Students Celebrate Creativity and Community During Poetry Month

Students Celebrate Creativity and Community During Poetry Month
We can all be together
Understand together
For we all walk the same subway hall.
 
From "Same Train," an original poem by Hudson M. ’24
 
Poetry continued to unite the St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s community this spring. The school marked Poetry Month in April by holding a two-part “poetry share” during weekly Community Time in the upper division. Faculty and students read a selection of poems from renowned poets such as Maya Angelou and Gabriela Mistral; an alumna, Claire Ottenstein ’17; and original poems by our own students.
 


Students presented poems from the three global languages taught at St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s—French, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish, and also recited a passage from Virgil’s Aeneid in both English and the original Latin.

 

 

To read some of the other poems presented, click here and here.
 
In the lower division, New York poet Ellen Hagen visited with third graders for virtual poetry workshops. The workshops helped students prepare for their end-of-year Poetry Breakfast, an annual tradition that allows students to share the poems they have authored throughout the year.
 
Community Time was a new tradition in the upper division introduced this year, in addition to Chapel, to provide students and faculty a time to connect around topics of importance related to heritage months or important national events. Classes gathered together virtually via Google Meet, and guest speakers or faculty offered presentations.
 
Recent Community Time speakers included:
  • AAPI Heritage Month: Lindy Leong, an LA-based film and media educator, spoke about media representation of Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the media
  • Earth Day: Greenhouse and Science Teacher Lauren Paull, on environmental justice and its connection to Earth Day
  • Women’s History Month: Eighth graders Annabel S. and Daphne P. presented, highlighting the contributions of female mathematicians

For more information about the topics presented during upper division Community Time and Chapel, please click here.

A fifth grader presenting his original poem, entitled "Same Train"