The Mt. Healthy WeTHRIVE! team recently wrapped up a year of poetry-related community events by unveiling “Poetree” boards at five locations around the city. The team used grant funding to educate student poets and to install display boards where their work can be shared with the community.
The effort was led by Mt. Healthy WeTHRIVE! team members Jacqueline Johnson-Wilkinson (Mt. Healthy Alliance), Mary Laymon (Tikkun Farm), and Aaron Horsely (Forest Avenue Wetlands-Renewal Project).
Poetry Out Loud
Jacqueline Johnson-Wilkinson led two 10-week Poetry Out Loud workshops for junior and senior high school students in the Mt. Healthy community. Poetry Out Loud is a national program and Jacqueline served as a judge for its competitions in the past. Her enthusiasm for the power of poetry is contagious!
“During the workshops with the students, they were allowed to use their creative writing skills to create poems and to recite those poems out loud in front of their peers,” Jacqueline explains. “Students also learned about different styles of poetry and studied famous authors and writers of literature and poetic works.”
The workshops culminate in poetry competitions, where students choose poems to memorize and recite in front of an audience. There are local, regional, state, and national competitions.
“It was quite an exciting few months for the students,” Jacqueline says. “It was a great learning experience, but also gave them an opportunity to connect with like-minded students from all over the region. We had one student who actually qualified to go all the way to the national competition.”
Mt. Healthy’s Poetry Out Loud workshops and poetry reading events brought more than 125 students and community members together.
Poetrees
The Poetree Project was developed as a way to showcase poems written by Mt. Healthy students, while enhancing outdoor spaces where community members can enjoy nature along with the poetry.
Why nature? Because research shows that spending time in nature, even urban nature, brings a host of physical and mental health benefits. The Mt. Healthy WeTHRIVE! team believes that creating outdoor spaces for the community is important in combatting the uptick in social isolation and mental health issues lingering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re just hoping that this project can help people explore nature and the beauty of poetry,” Jacqueline says. “We envision the community coming together to share in the beautiful surroundings and the beauty of the community, as well as the beauty of being outdoors and enjoying nature.”
You can find the poetrees, which display community information as well as poems, at five locations in Mt. Healthy: Tikkun Farm, The Dairy Bar, Trinity Lutheran Church, Fibonacci Brewing Company, and Forest Avenue Wetlands Park.
Celebration introduces poetrees to the community
On October 25, 2024, the Mt. Healthy WeTHRIVE! team invited the community to share in celebrating the student poets and the poetrees. WeTHRIVE! Population Health Specialist Olivia Conroy attended and provided her thoughts:
“This project was truly special from beginning to end. The Mt. Healthy WeTHRIVE! team wanted to highlight the incredible poems featured on the boards, so they came up with the idea of hosting an opening ceremony that doubled as a ‘moveable feast.’ Each location offered a unique food item and a live poetry reading, creating an exciting and engaging experience.”
“The event brought the community together in a way that was both heartwarming and inspiring. It was great to see residents come together to honor the talented poets, demonstrating what true community support looks like. Hearing the poets share their work was a memorable experience, and each one truly did an amazing job!”
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