INTRO
Wow, what a beautiful ride it’s been!
For the past six months I’ve had the pleasure of working with 115 incredibly bright, creative, blossoming young humans who have truly blown my mind with their ideas and personality. Each and every one of them coming to the class and the page with their own unique perspective and experiences. I couldn’t be more grateful.
Here you will find so much of what a growing young person feels on a daily basis: love, joy, anger, sadness, weirdness, silliness and more. You’ll even witness a bit of magic, fictitious storytelling, and thoughts on what our future leaders want changed in their communities and the world. I hope you feel proud as you read. I hope they are proud of themselves, having brought their most honest and true selves to class each week.
I am grateful to Teachers & Writers Collaborative for giving me the opportunity to share space at Kappa X215. I am grateful to Ms. Warren and the Kappa community for welcoming me. I am grateful for Ms. Bell, Ms. Massena, & Ms. Tanoh for the work they do with our kids day in and day out. Last but not least, I am grateful for these young writers, the students, for letting me help them create some beautiful poetry—even if it was just a moment in time to express themselves. They’re the real MVPs.
And thank you, too, the reader. For taking the time to listen to the voices of our young people. They have so much to say and so much light inside of them.
Open your heart and enjoy yourselves here.
With Love & Gratitude,
Candice Iloh
Teaching Artist
May 2017
Featured Poems:
Memories of Food
by Amazen (6th grade)It was all there, old flavors
I know the beautiful soil,
The sweet, the excellent. At
The table, neither of us
Said much of anything, but
The food was hard to resist
I will never forget this
Day or having my favorite food
It felt like a dream come true
Scallion and hot pepper pancakes,
Chiles steamed shrimp
The person that made the food
With a apron makes the best
Food, I would pay her
For her great job of
Her cooking. And in
My opinion she should be
A chef
Sadness
by Sarahye (6th grade)The night comes
The day goes
Rain falls,
The wind blows,
People come, people go
That’s the flow of my world
The fire in me goes out
All the happiness gone
I’m just a hollow shell
no spirit to belong
T&W is grateful to E.H.A. Foundation for making this program possible.
Candice Iloh is a first-generation Nigerian American writer and dancer from the Midwest by way of Washington, D.C. and Brooklyn, New York. They are a proud alumna of the Rhode Island Writers Colony and their work has earned fellowships from Lambda Literary, VONA, Kimbilio Fiction and a residency with Hi-ARTS, where they debuted their first one-person show in 2018. Candice became a 2020 National Book Award Finalist and in 2021, a Printz Award Honoree for their debut novel, Every Body Looking. Their sophomore novel, Break This House, released in May 2022.
Photo by Justin Lamar Carter