El mar inclinando en los ojos de mi mamá
Los ojos de mi mamá son azul como el agua.
Las olas son como la felicidad de ella.
La corriente es como su enojo.
Las rocas son la soledad.
(Translation)
My mother’s eyes are blue like the water.
The waves are her joy.
The current is her anger.
And the rocks are her solitude.
Students understand that poetry can serve as a kind a solace. Writing about a personal “paradise” puts these young poets in touch with the true meaning of home.
I’ve always been interested in music. One of my earliest memories was getting my first drum set. I was seven. My parents got it at a garage set, and as soon as I saw it, I was ready to start. I taught myself just by listening to music and then trying to play what I heard. When I was about 12, I started playing at school. I had to audition to play the drums. When I started, it was a lot more structured. Instead of teaching myself, I had others teaching me. I found out that I had developed some bad habits, but I still think the time I spent teaching myself was worthwhile. Over the next few years I kept improving. When I was 16, I joined a jazz band. It’s the hardest thing I’ve done so far. It’s a completely different style of playing, and it’s a lot harder. The only teacher I had was another kid. I love it. We play at the school and at competitions. I think you’re born into drumming. Only about 8% of the world has the brain capability to drum well. You have to be good at multi-tasking and being steady. In drumming the terminology is based on sound. For example, you might play a flamadiddle followed by a ratamacue. If you don’t have a good drummer, you can’t have a good band. I want music to continue to be a part of my life.
We are lucky to live in a city with so much poetry action! Here is the latest announcement from our friends at Public Poetry:
Public Poetry continues in May with an exciting group of featured poets - Eric Ekstrand, Jasminne Mendez, John Pluecker and Robin Reagler. Our special guest is artist Arielle Masson. There will be a talented young WITS student, too. The Jungman Regional Library, 5830 Westheimer, 77057 (not far from the Galleria) is our library partner for this event. See you there, Saturday, May 5 at 2 PM.
Writers in the Schools (WITS) will celebrate some of Houston’s most talented young artists at its Young Writers Reading, an annual literary event held May 6th, at 3 pm at Discovery Green Park in downtown Houston. The event is free and open to the public.
WITS Young Writers Reading event enriches the lives of students ranging from elementary to high school age by giving them the chance to read the work they have written under the guidance of a professional writer. Each student has been chosen from a juried competition. WITS publishes the best work in a bound anthology called Blooms.
The Young Writers Reading Series began in 1989 as a way to celebrate the achievements of the city’s most gifted young writers. For more information, visit www.witshouston.org.
You won’t want to miss this wonderful event at Discovery Green! Arrive early to play with our friends from Playworks Houston. Please come out on Sunday to support Houston’s youngest poets and writers!
Thank you for participating in A Poem a Day with Writers in the Schools (WITS). If you enjoyed reading these poems by WITS students during National Poetry Month, here are some options for staying in the WITS “loop” throughout the year:
· Meet some of the best young writers in Houston at the Young Writers Reading Series on May 6th at Discovery Green.
· Send your children to our creative writing camp or join our free program every Saturday morning at Discovery Green.
· Add the WITS blog to your bookmarks or feed reader.
· If you’d like to make a donation to keep the Writers in the Schools programs growing and reaching as many Houston youth as possible, please click here.
Click this link to listen to the poem read on KPFT radio by Mary Phillips, a 4th grade student at Parker Elementary in Houston.
This poem is featured as part of the 2012 A Poem A Day campaign, a National Poetry Month celebration by Writers in the Schools (WITS) that features a different poem by a WITS student every day during April. Click here to learn more.
To enter a drawing for a free signed book or poster by Trenton Lee Stewart click here.
To download an activity guide, click here.
Find the event on facebook.
Cool Brains! Inprint Readings for Young People invites you to an afternoon of mystery and fun with Trenton Lee Stewart, New York Times bestselling author of The Mysterious Benedict Societyseries. He comes to Houston to read from his newest book in the series,The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, which, according to a starred Booklist review, “gives readers a reason to fall in love with the series all over again…[with] adventures, danger, cleverness, dry wit, and good-hearted characters at the center of the action. . . . Two hundred years after Dickens’ birth, this orphan story plays notes in a familiar key but creates its own memorable tune.”
The series, which includes The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma, and The Mysterious Benedict Society: Mr. Benedict’s Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums, has sold more than 1.5 million copies and has spent more than 85 combined weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The stories follow four gifted kids, Reynie, Katie, Sticky, and Constance, through page-turning mysteries, mindbending brain-teasers, and inventive journeys.
Click the link (above) to listen to the poem read on KPFT radio by Kathryn Chavez, a 4th grade student at Parker Elementary in Houston.
This poem is featured as part of the 2012 A Poem A Day campaign, a National Poetry Month celebration by Writers in the Schools (WITS) that features a different poem by a WITS student every day during April. Click here to learn more.
Click the link (above) to listen to the poem read on KPFT radio by Gabriel Arnold, a 4th grade student at Parker Elementary in Houston.
This poem is featured as part of the 2012 A Poem A Day campaign, a National Poetry Month celebration by Writers in the Schools (WITS) that features a different poem by a WITS student every day during April. Click here to learn more.
Click the link (above) to listen to the poem read on KPFT radio by Thomas Girardet, a 4th grade student at Parker Elementary in Houston.
This poem is featured as part of the 2012 A Poem A Day campaign, a National Poetry Month celebration by Writers in the Schools (WITS) that features a different poem by a WITS student every day during April. Click here to learn more.
Click the link (above) to listen to the poem read on KPFT radio by Ella Dale, a 2nd grade student at Parker Elementary in Houston.
This poem is featured as part of the 2012 A Poem A Day campaign, a National Poetry Month celebration by Writers in the Schools (WITS) that features a different poem by a WITS student every day during April. Click here to learn more.
Former WITS writer Stacy Parker Le Melle, who now lives and works in Harlem, will visit the San Jacinto College (SJC) South Campus for two important events on April 26. Before teaching with WITS, Le Melle served for five years in the Clinton White House as an intern in George Stephanopoulos’s office and as an assistant to Paul Begala. She also worked as a presidential advance person, planning presidential visits abroad to places such as Abuja, Ho Chi Minh City, Okinawa, New Delhi, Ankara, Cologne, Merida, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, and more.
Le Melle’s memoir Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House (Ecco/HarperCollins) was released to critical acclaim in 2010. Recent projects include creating The Katrina Experience: an Oral History Project and contributing to Voices from the Storm: The People of New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath (McSweeney’s).
Le Melle will present two lectures on Thursday, April 26 at 10:15 a.m. and 7 p.m. at the San Jacinto College South Campus in the Proscenium Theatre inside the Marie Spence Flickinger Fine Arts Center. The South Campus is located at 13735 Beamer Road in Houston.
Join us in welcoming back to Houston Stacy Parker Le Melle!