Concord International Elementary: Poetry and Song 2023
In the 2022-2023 school year, 2nd graders at Concord International Elementary School worked with Jack Straw teaching artist Vicky Edmonds to write original poems about their feelings, emotions, and what they’re like deep inside. Jack Straw musicians Tito Ramsey and Abel Rocha wrote songs inspired by the students’ poems – Tito working with Ms. Dillon’s class, and Abel working with Ms. Zambrano and Ms. Martinez’s classes. Abel and Tito joined the students in class along with engineers Daniel Guenther and Ayesha Ubayatilaka to teach them the songs and record them singing together.
Vicky Edmonds also worked with Concord 4th graders in Ms. Groszhans, Mx. Marisol, and Ms. Dunphy’s classes. She helped them write poems on many topics, including family, personal feelings and emotions, and nature. Vocal coaches Meg McLynn and Stephanie Roman helped each student practice reading their work out loud, and we published the poems in a printed anthology: All the Beauty Inside of Me.
Listen, look, and read on below for Tito and Abel’s songs, classroom photos, and drawings and poems from the Concord 2nd and 4th grade students!
2nd Grade Poetry and Song: Poems and classroom photos
4th Grade Poetry: Poems and classroom photos
Concord Poetry and Song 2023 was produced with the generous support of the Washington State Arts Commission, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and The Creative Advantage, and individual donors.
The Jack Straw team included writer Vicky Edmonds, musicians Tito Ramsey and Abel Rocha, vocal coaches Meg McLynn and Stephanie Roman, designer Levi Fuller, engineers Daniel Guenther and Ayesha Ubayatilaka, and Executive Director Joan Rabinowitz. Special thanks to the students of Concord International Elementary, Principal Surojit Pierce, and Concord teachers and staff.
Artists
Vicky Edmonds
Vicky Edmonds is a poet and a teacher who uses the written and spoken word to bring the deepest and most authentic parts of ourselves to the page into the…
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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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Abel Rocha
Abel Rocha is a Mexico City-born folklorist, singer and multi-instrumentalist who performs music of Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Chile and Argentina. He is a foundational member of groups including…
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Meg McLynn
Meg McLynn is a Seattle-based actor, vocalist, and teaching artist who loves sharing her passion for performance with students of all ages. She is a member of the vocal…
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Stephanie Roman
Stephanie Roman (they/them) is a Mexican American actor and teaching artist based out of Seattle. Their training began at PCPA – Pacific Conservatory Theatre in California, and they later moved…
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