POETRY & POWER is the website and blog of "Poetry & Social Justice," a Community Based Learning class that brings 15 – 20 Baltimore City high school students and 15 – 20 Johns Hopkins University undergraduate students together to explore the intersection of poetry and social justice. They’ll write and read poetry together, engage with visiting writers, interview local poets and activists, and hold public performances of their own.
Participants will explore poetry as a tool to build communities, express personal truths, bear witness, advocate for change, and engage in social and political commentary.
The course is a collaboration between Writers in Baltimore Schools (WBS), The Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Concern, and Assistant Professor Dora Malech of The Writing Seminars at JHU. The course is part of the inaugural Engaged Faculty & Community Fellows Program launched by the JHU Center for Social Concern. The course is facilitated by Malech and JP Allen (poet and JHU Writing Seminars MFA graduate student), Jaida Griffin (poet and high school senior), Patrice Hutton (director of WBS, fiction and nonfiction writer, and a Hopkins Writing Seminars and Hopkins MA in Writing graduate), and Shangrila Willy (poet, JD, WBS board member, and Hopkins MA in Writing graduate).
Participants will explore poetry as a tool to build communities, express personal truths, bear witness, advocate for change, and engage in social and political commentary.
The course is a collaboration between Writers in Baltimore Schools (WBS), The Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Concern, and Assistant Professor Dora Malech of The Writing Seminars at JHU. The course is part of the inaugural Engaged Faculty & Community Fellows Program launched by the JHU Center for Social Concern. The course is facilitated by Malech and JP Allen (poet and JHU Writing Seminars MFA graduate student), Jaida Griffin (poet and high school senior), Patrice Hutton (director of WBS, fiction and nonfiction writer, and a Hopkins Writing Seminars and Hopkins MA in Writing graduate), and Shangrila Willy (poet, JD, WBS board member, and Hopkins MA in Writing graduate).