Cowboys. God. Abandonment. Hitler.
These are some of the subjects Aaron Williams has seen pop up in seventh graders’ poems. Williams is the board president of the 7th Grade Poetry Foundation, which supports and provides poetry contests at the seventh grade level. Through the contests, the organization and participating schools and teachers encourage seventh grade students to put their thoughts, emotions and experiences on paper.
“The last thing I ever expected was to get a poem about Hitler,” Williams says. “They were teaching about the Holocaust in school, so the teachers let them know you can integrate other subjects into the poetry if they want to.”
The organization provides poetry contests for any and every type of school—charter, public, private, faith-based—and has expanded outside of the state lines. Winners of this year’s contest come from Missouri, Illinois, New Mexico, South Dakota, New York, Arkansas and Texas.
“They are writing about the ocean, immigration, adult-type issue poems...poems you would not expect a student in the seventh grade to write about,” Williams says. “And it’s because of the inclusion. The more schools we reach out to, the more diverse the students are, the more diverse their backgrounds are, and that results in more diverse poem themes.”
Its annual contest, Poetry on Their Terms, showcases the work of seventh grade poets. The participating schools select the contest winner within each school, and no other layer of competition or selection is added.
“[The contest is] helping poetry become more vital, more important,” Williams says. “As Martin Luther said, ‘If you want to change the world, pick up a pen and write.’”
This year, Poetry on Their Terms will be held on April 17 at 4:30 p.m. at the St. Louis Public Library’s Central Library. The winning 92 students from seven states will recite their own poems, like in years past. There is an added twist to this year’s event, though.
Poetry on Their Terms will broadcast livestream through the organization’s website, 7thgradepoetry.org. Williams says the children’s family and loved ones will be tuning in from places like India, Saudi Arabia, London, and Napa Valley. The out-of-town boys and girls who cannot attend the event have created videos of themselves reading their poems to play at the event and over the Internet.
He added that these young, winning poets will make history on April 17 as they will be the first people to livestream from the library.
“That’s as thrilling as you could get,” Williams said. “The technology is changing the program.”
With the added element to the event, comes more bravery from the students, Williams says.
“You talk about the bravery of the student, you talk about transformative experiences…You’re going to ask a 13-year-old student [to get] in front of all those strangers, stand up in front of a microphone, put their poem onto a podium and read their poem, knowing the camera is rolling,” Williams says.
For some students, he added, this is the first time anyone in their families has won a contest.
“That’s a game changer,” he says.
The winners, participating school libraries and public libraries will receive published anthologies of the seventh grade poems. The winners are also given a $25 cash prize.
“You can ask sixth graders to tune in on the Internet and listen to this and go to the educator and say, ‘I really want our school to register for this…I write poetry, I’d like a chance to be on that stage. I’d like a chance at the $25.’ We have the schools telling us, ‘I can’t believe how many students were excited about $25,’” Williams says.
Lewis Reed, St. Louis Board of Alderman President, and Waller McGuire, executive director of the St. Louis Public Library, will hand the awards to students. The hosts are poets Cheryl Walker and Nick Rainey.
Poetry is a part of the seventh grade curriculum through the Common Core State Standard Initiative. This initiative’s mission is to “provide consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers are parents and teachers know what they need to do to help them,” as stated on its website.
For more information on the 7th Grade Poetry Foundation and to register for the next contest, go to 7thgradepoetry.org.
