Nine High School Students. Two Poets. And the Dreams of Hundreds.

Posted on by Michele Russo

On October 19th, our “Before I Die…” project culminated with a performance at Gallery Aferro.  High school students from Newark joined two Dodge Poets to take the writings from the wall and craft them into a new performance.  They worked all afternoon—sacrificing a beautiful fall Saturday—doing some writing of their own, doing theatre exercises to become comfortable with performing, and creating a reading that was at times funny, at times inspiring, and always human.

Here you’ll find a few photographs, and a few snippets of the writings.

Before I Die I want to…

Be a volunteer

Let everyone know, I forgive.

Gamble with heartbreak.

Slap a hater.

Walk a mile in another man’s shoes.

See the death of bigotry.

Be a hero to someone.


Special Thanks to:

Students:

Adjo, Erica, Odalis, Essence and Naijasia from University High School; Yanice from Science Park High School; Jessica, Amir and Dianeth from North Star College Preparatory High School.

School Liasions:

Karen Gaylord, Community Engagement Specialist at Science Park High School; Donna Grape, English Teacher at University High School and Matthew McCluskey, English Teacher at North Star College Preparatory High School.

Our Poets:

Vincent Toro and Gretna Wilkinson

Our Partners:

Emma Wilcox, Evonne Davis and Jacob Mandel from Gallery Aferro; Jade Lien and Linwood Oglesby from the Newark Arts Council.

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