Inspiring young people to be creative: Northern Ireland’s poetry in motion for schools

ABSTRACT

This article examines how a project in Northern Ireland seeks to inspire young people to be creative through the placement of poets in schools. Based on an interview with the project co-ordinator, the article explores how the project seeks to nurture young people’s poetry writing and why it gives a lot of importance to the publication and performance of their work. The article also discusses the significance of a strong relationship between poets and teachers in school contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Poetry writing
• poet-in-residence
• Northern Ireland
• young people’s creativity

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Chelley McLear for granting me the interview and the spoken word poet Cat Brogan for introducing me to her. The interview was held on 15 September 2015 at the offices of the Community Arts Partnership in Belfast.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Daniel Xerri teaches at the Centre for English Language Proficiency, University of Malta. His research and publications focus on poetry education and creativity. Further information about his work can be found at: www.danielxerri.com