEM, as well as grammar, social studies, movement, art, and music. I wish I could have sat in EVERY session! I rotated through to take photos and they all seemed marvelous!

Then at the end of the day, the first Children's Poet Laureate Jack Prelutsky performed his poetry (singing and yodeling and shouting along with his guitar) to an audience of all ages that was completely enthralled! Two groups of children had also prepared dramatic readings of Prelutsky's poetry and they did such a great job-- complete with motions and humor!

The organizers of PoetryCHaT’s Poetry Camp 2016 were Sylvia Tag and Nancy Johnson:

Sylvia Tag is Librarian/Associate Professor and curator of the WWU Libraries Children’s Literature Interdisciplinary Collection.

Nancy Johnson is Professor in the English Department, specializing in children’s and young adult literature and English/language arts education.

They did an amazing job in organizing this fantastic event and emceeing throughout the day!

What is PoetryCHaT? 

A collection of resources, ideas, and curricula designed to help poets and educators share their love of poetry with children and teens. The WWU PoetryCHaT Children & Teen Poetry Collection includes a growing collection of materials written and published since 1920 for children and teens, birth through age 20. PoetryCHaT sponsors programs, special events, and readings that celebrate poetry. Their inaugural programming this past spring featured poet Kwame Alexander.

Press coverage included a local television station airing more than one hour of video clips of poet readings. You can see a summary of the day’s activities at the Poetry CHaT site and can see more photos on the Poetry CHaT Facebook site. 

My favorite photo was of all 38 poets and me standing on the library steps. What a beautiful, generous, smart, funny, and lovable group! What a treat to meet all these writers whom I admire and spend time together laughing and learning!



I also enjoyed meeting this week's Poetry Friday host, Violet Nesdoly at Poetry Camp! And just now as I looked for her link, I saw that she is also sharing her experiences at Poetry Camp! So check out more photos and comments there. She's done a marvelous job capturing the joy and energy and personalities too!

And I found more posts about Poetry Camp that are worth visiting. Here are the links and if there are more I haven't seen yet, please let me know. Thanks, y'all!

Poetry Camp Follow Up Blog Posts

Jeannine Atkins

Holly Thompson

Irene Latham

Liz Steinglass

Ramona Behnke

Doraine Bennett

Violet Nesdoly

Bridget Magee

Peg Cheng

Julie Larios

Cynthia Grady

Robyn Hood Black

Jone Rush MacCulloch

JoAnn Early Macken

Greg Pincus

P.S. I keep getting questions about my poetry-themed outfits (which is fun!), so let me provide info here for anyone who is interested.

For my dress, I had the blue "Share Poetry" fabric printed at PersonalizedFabric2.com (app. $15 per piece of fabric with a Groupon and I bought 2 pieces). Then I made those two pieces into a simple shift dress. The tights are from Etsy.com. ColineDesign will print anything you like on tights and I sent her poems from our Poetry Friday Anthology (PFA) series. They're pricey (app. $35), but they are really well made and mine have been worn and laundered multiple times. Now, I've ordered some more of each, so watch for more clothes and tights in the future! FYI: I also wore a large custom poetry scarf that I had printed with poems (again from the PFA books) on Friday and that was made at Mailpix.com (for about $30 with another Groupon). Now you know ALL my secrets!  Also, I'm working on MORE of these too... so stay tuned!