Tucson Area Reading Council

Celebrate Literacy

and

Blooming Poets

    In addition to honoring five wonderful supporters of literacy in our community, we had Dr. Robert Wortman to set the stage for our very own student poets to celebrate literacy and creativity!  This year one hundred and sixty one poems, written by kindergarten through eleventh graders, were published  in our anthology called VOICES IN THE DESRT.  On Monday evening April 15, 2002, at UMC's Duval Auditorium, approximately 50 of these student poets kept the audience in awe of their gifts of language and feeling as they shared their poems.  There were many proud parents, families, teachers and friends listening to the poems.
    Schools represented in the anthology were: Duffy, Harelson, Wright, Davis Bilingual Magnet, Agua Caliente, Desert Winds, Estes, Dunham, Schumaker, Townsend Middle, Orange Grove Middle, Wilson K-8, and San Manuel Hight School.  Topics were so numerous a varied, just like the poets themselves, that it is difficult to even attempt to categorize them. The poems ran the gamut from a poem about a rainbow, a washing machine, Smooches From Grandma, to more serious thoughts and feelings about love, racism, September 11th, and many more in-between.  This celebration of creativity certainly refreshes our hope for the future.  Our hats are off to the wonderful creativity of our students, the guidance of teachers, and the support of families and friends.  We are glad that our own Tucson Area Reading Council sponsors this event.

Learn about outstanding individuals in our community who consistently demonstrate their support of literacy learning by their actions in their daily lives.  These individuals received "Celebrate Literacy" Awards from TARC, sponsored by the International Reading Association.

Click here to read a brand new poem, written after the writer read the recently published anthology of student-written poems, VOICES IN THE DESERT.

Get a glimpse of the Celebrate Literacy/Blooming Poet event.

Do you have any Celebrate Literacy or Blooming Poet photos you would like to submit for publication on our website?  Please contact our webmaster to make arrangements to present your photo on our TARC website.

What else would you like to know about Celebrate Literacy and Blooming Poets TARC projects?  Submit your quetsions here.
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