"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."  Robert Frost

Our after school programs are the foundation of poetryN.O.W.  These programs offer students a variety of opportunities to become more academically and socially engaged, and we strive to make these opportunities available to any and all schools who express interest in founding a program.  If a school decides that it wants to establish a poetry club, we want to ensure that the process is as seamless as possible, therefore we provide each participating school's sponsor the following materials and services to help him or her lead a successful after school poetry program.     

Writing Workshops

We have developed an extensive curriculum with over 50 full length writing workshops and prompts to facilitate in achieving one of our ultimate goals: getting students to write.  Our workshops are created from and based on classic, contemporary, and spoken word poetry.  

Our curriculum is in alignment with state educational standards, benchmarks, and goals.  Each workshop is designed to focus on honing specific skills that are essential to effective, concise, and powerful writing.  Our aim is for the students who participate in this program to emerge and use these skills not only in their creative writing, but in their personal lives and classes, too.    

Performance Workshops

Preparing students to perform, whether at open mics or poetry slams, is a large component of the poetryN.O.W. mission.  Performing is not for everybody, and while we encourage all poets to at least share with the immediate group, it is not a mandatory stipulation for participation in the club.  

That being said, we have also developed workshops that concentrate exclusively on performance.  These performance workshops focus on honing specific skills that contribute to effective public speaking and performance.  We are ardent believers that performance poetry is a strong medium for self expression, and we strive to make our students as comfortable and prepared as possible if they, in fact, are interested in performing.   

Professional Development and Support

If you choose to be a sponsor of an after school club, we will hold monthly professional development sessions throughout the year.  These sessions will be facilitated by one of our teaching artists and will focus on providing you with the necessary support, tools, feedback, and guidance to run a successful poetry program.  

Furthermore, if your school is interested, one of our teaching artists can also come to your school regularly to guide and facilitate workshops directly with you and your students.  poetryN.O.W. is staffed and associated with a wide array of dynamic teaching artists, including nationally ranked performance poets, award winning educators, and published authors.  If you would be interested in working alongside one of our teaching artists, please let us know.