2015-2020: Aja “Citywide Poets brought me to the realization that everybody is individual and important.” Before I started Citywide Poets, I wasn’t doing poetry in secret, but I did feel like an underground artist. It started off as a class assignment back in sixth grade and…
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2005-2010: Justin Rogers “Citywide Poets was pivotal in my social and professional life because it offered me a sense of direction and hope.” When Writer-in-Residence Nandi Comer found me in 12th grade of high school, I was a very shy student trying to navigate where…
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Christiana Castillo Writer-in-Residence The poets I work with weekly have been writing poems about community care, self-care, self-love, joy, resilience, and refuge. During the Citywide Poets session, I believe we are using poems to heal and process our current world. Citywide Poets, InsideOut’s award-winning after…
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The power of young voices never ceases to amaze me. There is just something so magical about witnessing authentic self-expression, about seeing a young poet step into their truth. I simply get moved. That’s exactly what happened to me when I watched this video featuring…
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Benjamin Turner Writer-in-Residence “I was equally concerned with guiding them professionally in writing, as I was concerned with giving them the space to be their own professional guides. Then, by calling attention to that budding skill set, I feel like we were able to pinpoint and excavate whatever…
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