Back to school with Mixtapes from Poetry In Voice: free new tools for teachers

For immediate release—10 am EDT, September 8, 2021

 

Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie announces “Mixtapes”, a new tool for teachers to discuss today’s complex subjects through poetry. Compiled by Canadian poets, mixtapes include a selection of poems, each with an introduction and resources for further exploration. These tools will add to our Poet in Class program, which allows teachers to invite Canadian poets into their classrooms free of charge.

Mixtape themes so far include:  intersectional feminism, mental health, Canadian poems in translation, community, poems from the Caribbean, and (dis)ability. Three Mixtapes are available in French and three in English. More will be added in the fall and announced on social media. 

Mixtapes in English

  • Islands of Influence: impact of Caribbean poets, compiled by Brandon Wint
  • Come Together:complexities of communities compiled by Brendan McLeod
  • Disability Poetics, compiled by Ashley Elizabeth Best 

Mixtapes in French

  • Féminisme intersectionnel, compiled by Josiane Ménard
  • Oh Canada! Réflexions sur la traduction poétique, compiled by Catherine Cormier-Larose
  • Maladie mentale, compiled by Alice Rivard

“I have actively followed the poets in this ‘Disability Poetics’ mixtape and gathered their poems like talismans; keeping a disabled body moving in an ableist world can feel impossible, but these poets, and their works, have been guideposts.”

- Ashley Elizabeth Best, poet and essayist

 

Our Mixtapes add to our many free resources, including lesson plans, writing prompts, recitation contests and classroom visits by poets already offered to classrooms across Canada by Poetry In Voice. 

The Online Anthology features new poems selected by poets Lorna Crozier, Dane Swan, Sarah Tsiang, and Phoebe Wang.

 

About Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie –

Founded by Scott Griffin, chairman and founder of the illustrious Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry, Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie encourages all Canadians to speak the language of poetry. They are the essential resource for teaching and learning poetry in Canada—and beyond. The organization started by hosting a recitation contest with 12 schools in Ontario in 2010 and has since become “a cultural force in Canada,” according to Margaret Atwood. 

Every year, the organization hosts two national recitation contests (one for students in grades 9–12, and another for students in grades 6–8) and a dozen local team recitation contests every year. These contests rely on robust online anthologies of classic and contemporary poems in English and French. The organization also publishes an annual bilingual journal of student poetry, VOICES/VOIX.

Their websites include comprehensive teaching materials, and to date Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie has sent poets into over 1600 classrooms to work with over 50,000 students through their Poet In Class/Poètes à l’école program. 

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