Local Youth Join in Peace Poetry Reading Hosted by SUNY Potsdam

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From left, Dr. Jennifer Mitchell and Dr. Victoria Levitt facilitated the North Country Schools Peace Poetry Contest with student interns.

POTSDAM, NY (05/26/2011)(readMedia)-- SUNY Potsdam's Department of English and Communication hosted the 2011 North Country Schools Peace Poetry Contest reading on Tuesday, April 26.

Students from North Country K-12 classrooms were invited to create and submit original poems on the subject of peace. From the 673 submissions from nearly 20 school districts, 75 poems were chosen for their originality, artistic merit, imagination and affirmation of peace as an ideal and way of being in the world. Judges included SUNY Potsdam faculty, alumnae and students.

The winning poems were published in a poetry calendar with the title "North Country Schools Peace Poetry, 2011." Winning students and their teachers received free copies of the poetry calendar, and were invited to take part in a poetry reading on the SUNY Potsdam campus to celebrate their contributions and accept their awards.

Copies of the poetry calendar are available for sale by contacting peacepoetry@potsdam.edu.

"The student winners were overjoyed," said Indian River English teacher Meredith Hurley. "It was great for them to share their work with a larger audience than their own classroom."

"When I won the Peace Poetry Contest, I was mixed with shock and happiness," said Hurley's student Kayla Kilgore. "I didn't think I would win. It was a happy day for me."

The reading is a powerful event for many who attend.

"I can attempt to express in words the incredible value and uncommon virtue such a program means to a teacher of children, but my words will not be nearly as compelling or profound as the words chosen by the young poets of the North Country," said Doug Saber, a fifth grade teacher from Potsdam. "An evening in Dunn Theater listening to the children's ideas about and aspirations for peace is an evening spent in reflection and in awe."

The contest was coordinated by interns Kelsey Eckler, Sierra Friberg, Stephanie Warner and Bernie Widell, and facilitated by Dr. Jennifer Mitchell and Dr. Victoria Levitt, associate professors in the SUNY Potsdam Department of English and Communication.

The Peace Poetry Contest started at SUNY Potsdam in 2002 with a vision of collecting children's poetry in a time where peace may not be easily found in our newspapers and on the television screen. Its founder, Dr. Paul Saint Amand, has continued the event at Northern Essex Community College in Massachusetts. Based on Dr. Saint Amand's original model, others have launched the contest in Fairfield, Conn., Humboldt County, Calif., Albany, N.Y., and Gainesville, Fla.

Between 2007 to 2010, Dr. Sharmain van Blommestein, assistant professor in the College's Department of English and Communication, directed the contest.

The contest is supported by SUNY Potsdam Division of Academic Affairs, The School of Arts and Sciences, The School of Education and Professional Studies and the Department of English and Communication.

Donations to the contest fund are welcome; please e-mail peacepoetry@potsdam.edu for more information on how to donate.

The next contest will be held in the Spring 2013 semester, and guidelines will be announced in December 2012.

For more information, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/AAS/peacepoetry.

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Founded in 1816, and located on the outskirts of the beautiful Adirondack Park, The State University of New York at Potsdam is one of America's first 100 colleges. SUNY Potsdam currently enrolls approximately 4,350 undergraduate and graduate students. Home to the world-renowned Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam is known for its handcrafted education, challenging liberal arts and sciences core, excellence in teacher training, and leadership in the performing and visual arts.

-www.potsdam.edu-