A Different Universe: Lowell Poetry and Song 2025
Welcome to A Different Universe: Lowell Poetry and Song 2025, produced by Lowell Elementary School students and Jack Straw Cultural Center. This web page and our anthology of the students’ poems is the culmination of a project with Lowell second grade students during the spring of 2025.
In this project, the students worked with Jack Straw’s poets Jeanine Walker and Carlos Nieto to write their own poetry. Vocal coaches Sunam Ellis and Camilla Kintana helped the students practice reading their work aloud. Musician Tito Ramsey then wrote a song inspired by the students’ poems, with special verses for each class.
The students then came to Jack Straw’s studios and recorded their poems and song with Tito, our vocal coaches Sunam, Camilla, and Iveliz Martel, and engineers Daniel Guenther and Ayesha Ubayatilaka.
In addition to this poetry and song project, Jack Straw artist Leah Okamoto Mann of Kintsugi Somatic Arts led a ten-week movement and music arts residency with K-3 students in the Distinct Program for students requiring specialized instruction and the ASPIRE program for medically fragile students. With help from guest artists Christian Swenson, an improvisational voice and movement artist, and Lowell alum musicians Vanessa Stovall and Zoe Elan, Leah guided students through a variety of musical and movement experiences and exercises that helped model musical and movement behavior, social emotional awareness, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration.
You can read more about this project in a blog post Leah wrote for the City of Seattle’s Art Beat.
Audio: Lowell Poetry and Song 2025
Audio: Lowell Distinct and Aspire Sounds 2025
Gallery: Recording poems and songs at Jack Straw
Gallery: Aspire/Distinct Sound and Movement
A Different Universe: Lowell Elementary Poetry & Song was produced by Lowell Elementary School students and Jack Straw Cultural Center with the generous support of the Washington State Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and The Creative Advantage, Harvest Foundation, Agostinho Rodrigues Trust, ArtsFund, and individual donors.
The Jack Straw artist team included poets Carlos Nieto and Jeanine Walker; vocal coaches Sunam Ellis, Camilla Kintana, and Iveliz Martel; musician Tito Ramsey; audio engineers Daniel Guenther and Ayesha Ubayatilaka; movement artist Leah Okamoto Mann; photographer Sherwin Eng; designer Levi Fuller; and Executive Director Joan Rabinowitz. Special thanks to the second graders of Lowell Elementary and Lowell staff. We especially want to thank 2nd grade teachers Lillyanna Balladone, Sharon Lasei, Bree (Bryanna) Pearson, and Danielle Vaillancourt; Music Teacher Shelby Leyland; Focus teachers Toby Steers and Ava Gallion; Distinct teacher Cecelia Pardo; Aspire teacher Marianne McLaughlin; Instructional Assistants Karamo Kanny and Marlee Grasser; Principal Chelsea Dziedzic; and Administrative Secretary Tammy Watson, who helped make this project possible.
Jack Straw Cultural Center is the Northwest’s non-profit audio arts center, dedicated to keeping art, culture, and heritage vital through sound. To find out more about this and other Jack Straw programs, email us at education@jackstraw.org or visit us at www.jackstraw.org.
Artists
Jeanine Walker
Jeanine Walker is the author of The Two of Them Might Outlast Me (GPP, 2022). She has received fellowships from Artist Trust, Jack Straw Cultural Center, and Wonju, UNESCO City…
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Tito Ramsey
After a six-year run in New York City as the frontman of indie dance band LEGS, composer and performer Tito Ramsey is back in Seattle writing crisp pop songs…
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Sunam Ellis
Sunam Ellis is an actor, director, and teaching artist based out of Seattle. Her training began with her studies at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, and after receiving her…
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Camilla Kintana
Camilla Kintana is an actor in Seattle, Washington who recently played Kayleen in Gruesome Playground Injuries, directed by Michael Nevárez, and Thaisa in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, directed by…
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Iveliz Martel
Iveliz is an actor, teaching artist, and journalist from Chile. She holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Washington School of Drama and an MS in Science Journalism…
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Leah Mann
Leah Mann is a multi-disciplinary artist, somatic practitioner, and embodied social justice activist. She is artistic director emeritus of Moving in the Spirit, a youth mentorship program utilizing dance…
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