McDonald Elementary: The Poets of Tomorrow 2026
Welcome to The Poets of Tomorrow, produced by McDonald International 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 fourth and fifth grade students at McDonald Elementary School in Seattle, Washington during the spring of 2026.
In this project, students from six classes worked with Jack Straw’s professional writer Carlos Nieto to write their own poetry. Vocal coaches Mimi Katano, Iveliz Martel, and Stephanie Roman helped the students practice reading their work aloud. Finally, the students came to Jack Straw’s studios and recorded the poems with our vocal coaches and engineers Carlos, Daniel Guenther, and Ayesha Ubayatilaka.
4th grade poetry:
5th grade poetry:
The Poets of Tomorrow: McDonald Elementary Poetry was produced by McDonald Elementary School students and Jack Straw Cultural Center with the generous support of the Washington State Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, 4Culture, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and The Creative Advantage, and individual donors.
The Jack Straw team included producer and poet Carlos Nieto; audio engineers Daniel Guenther and Ayesha Ubayatilaka; vocal coaches Mimi Katano, Iveliz Martel, and Stephanie Roman; photographer Sherwin Eng; designer Levi Fuller; and Executive Director Joan Rabinowitz. Special thanks to the students of McDonald Elementary and McDonald staff. We especially want to thank teachers Elizabeth Purvis, Andy Shernoff, and Kathleen Wong, and Principal Zoe Facilla, who helped make this project possible.
Artists
Mimi Katano
Jack Straw teaching artist Mimi Katano (she/her) is a bilingual, bicultural theatre artist in Seattle. Her directing credits include Seattle Opera (School Tour), Seattle Shakespeare Company, 5th Avenue Theatre…
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Iveliz Martel
Jack Straw teaching artist Iveliz Martel is an actor, teaching artist, and journalist from Chile. She holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Washington School of Drama and…
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Stephanie Roman
Jack Straw teaching artist 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…
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