Sometimes it seems like the only encounter a person has with a poem is in school. And often it is through dissecting the poem, word by word, line by line, to find its meaning. While a worthwhile and important pursuit, it can often leave students with the impression that poetry is boring and irrelevant to both their present and their future. But it doesn’t need to be that way.

The article “Young American Indians Find Their Voice in Poetry” from Tuesday’s New York Times explores how writing and performing poems is linking students at Santa Fe Indian School to their culture and themselves.

[the students] do not hail from the gritty urban surroundings that are often a breeding ground for slam poetry, where poets are judged on both performance and writing, their team is drawing national attention for its decidedly American Indian take on an art form that has grown increasingly popular with young people over the last decade…

“For the kids, spoken word is a reconnection with the oral tradition, a return to the origin of language, its sound, its music,” said Tim McLaughlin, a creative writing teacher at the school and the team’s coach.

The team will be competing at the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival in Washington, D.C. this summer.

Interested in pursuing a Spoken Word Club at your local school? Learn more about the festival and it sponsoring organization Youth Speaks.