Mi Gente: Poesía de Denny 2026
Welcome to Mi Gente: Poesía de Denny, produced by Denny International Middle School students and Jack Straw Cultural Center during the winter and spring of 2026. This web page and our audio recordings and anthology of the students’ poems are the culmination of a project with Jack Straw artists and students from the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Dual Language Spanish Immersion program at Denny International Middle School in Seattle, Washington. In this project, students in Liz Barry’s 8th grade Spanish Language Arts class worked with Jack Straw’s professional writer Raúl Sánchez; producer and poet Carlos Nieto Mosqueda; vocal coaches Iveliz Martel and Stephanie Román; and audio engineers Daniel Guenther and Ayesha Ubayatilaka to write, perform, and record their own poetry. Students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Spanish Language Arts classes, with Liz Barry and Estela Morales, wrote identity-based poetry that they also shared at the Denny Noche de Poesía and appears in the anthology.
We published an anthology of all of the students’ poems, both in the original Spanish and translated to English.
Bienvenido a Mi Gente: Poesía de Denny, producido por los estudiantes de la Escuela Secundaria Denny International y el Centro Cultural Jack Straw durante el invierno y la primavera de 2026.Esta página de internet y nuestras grabaciones y antología de los poemas de los estudiantes son la culminación de un proyecto con artistas de Jack Straw y estudiantes del programa de Inmersión en Español de 6º, 7º y 8º grado en la Escuela Secundaria Denny International en Seattle, Washington. En este proyecto, los estudiantes de la clase de Artes del Lenguaje en Español de 8º grado de Liz Barry trabajaron con el escritor profesional de Jack Straw, Raúl Sánchez; el productor y poeta Carlos Nieto Mosqueda; las entrenadoras vocales Iveliz Martel y Stephanie Román; y los ingenieros de audio Daniel Guenther y Ayesha Ubayatilaka para escribir, interpretar y grabar su poesía original. Los estudiantes de las clases de Artes del Lenguaje en Español de sexto, séptimo y octavo grado, en las clases de Liz Barry y Estela Morales, escribieron poesía basada en la identidad que también compartieron en la Denny Noche de Poesía y se publican en la antología.
Publicamos una antología de los poemas de los estudiantes, tanto en español original como traducidos al inglés.
Mi Gente: Poesía de Denny was produced by Denny International Middle School students and Jack Straw Cultural Center with the generous support of the Washington State Arts Commission; the National Endowment for the Arts; 4Culture; ArtsFund; the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, SmART Ventures, and The Creative Advantage; and individual donors.
The Jack Straw artist team included writer Raúl Sánchez; producer and poet Carlos Nieto Mosqueda; vocal coaches Iveliz Martel and Stephanie Román; audio engineers Daniel Guenther and Ayesha Ubayatilaka; photographer Sherwin Eng; designer Levi Fuller; and Executive Director Joan Rabinowitz. Denny students María Alarcón, Giselle Romero-Guzmán, and Fátima Estrada created the cover art using ideas from their classmates. Special thanks to the students of Denny’s Dual Language Spanish immersion program and Denny staff. We especially want to thank our partner teacher Liz Barry; Estela Morales; Instructional Assistants and Student Recording Support Experts Herman García, Octavio Fernández Ballesteros, Ceyla Santamaría, and Luz Santacruz Ochoa; Vice Principal Audrey Roach; Principal Mary Ingraham; Fiscal Specialist Hillary Fleener; former Seattle Public Schools International Education Administrator Dr. Thad Williams; and community advisor Miguel Guillen, who helped make this project possible. We also want to thank Amado Chacon, who has been interning with Ms. Barry and will soon become a teacher.
Artists
Raúl Sanchez
Raúl Sanchez is the former City of Redmond Poet Laureate 2019-2021. He teaches bilingual poetry. He runs the Poetry in the Park bi-weekly readings at Meadowbrook Pond…
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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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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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