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Arts & Recreation April 2017 Issue

Discovering The Mature Lifestyle April 20 & 21, 2017

Poetry is a guilty pleasure for all ages Don’t pooh-pooh poetry. In an er a of te xts, Guest column twitter messa ges and sound bites , po... by Bob etry gets a bad r ap. It doesn ’t seem r elRamsey evant in today’s high tech en vironment. Besides, people think it’s boring. listen to n ursery rhymes and elFor e xample, m y dictionary defines a poem as “a ders put favorite verses on their verbal composition designed to tombstones. And poetry is e verywhere — from greeting cards convey e xperiences, ideas and emotions in a vi vid and ima gi- to mon uments and memorials . native way, characterized by the It’s also quoted in e very gr eat use of condensed language cho- prose writer’ s w ork. Lik e it or sen for its sound and suggesti ve not, you can’t escape poetry. What’s surprising is tha t popower and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, meta- etry is also a ca talyst for socializing and comm unity-building. phor and rhyme.� Huh?! Blah. Ho w boring and That’s w hy poetry classes and poetry clubs k eep popping up . stuffy is that? Forget all that! The truth is tha t poetry is a An e ven better e xample ha ppened in m y hometo wn a fe w powerful and popular outlet for all a ges. It can enrich e very years ago. After I wr ote a letter to the phase of life — especiall y the senior years. Poetry is for every- editor of our local ne wspaper one. You’re ne ver too y oung or suggesting our city should ha ve too old to enjo y it. Kids lo ve to a Poet Laureate, the F riends of

the Arts took up the idea and ran with it. And r an with it. They ended up coor dinating a year-long e vent la beled “Voices and Verses� designed to pull the community to gether thr ough poetry. They not only selected a Community P oet, they sponsor ed poetry w orkshops, a F avorite Poem Contest, the creation of a community “R enga� (J apanese for community poem) and a series of coffee house poetry jams. The event was a hit. Not bad for something that was supposed to be stuffy, boring and irr elevant. Poetry trul y is e verywhere and for everyone. The real beauty of poetry, besides its langua ge and ima gery, is its v ersatility. Poetry can tak e many f orms. It can rh yme. Or not. It can be length y or a bbreviated. It can be serious (Think Whitman) or silly (Think Silverstein or Ogden Nash). P oetry can be whatever we want it to be. But the most important thing about poetry is ho w it touches and moves us on a personal le v-

el. Most of us ha ve a lo ve-hate relationship with poetry . Man y of us declar e that we don’t like or understand it. Yet we turn to poetry in times of great emotion, like when falling in love, or losing a loved one. We e ven try to write our o wn poetry to e xpress our deepest feelings (admit it; you’ve written some bad verse at some point). Actually, writing poetry is a guilty pleasur e a t all sta ges of life. Ev en if our ef forts ar e less than perfect, ther e’s still good reason to do it, F or e xample, when someone once ask ed popular poet Bob Bl y, “W hy write poetry; why not just write prose? He r eplied, “W hy dance? W hy not just walk around?� Poetry says things we can’t say any other way. Some time a go, J ennifer Pitterle, editor of the St. Louis Park Magazine, shared a poem gi ven to her and her classmates on the first da y of their first gr ade in school by a gifted teacher. It was “Keep a P oem in Your Pocket� by Bea trice Schenk de R egnier.

The first verse said, “Keep a poem in your pocket And a picture in your head And you’ll never feel lonely At night when you’re in bed.� Pitterle ne ver f orgot tha t poem. It has been a gift tha t kept on gi ving. W hy not gi ve yourself a similar gift? Let the poet inside come out to pla y sometimes . Bring some poetry into y our life . R ead a little. Write a little. Memorize a little. If y ou do , poetry can help you “dance� in your own mind, even if you need a walker to get around; and just ma ybe “you’ll never feel lonel y a t night w hen you’re in bed.� Bob R amsey is a lif elong educator, fr eelance writer and adv ocate f or V ital Aging. He can be contacted at 952-922-9558 or b y email at jo yrammini@comcast. net.

McFerran, Heath continue to cultivate young speakers, thespians DUO - FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

artistic project to display their expertise. A team of three evaluators judges the a pplications. Between 15-20 students a pply f or the a ward, Heath said. Those w ho ar e chosen to mo ve on to the sho wcase pr esent monolo gues or act out a scene. Pla ywrights pr esent a couple of dif ferent aspects of their writing; technical a pplicants bring models and designs. Ten arts winners are chosen. All award winners receive medals a t the spring cer emony. Scholars of Distinction are given $500; honorable mention winners receive $100. “It’s a gr eat venture,� Heath said. “It’ s always an interesting day.� PERPICH CENTER CONNECTION At McF erran’s job a t the P erpich Center f or Arts Education, she said, “W e reach out to people throughout the sta te, to help them integr ate

theater arts into other curricula. I’ve worked with a health teacher w ho was doing a unit on b uilding healthy relationships and w anted the kids to act that out. I work with them and help them do improvisation.� Last y ear, McF erran taught a unit on Shak espeare. W hen a P erpich Center dr ama teacher was directing a production of “Hair,� McFerran helped with costumes . She also has colla borated on the one-act play at Armstrong High School. “I do theater things, to help support thea ter in the schools,� she said. “I just started a mentor ing program for new directors or teachers. It takes tons of years of experience to kno w the r opes. I go to schools and w ork with younger directors. I watch them work and give them tips. We conduct workshops. It’s a service we can provide.�

other place or a gency quite lik e the P erpich and the outr each w e pr ovide in other ar eas. We do a lot with arts integr ation, helping students improve and giving kids a reason to read or write. “It’s not just putting on a pla y. It’ s so man y other things. We have to help people see the arts . I’ve seen kids sta y in school because of plays, or love music so much they want to sing or pla y an instrument. “The arts pr ovide kids with a safe harbor , a place to feel comf ortable and good a bout w hat they’re doing. I think that’s so important for kids. It makes such a difference in the life of kids.� McFerran has been a perf ormer, a pla ywright and a teacher . Even after she r etired from classroom teaching, she did some acting a t North Hennepin Comm unity College and Pl ymouth Playhouse. FUTURE OF ARTS Speech and thea ter arts, McF erran said, ha ve “worked for me in a lot of ways. It’s been a v ery Even though she’s no longer a classroom teach- rich part of my life.� er, McFerran said, “I w orry about the futur e in terms of funding f or arts educa tion. Ther e’s no

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