Featured Readers
Wednesday, April 3 ~ Celebrate National Poetry Month
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Hosted by: Nanette Deetz
Featured readers: Students from Alameda Community Learning Center, The Mighty Pens and faculty poet, Alameda Poet Laureate Cathy Dana, and St. Joseph Notre Dame students high school Poet Laureate Sofia Reeves, and Emilia Kaldis and Andrew Fowler. Faculty readers are Elizabeth Pelaez Norris and Cat Crawford.
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Hosted by: Nanette Deetz
Featured readers: Students from Alameda Community Learning Center, The Mighty Pens and faculty poet, Alameda Poet Laureate Cathy Dana, and St. Joseph Notre Dame students high school Poet Laureate Sofia Reeves, and Emilia Kaldis and Andrew Fowler. Faculty readers are Elizabeth Pelaez Norris and Cat Crawford.
The Mighty Pens and Cathy Dana
ACLC Poetry Club, called The Mighty Pens, are high school Poet Laureate of ACLC, Sammy Oster, and Ivy Nebeker, Josie Whittock, Truly Edison, Phillip Royle, Saran Tugsjaral, Liam Foster, and Eleanor Dodds.
In 2012, with the hope of sharing a lifelong love of poetry and the exquisite beauty of words, Cathy Dana, teacher of Creative Expressions at ACLC, founded a school-wide poetry club called The Mighty Pens. The group meets weekly to write and share poetry, culminating each year in an anthology of student poems, entitled "Wandering Minds, Dancing Words." The Mighty Pens have read poetry at Multicultural Night, Books Inc., the Ina Coolbrith Circle, Poetry Express, and the Dancing Poetry Festival. Each week they choose a "poet of the week" to read a poem to the entire school.
ACLC Poetry Club, called The Mighty Pens, are high school Poet Laureate of ACLC, Sammy Oster, and Ivy Nebeker, Josie Whittock, Truly Edison, Phillip Royle, Saran Tugsjaral, Liam Foster, and Eleanor Dodds.
In 2012, with the hope of sharing a lifelong love of poetry and the exquisite beauty of words, Cathy Dana, teacher of Creative Expressions at ACLC, founded a school-wide poetry club called The Mighty Pens. The group meets weekly to write and share poetry, culminating each year in an anthology of student poems, entitled "Wandering Minds, Dancing Words." The Mighty Pens have read poetry at Multicultural Night, Books Inc., the Ina Coolbrith Circle, Poetry Express, and the Dancing Poetry Festival. Each week they choose a "poet of the week" to read a poem to the entire school.
Poet Laureate of SJND, Sofia Reeves, and Emilia Kaldis and Andrew Fowler
Faculty readers are Elizabeth Pelaez Norris and Cat Crawford
Faculty readers are Elizabeth Pelaez Norris and Cat Crawford
Elizabeth Peláez Norris
Elizabeth Peláez Norris retired from St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda after 35 years teaching Spanish and English. In 1991, she founded and served as adviser to PRISMS, the school’s award-winning literary magazine. More than 100 of her students have been inducted into her Star Society of Creative Writers for being published in outside magazines and anthologies. Since 2009, she has chosen the High School Poet Laureate from a talented pool of rising poets. Her collection of poetry, Inner Voices, received Artists Embassy International’s Literary/Cultural Award in 2010.
Cat Crawford
Cat Crawford grew up in Ukiah, California and has been a poet all her life-- though as an English teacher for the past five years she has found little to no time for pursuing her own writing. Cat has taught English at various schools in Oakland and Alameda, including ACLC and SJND. She once compiled a book of poetry written by herself and her father entitled "The Sage and the Seeker", and grand schemes of self-publishing it still percolate in the back of her mind. Cat will soon be leaving the teaching profession for unknown shores-- perhaps to pursue a long-delayed career as a writer.