Taos Youth Poetry Celebration

February 4, 2010

As the poetry lesson begins at Chrysalis alternative high school on January 28, there’s some wise cracking and hesitation. Some eyes drift towards the white board with its flurry of post-it sized pieces of paper tacked beneath the words Powerless/Power.

Teachers offer a continual stream of encouragement and within minutes students’ eyes are glued to the work in front of them and pencils move with steady focus. A few students then share their work aloud.

“…Silence is running down my spine
I cry ashes from the fire of my body…” one student reads.
“I try to perfection, I hope I got my weapon…” reads another.

“Writing poetry gets my pain out,” junior Lucinda Romero explains after this class (which was taught by Orion Cervio with assistance from Rosalie Grace) has ended. “When I was in a gang it was bad but when I sit and write about it, it gets my feelings out and I don’t have to worry about gang life anymore,” Romero adds. She plans to attend college after graduation and then medical school.

A growing community of local teens is finding an outlet in poetry and creative writing, which is being fostered by some innovative programs and dedicated teachers in the high schools.

This Friday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m., at the Taos Community Auditorium, SOMOS presents a special segment of the Winter Writer’s Series featuring writers from Taos area high schools, including Taos High School, Chrysalis, Vista Grande, Chamisa Mesa and Moreno Valley High School. The emcee will be poetry activist Anne MacNaughton, who will also present her work.

To ensure that all family members, teachers and community members may attend, this event will be free of charge. Donations are welcome.

MacNaughton has been blazing poetry trails in Taos since 1982 when she co-founded SOMOS with 12 others. This same year, with her husband Peter Rabbit, she also founded Taos Poetry Circus, a poetry performance group that was active in Taos for decades. She was the director of the Poetry Education Project for many years, where she spearheaded efforts to put spoken word into the high schools of America as a credited course.

It was in one such course at Chrysalis that senior Christopher Breceda’s interest in poetry was sparked two years ago.

“Now that I’ve been introduced to it, there won’t be a day when I won’t use it,” says Breceda, who plans on joining the National Guard after he graduates.

His poem “Math is Sex,” which was published in the 2009 Chrysalis literary journal, uses vivid language to describe how individuals add up to families – and then are subtracted.

“…Then you can subtract the
woman and two kids After
the man cheats on the woman
that will give you one lonely
man that has to pay child support
and a woman that all alone is
trying to support two kids…”

Several seasoned members of the Taos High School Poetry club (from which the Taos High Poetry Slam team is derived) will be performing group and individual poems at Friday’s event. “(The club) is like a college level seminar where we study poetry, philosophy, political science… Our role is to challenge students to be innovative,” says Cervio, who coaches along with THS english teacher Francis Hahn and Megan Bradley.

The Poetry slam team will compete in regional competitions in Northern New Mexico over the summer and then at the National Competition in Los Angeles. Regardless of their interest in competing, all THS students with a passion for poetry are welcome to participate in the club.

Because of the self-revealing nature of the art form, students get to know each other on a much deeper level than they would from just engaging in usual conversation, according to junior Lewis Bailey.

“Hearing each others poetry gives us such insight into our inner being and makes it so easy to connect interpersonally… We know exactly how to make each other laugh and that comes from sharing poetry with each other,” he says.

Coaches and students seem to agree that certain themes – such as nature, healing and personal growth – distinguish the poetry of Taos youth from that of their peers.

“We would never wear shoes because
we didn’t want to lose the feeling of the earth on our soles
over gravel, mud, and potholes we would let
the space between our toes record the joys of our journeys…

…We learned to climb no trespassing signs
Before we learned to read the words…”
- excerpt from the The Mesa by Lewis Bailey

Team captain Olivia Romo has written in diaries since she was a child and these expressions eventually became poetry. “I sometimes find beauty in small things, like walking down the hall and talking to someone or going fishing with my Dad. The people and culture of Taos give me inspirational topics,” she says. She will present a group poem with Bailey on Friday that explodes with passion and searing truths.

Students from Gabrielle Herbertson’s class at Chamisa Mesa High School include actress, poet and co-host on KTAO’s weekly “Listen Up” talk radio show Maggie Carson, as well as Anastasia Fever.

“You might recognize me as that small woman with a big mouth and a mane of brown hair who always carries a book. My passions begin with intellect, but roar fully alive in storytelling,” says seventeen-year-old Fever.

Students not already mentioned who will share their creative writing at the event, and their teachers, include Emma Sims and Seth Fugman from Vista Grande who study with Edward Dougherty; A.C. Franklin, John Bowden, Julia Castillo, Olivia Romo, Aili Seiler from THS; Leyton Cassidy from Moreno Valley High School; student mentor/graduate Andrew Gonzales, Joseph Garcia and Andrew Marcus from Chrysalis who also receive writing instruction from Rosalie Grace and Kris Edwards.

The program is subject to change. For more information call SOMOS 575 758-0081 or visit www.somostaos.org