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![]() Power of the Pen Conference Gives High Schoolers Insight Into Writing Careers
Blackman, the first U.S. Hip-hop Ambassador, gave a rousing and informative presentation in which she rapped, read poetry and described the ins and outs of life as a professional writer.
"Poetry is a way to take your opinions and your heart felt emotions and express them and it's a way to take what you believe and make a bold statement," said Blackman, the founder and director of Freestyle Union.
The event is organized by Jim Daniels, professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at Carnegie Mellon, and Diane Hughes, a literacy officer with the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Daniels, French and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial cartoonist Tim Menees were among the other presenters this year.
The highlight of Power of the Pen invariably is the Poetry Slam, a free-spirited, sometimes raucous event in which teams of students from each of the 12 city high schools read poetry in front of an auditorium full of their peers. The poems are evaluated by a panel of judges who hold up cards, Olympic figure-skating style, to indicate how many points each poem receives. The crowd cheers wildly for a particularly well-written verse and boo when the judges don't give a favored poem the recognition the audience thinks it deserves.
"I loved it. It inspired me so much," said Walker, 17. His poem, "Pretty Jewel," was a sultry love poem that turned up the heat in McConomy Auditorium. Daniels said that high school students who have attended Power of the Pen in past years later decided to study writing at Carnegie Mellon.
"For the university, it helps us link to the Pittsburgh community and gives us an identity as a place that values writing, and that values the young people of Pittsburgh," Daniels said.
Jonathan Potts
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