Guiding the Stars: West Seattle Elementary Poetry and Song 2019-20

In the fall and winter of 2019-20, we were pleased to complete our first year working with West Seattle Elementary School fifth graders to create poetry and songs. This web page and our audio recordings and anthology of the student's poems are the culmination of this project. Taylor Boccaccio and Kaitlin Hanger's students in the Coho and Chinook classrooms worked with Jack Straw's artist team to write, perform, and record their own poetry and songs.

First, poet Vicky Edmonds visited the students and helped them write their poems. Then musicians J.R. Rhodes and Levi Fuller wrote songs inspired by the poems. J.R. and Levi visited the students in the classroom to teach them the songs, which they then practiced in school. Jack Straw's vocal coaches also visited the classroom to help the students read their poems out loud.

As the culmination of the project, the students visited Jack Straw's studios. They recorded their individual poems with the help of vocal coaches Sunam Ellis, Katya Landau, and Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako, and audio engineers Maryam Britton, Daniel Guenther, Joel Maddox, and Ayesha Ubayatilaka. They then played and sang their songs as a group with J.R. - joined by musicians Marco de Carvalho and Thione Diop - and Levi.

On February 6th, 2020, Coho and Chinook students performed their songs with J.R. and Levi for fellow students, families, and members of the Southwest Seattle community as part of the first-ever Seattle Public Schools Southwest Regional Arts Festival at Chief Sealth High School.

Poems by West Seattle Elementary 5th graders: