Alice ‘ 25, shares her passion for poetry with Shanghai’s youth.
In recent years, China has made significant strides in education, emphasizing academic excellence and discipline; however, this focus often comes at the expense of creative and artistic development. In Shanghai, a city known for its vibrant culture and history, there remains a substantial gap in creative education for young children, particularly in the realm of poetry and literature. The educational scenery is so chiefly orchestrated around passing the GaoKao exam—a pivotal college entrance examination where the score determines how good of a college a student can go to. This intense focus often sidelines creative disciplines, notably poetry, which is scarcely incorporated into the mainstream curriculum.
This lack of an opportunity for Chinese students to explore poetry is what my CSGC project is tackling. I want to share with students my passion for poetry. For me, poetry is a way for me to express my emotions and thoughts creatively through words. Therefore, for two weeks in July, I will be leading poetry workshops for children!
First, I will introduce the students to the how-tos of how to write, analyze, and read poetry. Then, each day, the students will have poems by poets such as Ocean Vuong, Layli Long Soldier, and Walt Whitman to read that will guide our craft conversation. In class, we will actively analyze each poem. We will also engage in weekly in-class writing exercises prompted by the readings such as trying out a style of writing, topic, etc. Finally, they will get the opportunity to workshop your original work, receive verbal feedback on your writing, and actively critique the work of their peers. On the last day, there will be a poetry slam day where each student will get the opportunity to share their favorite work to their peers for enjoyment. That poem will also end up being published in a poetry collection book after the workshops.
The workshop sessions are scheduled to be held on July 21, 28, and August 8, 2024, depending on when the students interested are free. A friend of mine, who is also very passionate about creative writing, will be acting as a TA.
My goal is for this poetry workshop to be a supportive space for students to explore their creative expression for poetry. I hope my workshops allow them to find their passion in writing poems by sharing their ideas, helping their peers, and being able to keep this workshop as a memory through the published poetry book with their poems and their peers’ poems.
I will be using my grant money to publish the book of a collection of their poems for them to keep and distribute!
