Article by Phoenix writer Michelle Paszek ’24:
Kellenberg celebrated Poetry Week from April 15-19 as part of National Poetry Month.
As the halls bustled, students scribbled lines from their favorite poems and penciled in finishing touches to their original pieces.
The English department hosted an Open Mic on Thursday, April 18 with 89 students reading either their favorite poems or their own original works to a crowd of over 160 people.
Mr. Brown introduced the event with an original poem about finding hope in difficult times through prayer.
Mr. Brown shared, “[Poetry] really speaks to humanity. There’s a famous quote by Robin Williams that poetry is not ‘laying pipe.’ It’s love, passion, and relationships that we live for, and that’s what poetry is for – evoking human feeling in the strongest medium we have: words.”
Seniors Gabriel Blanco and Gabriella D’Orlando emceed, reading an opening prayer together along with each of their own favorite poems: “I Taught Myself to Live Simply” by Anna Akhmatova and “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne, respectively.
Student participants from all grades lined up to read poems in a variety of styles from different authors in numerous eras.
Cadet Eva Green was excited to share her favorite “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss. She said, “I used to read a lot of Dr. Seuss when I was little, and I thought the words were funny.”
Also participating was cadet Mollie Bregman, who read “Keep Going” by Edgar A. Guest. Mollie shared, “Sometimes people just need a motivational quote to keep them going throughout the day.”
For the first time in event history, Latin Club members sophomore Isabella Ferguson and senior Grace Muller recited Horace’s “Carpe Diem” in both Latin and English.
The Open Mic also featured original student poets, including members of the Renaissance Literary Magazine.
Sophomore Anthony Custodio-Pena presented his own “The World’s Greatest Question” and “The Trial of the Sun and Moon” to the audience. “It was a fun experience and something you don’t do very often,” he shared. “You can be extremely nervous or ecstatic, but the fact that you have the courage to stand up in front of the student body and present something that you yourself have created or something that you picked from another writer shows that you have what it takes to be a leader.”
Mrs. Page, one of the organizers for the Open Mic, said, “I love that we’re celebrating beautiful words and tapping into students’ creativity, especially since we have so many original pieces.”
Earlier in the week on Monday, April 15, a celebration of Music and Poetry was held in the chorus room after Sodality.
Over 40 students went toe to toe in 3 different rounds of Kahoot! The round topics ranged from determining Taylor Swift lyrics from Shakespeare, to telling rappers apart from poets, and to finding figurative language in modern music. Winners of each round received McDonald’s gift certificates.
Event host Mrs. Egan pointed out, “It’s nice to see kids realize that poetry is all around us – when listening to music in your car or hearing your favorite song – and it’s not just words written by a dead guy from 100 years ago.”
The poetry fun continued on Wednesday, April 17 with over 80 students taking on the Rhyme Rendezvous, an online escape room and bingo event held in room 243.
The Latin School and Freshmen divisions played a literary device-themed bingo, utilizing their knowledge of concepts such as irony, personification, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and imagery.
The upperclassmen joined forces to crack the code on a Poetry Escape Room. Students worked together to read poems, categorize different types of literary devices, and analyze excerpts in order to unlock a hidden message.
Participants could choose from prizes of sloth-shaped wind-up toys, mochi squishies, pop fidgets, water bottle stickers, candy, stickers, pencils, and paper crowns.
Junior Lucas Sheehan said, “I really liked how we were taking the stuff that we were learning in English class and using it in the outside world.”
Mrs. Tochelli, who organized the Rhyme Rendezvous, shared, “As someone who has loved poetry my whole life, it was absolutely wonderful to see so many students having fun and interacting with poetry and poetic devices in such a unique and collaborative way.”
The poetry festivities didn’t end here, however. In their English classes, students wrote lines of their favorite poems on colorful balloon-shaped papers to decorate their classroom doors. Works from poets such as William Blake, Langston Hughes, William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Maya Angelou filled the space under a poster themed “Poetry Lifts Us Up.”
AM Announcements also got in on the action through both sports highlight announcements written in poetry and interviews with teachers who shared their favorite poems. A QR Code to Jeopardy questions regarding poets, verse lines, and literary devices was also shown at the end of each livestream.
In all, Poetry Week was a massive success, fostering students’ creativity, inspiring the next generation in their literary endeavors, and demonstrating Kellenberg’s school-wide love for verse.