Students enjoy inspirational poetry masterclass

Students from Neale-Wade Academy and Burrowmoor Primary Academy in March took part in a special spoken word, writing and performance workshop this week. 

The workshop started with a visit from Qian Zephaniah, who generously spoke with the students about her late husband Benjamin Zephaniah, and shared several of his most famous poems. 

The students then worked together with Jasmine Gardosi, the former Birmingham poet laureate. Jasmine is a multiple poetry slam champion, beatboxer and Honorary Doctor of Letters at Birmingham Newman University.

The students loved writing their own poems and some of them will be performing at the March Summer Festival this Sunday at 12.50pm on the main stage.

The workshop was facilitated by local youth arts organisation 20Twenty Productions, in partnership with March Summer Festival.

“It was brilliant to see students benefit from such an engaging and exciting workshop, which highlighted the importance and value of the words we use. Opportunities like this also crucially help our students to build their confidence as well as encouraging them to think creatively and write amazing poems.

 

Huge thanks to 20Twenty Productions and the March Summer Festival for making this happen, and of course to Qian and Jasmine for sharing their time and their wisdom.”
Graham Horn, Principal at Neale-Wade Academy