Students shine in creative poetry workshop

Beechworth Secondary College year 8 student Elena Dean had a chance to express her passion for poetry by taking part in a Melbourne University poetry workshop with classmates at the school last week. “I did the workshop last year and it was a lot of fun,” Elena said. University facilitator Sarah Hall, known as the ‘Wandering Poet’ roams across Victoria giving rural, regional and metro secondary students from participating schools the chance to be creative with the literary art form. The poet, writer and artist said creative director Jason O’Leary from Melbourne Public Humanities in the Faculty of Arts had sparked the initiative. “It’s about public and broader engagement,” she said. “We undertook a pilot study in term 4 last year with Beechworth Secondary College one of the first regional schools we visited. “It’s been great to be back and have a different group. “Word is spreading and uptake is fantastic.” Ms Hall said the vision is to take Humanities beyond the university world. She said from her perspective students had already gained rich writing practices. “Students engaged in writing exercises in the workshop and focused on objects, memories, dreams or whatever came to mind with their ideas written into poems,” she said. “They performed at the end of the class." Ms Hall said the poetry workshop gives young people the opportunity to share their stories and express their interest in things they care about with tools to perform as it’s a spoken word workshop. “It’s an everyday life focus and how we can also use objects as a tool in ways of storytelling and how objects can play a part in our life," she said. “Poetry connects to our humanity, people can express emotions and students may not have the opportunity in other parts of their life to express ideas that resonate with them.” Ms Hall said poetry provided ways of connecting to storytelling, is an accessible art form and can be in any length in any voice. “It gives us freedom to express ourselves,” she said. Elena said she selected a pencil case made by a friend and presented to her at a Scout Jamboree camp. The year 8 student echoed Ms Hall’s words for poetry being a tool for freedom of expression and emotion. “It’s an incredible way to express yourself through words where different ways of writing can be found producing really beautiful pieces,” she said. The sessions build students’ confidence and creativity as well as foster a love for storytelling and language.

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