Poetry Pals is Launched in Chicago
Thanks to a grant from Search
Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core, supported by Learn and Serve America, we launched Poetry Pals in 2008 with 90 students
from the Muslim Community Center Fulltime School in Morton Grove and the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School in Lincoln Park.
The students met for their first poetry and art session on March 5, 2008 in Lincoln Park. What an incredible day of learning
and meeting new friends. The students met again on April 10, 2008 in Morton Grove and on November 25, 2008 when they
discussed the problem of hunger, collected food, and made placemats for a local shelter.
2009 at the Islamic Foundation School
and St. Pius
In
2009, 4th grade students from the Islamic Foundation School in Villa Park and St. Pius Catholic School
in Lombard met on March 24th, April 16th and May 14th..look at the photos at http://bridge-builders.ning.com/groups/poetrypals
The students wrote fantastic
poetry and developed friendships. Charlie Mahey from St. Pius and Adam Shames, a poet-educator, were interviewed on Different
Drummers , a program of the Christian Broadcast Network.
Go to www.youtube.com/differentdrummers to view.
A group poem:
On Eid I go to the mosque and pray
And on
Easter after mass I go and play
We celebrate Christmas
and Eid surrounded by our family,
It's a moment of
unity
Christmas day is full of toys and noise
On Eid the prayer is led by boys
In Eid we put on hena and people come over
At Christmas my family wears nice clothes and love always shows
Easter is fun and it's full of colors and candy
Eid is exciting and patties are dandy
Easter is baskets, sunshine, dying eggs
On
Eid we wear skirts hanging over our legs
On Eid day
we give presents to the needy and pray
On Easter we
try to catch bunnies and celebrate, Hurray!
It is Christmas
and Eid
It's important to read
Eid and Christmas both families get together to eat, drink, share and have fun
The holidays are different but they have the same end
They are moments of unity and celebration!
Exciting
times with young poets from KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation and City of Faith Church
Co-sponsored by Changing Worlds www.changingworlds.org
On Sunday November 23, 2008, January 18, 2009 and February 22, 2009- 22
ten and eleven year old members of the synagogue and church met, and, through poetry and art developed
new friendships. It was really neat learning about the Jewish tradition, said a church
member...I have Christian friends at school, but we are busy with school work and sports and don't talk about
our religion..so I like this, a KAM participant said. The students also created a quilt that hangs at KAM. A special
thank you to Marilyn Akey, our quilter. This program was co-sponsored by Changing Worlds..Connecting Lives and Cultures through
Literacy and the Arts. www.changingworlds.org
Thanks to Shari Granat and Pastor Shaffer.
A group poem entitled We Have A Dream
We have a dream that one
day our city will have no fighting, cheating or killing
People of the government will make sure everyone is treated the same and can go places
No more guns!
People will have smiling faces. Everyone should help the homeless and other countries
Have respect for elders
We have a dream for parks with safe grounds, youth centers to swim, dnace and exercise. And health
care so no one will get sick or hurt.
Sherry,
Kalia, Sophia and Hannah
