“Why do you write?” poet and workshop leader Noah Arhm Choi asked a roomful of teenagers at our 21st annual High School Writing Retreat, which took place at Paul Smith’s College at the end of October this year.
“Because when I write, I feel infinite,” one student responded. Another shared, “It helps me understand how I feel.” More students chimed in, “Writing gives me a space to just be myself,” and “When I write, I can escape.”
Time and again, teens shared how isolated and despondent they feel in the world – and, each time, they brightened when they spoke about the solace they found in writing. Throughout the two-day retreat, I watched students connecting with peers from different schools, laughing together, supporting each other, and encouraging each other to explore the reaches of their writing.
To kick off this year’s retreat, our incredible and talented teaching faculty, consisting of Mahogany L. Browne, Noah Arhm Choi, and Jive Poetic, shared some of their poems with the students. The room filled with snaps, claps, and cheers. The poets then spent the day leading over one hundred eager teens – from eleven different schools across the Adirondack Park, as well as a handful of students who are homeschooled – in energizing, reflective, and passionate generative workshops.
At the end of the day, the poets returned to ACW to give an outstanding performance to our community. Some audience members travelled nearly two hours each way to hear these poets read!
On our final day, which, this year, lined up with Halloween, students closed out the retreat with their own open mic. After Jive offered students tips on how to bring poetry to life on the stage, students spent time practicing their poems. Then, while Mahogany DJ’ed, students took brave risks to stand in front of their peers – dressed as dinosaurs, witches, literary characters, and everything in between – and share their writing. Some students had never shared their work before, while others have been sharing work their whole lives. Either way, every student received a roaring applause.
Fabulous. The world needs more of this.