Nyack Writes

Poetry, Performance & Publication (P3) is a collaborative project of Global Writes (GW), Nyack Middle School (NMS) the Nyack Teachers Center and a local teaching artist . P3, funded through a grant from NYSCA (New York State Council on the Arts), combines the writing of original poetry with the art of performance and innovative uses of digital technology. P3 promotes the growth of standards-based literacy, communication, and collaboration skills among 66 seventh grade students at NMS and provides them with opportunities for performance in a variety of venues, and for publication in a variety of media. The heart of the program is a poetry writing workshop integrated with English Language Arts instruction, and led collaboratively by a performance-poet in residence and four Writing Workshop sections. Students learn to write from experience, observation and reflection, to revise their writing, and to make interpretive choices to lift their work from page to performance. Along the way they receive guidance from the instructors and feedback from their peers. They are encouraged to perform for their class, their school and for students in other schools. Videoconferencing with other Global Writes schools enables them to perform live for remote audiences and even compete in poetry slams with other schools in cities within the GW community including NYC, Chicago and Yonkers.