Los Poemas de Nuestros Corazones: Poesía de Mercer 2021
Welcome to Los Poemas de Nuestros Corazones: Poesía de Mercer, produced by Mercer International Middle School students and Jack Straw Cultural Center, in tandem with our ongoing dual language program at Denny International Middle School. This webpage, our audio recordings and anthology of the students’ poems, and a virtual event featuring Mercer and Denny students reading their poetry and music inspired by their work, are the culmination of a project with Jack Straw artists and students from the eighth grade Dual Language Spanish Immersion program at Mercer International Middle School in Seattle, Washington during the winter and spring of 2021. In this project, students in Cassandra Garcia-Stokes’s class worked remotely with Jack Straw’s professional writer Raúl Sánchez; vocal coaches Brenda Arellano and Marco Adiak Voli; and audio engineers Daniel Guenther and Joel Maddox to write, perform, and record their own poetry. This is our first year working with students at Mercer to help them create and share their stories and poetry and build respect for each other’s experiences.
In addition to these audio recordings, we published an anthology of the students’ poems, both in the original Spanish and translated to English.
Bienvenido a Los Poemas de Nuestros Corazones: Poesía de Mercer, producido por los estudiantes de Mercer International Middle School y el Centro Cultural Jack Straw durante el invierno y la primavera de 2021, en conjunto con el programa de inmersión en español de Denny International Middle School. Esta página de internet, nuestras grabaciones y antología de los poemas de los estudiantes y un evento virtual en el que los estudiantes de Mercer y Denny leen su poesía y música inspirados en su trabajo, son la culminación de un proyecto con artistas de Jack Straw y estudiantes del octavo grado en el programa de inmersión en español en Mercer International Middle School en Seattle, Washington. En este proyecto, los estudiantes de la clase de Cassandra García-Stokes trabajaron de forma remota con el escritor profesional de Jack Straw, Raúl Sánchez; los entrenadores vocales Brenda Arellano y Marco Adiak Voli; y los ingenieros de audio Daniel Guenther y Joel Maddox para escribir, interpretar y grabar su propia poesía. Este es nuestro primer año trabajando con los estudiantes de Mercer para ayudarlos a crear y compartir sus historias y poesía y fomentar el respeto por las experiencias de los demás.
Además de estas grabaciones de audio, publicamos una antología de los poemas de los estudiantes, tanto en español original como traducidos al inglés.
Los Poemas de Nuestros Corazones: Poesía de Mercer was produced by Mercer International Middle School students and Jack Straw Cultural Center with the generous support of the Washington State Arts Commission, the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, The Harvest Foundation, The Creative Advantage, Dr. Thad Williams, International Education Administrator, and the OSPI Heritage Language Grant.
The Jack Straw artist team included writer Raúl Sánchez; vocal coaches Brenda Arellano and Marco Adiak Voli; audio engineers Joel Maddox and Daniel Guenther; education programs associate Alyssa Keene; designer Levi Fuller; and Executive Director Joan Rabinowitz. Mercer student Ethan Fernandez created the cover art. Special thanks to the students of Mercer’s eighth grade Spanish immersion program and Mercer staff. We especially want to thank our partner teacher Cassandra Garcia-Stokes, as well as these poets’ previous dual language teacher Sofía Peña, and all the Beacon Hill Elementary dual language teachers, Denny DLI teacher Liz Olsen, Administrative Secretary Kate Hodges and Principal Cindy Watters, who helped make this project possible.
Artists
Raúl Sanchez
Raúl Sanchez is the former City of Redmond Poet Laureate 2019-2021. He teaches bilingual poetry. He runs the Poetry in the Park bi-weekly readings at Meadowbrook Pond…
READ MORE >
Brenda Arellano
Brenda Arellano is a performer and devisor based in Oakland after almost a decade in Chicago. She was a company member with the Chicago Neo-Futurists and she recently performed…
READ MORE >
Marco Adiak Voli
Marco Adiak Voli is an actor, creator and collaborator originally from Nicaragua, now based in Brooklyn, NY. He has studied at Cornish College of the Arts (BFA in Original Works…
READ MORE >
