The participating students developed their texts and poems through InsideOut Literary Arts’ in-school writing program, working with teaching artists Ber-Henda Williams and Peter Markus.
InsideOut Literary Arts is Detroit’s oldest and largest literary arts organization. Through in-school, after-school and community-wide programs and events, they inspire young people to: “think broadly, create bravely, and share their voices with the wider world.”
Participating students include teen poets from InsideOut’s Citywide Poets after-school program as well as from the after school program at Clippert Magnet Middle School. Third-grade students from Bennett Elementary who are a part of a unique collaboration with the Detroit Zoological Society offer us a perspective from the eyes of ten year old poets. Students across all levels reflected on and wrote about equitable clean water access as a vital human rights issue, locally and globally.
The poetry workshops were conducted during the month in May 2019 after short introductions to the concept of BeyondStreaming which included a discussion about local water issues with the artist that were developed and used by InsideOut Writers-in-residence to prompt poetic responses.
“The students drew upon their personal experiences with water shut-offs and as a collective we personified ourselves as the precious element. As “water” the students were able to speak from a bird’s eye view about the crisis. They were able to draw on personal experiences to create a narrative and through personification the students employed empathy and human connection to the essence of all life on this planet,” shares Ber-Henda Williams from her work with students at Clippert Academy.
Peter Markus who worked with students at Bennett Elementary adds – “I’m always amazed by the things third-graders say. Just when you think they might not have much to say about a subject, such as water—its presence in our lives, its absence, how we access it, via faucet, or bucket, or bottle, how we’ve made a mess of our planet, how it’s up to us to clean up the messes we have made, etc.—they say things in a way (and in poems) that only a ten-year old can say: sometimes direct, sometimes strangely surreal, and always with a truth that no adult can deny. “We share the world with you,” writes Christopher, in a letter to water. A world without you, Audra writes, would be like “a body with no bones.” When asked what she will do when the water fountains in her school someday run clean, Danna writes, “I will cherish it.” Perla writes, “I’m sorry we sometimes ruin you.” In a poem of thank you and praise, Abdul writes of a water “that gives us power for the world, our beautiful world!” And yes, a world WITH clean water, so says Eddy, would be like “a boat that would never sink.” Because water, Luz reminds, “is the most important thing you need to survive.” I’ll let the voices of these young poets speak for themselves, and flow, yes, like clean water, through these sparkly copper pipes, as they speak sometimes even for water itself. Enjoy!”
The poems were recorded on site in May 2019 by the artist.
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