Kirkwood Community College should invoke a spoken word event or club to give students the ability to share and voice their opinions, struggles and fears while building connections, confidence and character to then apply to their daily school life and classes evoking their creativity and self-awareness.
According to the K-12 Dive deep dive article by Lauren Barack “Spoken word poetry raises student voice, literacy and confidence.” “While studying and writing any poetry helps students develop literacy skills, spoken word also helps students build social and emotional skill sets including self-awareness, communication and self-confidence.”
Not only that, spoken word also reaps benefits towards relieving stress and having an outlet to let out and express your worries with other students who understand you presently in this generation.
On the website “getlit.org” there’s an article called “Defying isolation through poetry: Spoken word and mental health” which a professor at Bath Spa University in the United Kingdom named Lucy English shares the benefits of spoken word and poetry in her own college class “She reports that spoken word poetry assist in relieving stress and increasing confidence as students work through mental health issues like anxiety.”
I personally have seen the benefits spoken word has given firsthand as I discovered poetry back in middle school during a rough period of my life where my voice was silenced in a school where I was the only representation I could find and showcase for everyone. When I reached high-school and joined my Black Student Union we hosted an event which has gone two years strong and which I hosted last year my senior year at Kennedy high-school that gave many students the opportunity to relate, make friendships and connections and learn about things they didn’t have enough insight on or were ignorant about. Students were given the ability to share their stories and release the anxiety and weight on their shoulders they carried in a place they were unfamiliar with but soon came to be a safe place for them to be themselves.
Students deserve to have time and a space dedicated to express, learn, observe and have the outlet to grow from a creative aspect at a school that strives on “Friendships and connections that last a lifetime.” Through poetry an artistic form of communication and a voice of the future. To embrace differences and struggles that make Kirkwood students a community.
Categories: Opinion
