Seattle World School 2012: Poetry Moments

Poetry Moments was produced in 2012 by Seattle World School students, Jack Straw Cultural Center, and the Vietnamese Friendship Association. In this project, Vietnamese high school students worked with Jack Straw’s professional writers, vocal coaches, and audio engineers to write, perform, and record their own poetry.

“These students have been in the U.S. for about 1 month to a year. It has not been easy for them to blend into a new culture and learn a new language at age 17 and older, but they are trying their best as they know that it’s the key to their future success. I can’t say thank you enough to Jack Straw’s wonderful team for all of the valuable opportunities that they have brought to our school and our highly in need students. The vocal trainings with their coaches Gin and Christine have helped the students to become better readers. The poetry sessions with Jack Straw’s wonderful, experienced writers Kathleen and Laura have exposed them to different styles of writing and helped them to express themselves freely, creatively.”
-Kim Thao Hua, Classroom Teacher

You can listen to the produced pieces below, and read our Poetry Moments anthology here.

Poetry Moments was produced by Seattle World School students, Jack Straw Cultural Center, and the Vietnamese Friendship Association with the generous support of the City of Seattle Department of Information Technology, the Washington State Arts Commission, the Harvest Foundation, and individual contributors.

The Jack Straw production team included writers Laura Gamache and Kathleen Flenniken, audio engineers Moe Provencher and CJ Lazenby, vocal coaches Christine Marie Brown and Gin Hammond, production assistant Bob Perry, and Executive Director Joan Rabinowitz. Special thanks to Seattle World school students, teacher Kim Thao Hua, VFA assistants Tram Dinh and Peter Hong, and Principal Martin O’Callaghan.

Artists

Kathleen Flenniken

Kathleen Flenniken began her career as a civil engineer and didn’t discover poetry until her early 30s. Her collection, Plume (University of Washington Press, 2012), a meditation on the…

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Laura Gamache

Laura Gamache reads, writes and teaches poetry. She has published work in journals, anthologies, on buses, on radio, in chapbooks, and on-line. She teaches through Seattle Arts & Lectures…

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Gin Hammond

Gin Hammond is a Harvard University/Moscow Art Theatre grad and a certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework™. She has performed nationally at theatres such The Guthrie, Arena Stage, The…

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