The UNCW Office of Cultural Arts has combined outreach efforts with New Hanover middle schools and the non-profit organization Dreams of Wilmington in hopes of bringing innovative and engaging teaching styles to students. From Wednesday, Oct. 17 through Saturday, Oct. 20, Glenis Redmond, a professional poet, educator, performer and counselor came to local D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy to assist with educational workshops focused on the theme “Poetry off the Page.”

“It’s an art integrative approach to poetry where you’re teaching students to learn to embody the art form,” Redmond said.

The D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy recently reopened this year after being shut down for a year due to poor performance and low enrollment, so for the school, it’s beneficial to have outside efforts come in to help the students better their educational experience.

This was the cultural arts office’s first partnering with “Poetry off the Page” and Glenis Redmond. The program uses professional development, in-school workshops and free school performances to integrate the learning experience and enhance participatory involvement in the classroom.

Courtney Reilly, assistant director of the cultural arts office, said the workshops were designed to allow teachers and students to get comfortable moving around and engaging with each other. The teachers got to see how important Redmond’s techniques and processes were through firsthand experience.

The UNCW Office of Cultural Arts created all educational outreach efforts through a program called ARTworks in 2005. The office hoped to strengthen the university’s learning experience by building effective partnerships with local, state and national organizations in order to develop opportunities for leadership roles by enhancing the growth of art throughout the region.

When working with teachers from Virgo Prep and several UNCW faculty members and students, Redmond had them up and out of their seats, performing poems and interacting with one another. She walked them through one of her poems step by step, making them act out the words using various actions and emotions. Redmond used techniques involving metaphor and simile exercises, brainstorming, performance tips, and she provided enhancements to teachers’ lessons through music and dance.

Sara Hendery is a senior at UNCW pursuing a creative writing major in non-fiction. She has attended several workshops before, but most were for her benefit as a writer. This time, Henery wanted to learn about alternative teaching ideas.

“I’m about to start a creative writing therapy group, and I wanted ideas for activities to do with kids and adults,” Hendery said.

Most of Redmond’s workshops are conducted in six-hour increments, but for these particular circumstances, the workshop was only three hours long. Aside from working with teachers and UNCW faculty and students, Redmond also had in-class sessions with many of the sixth grade classes.

Redmond’s own writing skills were developed at the young age of 12, while she was in Ms. Sargent’s middle school English class. Her lifelong passion makes it easy for her to relate to the young students. By getting involved with students and schools, Redmond hopes to spread poetry inside the classroom, using responsive and innovative teaching techniques. These lessons enhance memorization and establish beneficial interaction amongst students.

 “I love it [working with students],” Redmond said. “They’re unpredictable, full of energy and passion, with a lot of untapped potential.”

“I hope that, one: they’re exposed and provided a higher level of awareness, two: that they tap into their inner poet, and three: I want them to just witness, and whatever happens, happens,” Redmond said.

Redmond revolved her workshops around how they’d best work to influence the students. For the classes at Virgo Prep, each student had the opportunity to create their own poem by following her techniques.

The classes met individually in the school’s media center for a 75-minute workshop where Redmond was able to work with the students one-on-one. She helped them edit and develop their poem drafts. The students wrote two styles of poems, one that reflected where the students were from and another that reflected who the students were as individuals. At the end of the workshop, the students were enthusiastic about sharing their poems with the class.

Once all the students draft a poem, they will be submitted to future school residences so that they can review them and select significant lines from each poem in order to then combine them into one large compilation. The students will then use a voice recording to capture the vocals of the collected sentences, and a final compilation of the recordings will be drafted by a group out in Los Angeles.

The recording that they develop will then be used to create a new dance influenced by the students. This experience provides the students with real life interaction and a form of appreciation for the arts.

“I’ve had opportunities to see follow-ups and see students make qualitative leaps in their growing,” Redmond said about how effective her workshops have proven in the past.

From involvement with efforts like these, the D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy hopes to continue growing and providing the students with opportunities to learn and gain knowledge through effective hands-on experiences