| "Start with
something that is true and build around it" |
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- Janet
Wong
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Janet signs books for eager young
fans at FHCH.
credit: Matthew Carson
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A
young poet reads at the FHCH public event on Wednesday
evening, July 28.
credit: Sherrie Y. Young
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Poets in deep discussion about
the craft at the public event at FHCH.
credit: Sherrie Y. Young
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Children's author and poet
Janet Wong met with preschoolers, first
through eighth graders, parents, and volunteers of the
summer program at The Forest Hills Community Center
during her July 27 - 30, 2004 author residency.
Ms. Wong easily connected with the groups she met with
throughout several sessions and had them creating their
own poetry almost immediately. She opened her residency
by briefly describing her numerous and varied books
to the class and explaining their inspiration. Now a
popular poet, Ms. Wong told the group that as a child,
she felt she hated poetry, but later discovered that
what she really hated was the memorizing of poems (which
she found boring) and not the actual power of the words
themselves.
Through her poems and stories, Ms. Wong emphasized the
value of equality. She shared how she suffered from racist
abuse as a child, but also showed how this difficult experience
can be transformed through creativity: that a poem is
a good place to put a painful memory.
The group was very impressed as Ms. Wong told them
about her invitation to read at The White House Easter
Egg Roll based upon her book Apple Pie on the 4th
of July, a book about the exploration of cultural
differences.
Ms. Wong continually encouraged the children to write,
with exhortations that when words popped into their
heads - and this doesn't happen to everyone- they should
instantly write them down. She explained that by taking
these words as a true and authentic starting point,
the children would be able to build a poem or story
around them.
The groups Ms. Wong met with understood and appreciated
her message that what may seem like a common event,
situation, or item can serve as the basis for a story
or poem. For instance, the next time a family member
said something that struck them, they could write it
down, make a poem from it, and give this as a gift to
the person who inspired the poem. Another idea she suggested
was to look around the room, think about a favorite
relative or sibling, and imagine that particular relative
as a plant, animal, or an object. By doing these and
other creative exercises, the classes created some truly
amazing poems in a very short time.
Ms. Wong put in plain words the subtle benefits of
writing and rewriting a poem, explaining that she herself
writes between ten and fifty drafts for a single poem.
She also encouraged the young would-be poets not to
be overly critical of their own work; she said that
we are not always the best judges of our writing, as
writing is subjective. Ms. Wong installed a great sense
of self-belief in the students, many of whom wrote wonderful
poems, surpassing their own expectations.
These insightful poems were later read by beaming young
poets at a special public event on Wednesday evening,
July 28, to an audience of around 70 people, including
some extremely proud parents and staff members.
"Forest Hills Community House was delighted to
host Janet Wong. We knew it (having a published author)
would be a wonderful experience for the children,"
said Mary Abbate of Forest Hills Community House. "Ms.
Wong, in particular, was the perfect match for our summer
camp, which has a multi-cultural theme. Her stories
of her childhood, friends, and family reinforced the
children's appreciation of their families' customs and
traditions."
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