April
Front Porch Magazine
April 2015 (pg. 3)
In celebration of National Poetry Month, local artists and poets have teamed up at Water Street Studio on Sophia Street to illustrate the ways art and writing influence one another. Come out and view their inventive collaboration and join the festivities on First Friday, April 3, 2015. Runs through April 2015
The Write Stuff - Virginia
April 2015
As teachers under pressure from mandates and curriculum requirements, we sometimes see the developmental stages of our students become overshadowed by looming deadlines and requirements. However, developing minds is our business, and Jennelle Martin, an 8th grade English teacher at Caroline Middle School, makes it her priority to draw out the writer in each of her students. With an emphasis on creativity and innovation, the keys to success in her classroom are handed to those who are willing to free their minds to make room for the voice to be heard.
Photo provided by Janelle Martin
Front Porch Magazine
April 2014 (pg. 19)
From his earliest days, Jim Thomas has been fascinated with the history of his ancestors. His great-grandmother was a slave, and in his youth she shared personal accounts of that life, as well as intriguing stories of secrets embedded in the seemingly innocuous spirituals she and other slaves sang while forced into labor. Later, while attending Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas sought the opportunity to perform spirituals with the world renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers. It was there that he turned his intensely personal interest into a lifelong quest for information and history, with a goal of filling in gaps left from superficial accounts of slave life and culture in textbooks and other media. These experiences have inspired Thomas’ U.S. Slave Song Project, an endeavor intended to promote the cultural sophistication and intellectual savvy of slaves in America.
Front Porch Magazine
April 2014 (pg 11)
Carol Nicholson knows it’s going to be an interesting day when she hears students in her classroom talking about their latest reading passage on “schmeat”. Their laughter and teasing over the mystery meat is music to her ears, as it means they are actively engaged in their learning. Nicholson’s literacy intervention program at Spotsylvania’s Battlefield Middle School has students interacting with literature, learning reflectively, and experiencing real success in a subject that has long seemed incomprehensible to them.
Front Porch Magazine
April 2013 (pg. 26)
When there are no words, there is always poetry. You know what I mean. When the literal fails us, the figurative remains. Images charged with emotion and forged from memory and experience fly onto the page with unbridled urgency. Then the work begins – the weeding, the trimming, the selecting and tying of loose ends. The poet’s toolbox is language, and the motivation is life.
National Poetry Month
Front Porch Magazine
April 2012 (pg. 8)
Our pasts often dictate our medium of expression, so it is no surprise that A l a h a A h r a r chooses poetry. The UMW student and w i n n e r o f a 2 0 1 1 W o r l d P o e t ry P e a c e A m b a s s a d o r a n d Y o u t h P o e t A w a r d was nurtured by a family of renowned Afghani poets during a time of Taliban rule. Women, once holding respected careers, were secluded and denied a voice. Smiling, yet solemn, Ahrar considers her past, “I’m sure we definitely had many female poets and writers, because Afghanistan is a poetic land. No one knew these women because they were oppressed. During the Taliban period, my family supported me and taught me poetry, but none of it was allowed.”