Concord International Elementary: Poetry and Song 2024
In the 2023-2024 school year, 2nd graders at Concord International Elementary School worked with Jack Straw writer and 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 with Ms. Tabor and Mr. Martinez’s classes. Abel, along with Madeleine Sosin, 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 also helped Concord 4th graders in Ms. Adams and Mx. Marisol’s classes write poems on many topics, including family, personal feelings and emotions, and nature. Vocal coaches Camilla Kintana and Meg McLynn helped each student practice reading their work out loud, and we published the poems in a printed anthology: Love Storm.
Listen: 2nd Grade Songs
Photo Gallery: 2nd Grade Poetry and Song
Photo Gallery: 4th Grade Poetry
Concord Poetry and Song 2024 was produced 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, and individual donors.
The Jack Straw team included lead writer Vicky Edmonds, musicians Tito Ramsey and Abel Rocha with Madeleine Sosin, poet Carlos Nieto, vocal coaches Camilla Kintana and Meg McLynn, engineers Daniel Guenther and Ayesha Ubayatilaka, photographer Sherwin Eng, designer Levi Fuller, and Executive Director Joan Rabinowitz. Special thanks to the students of Concord International Elementary, Principal Surojit Pierce, and Concord staff. We especially want to thank second grade teachers Amica Dillon, Salvador Martinez, and Katie Tabor and fourth grade teachers Rebecca Adams and Marisol Garibay-Cervantes, who helped make this project possible.
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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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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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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