Calling all poets of promise.

A new writing program being offered to high school students around Winona was presented to 9th-12th graders at Cotter.

At the two high school flex assemblies on Wednesday, September 23, local poets Scott Lowery, Ken McCullough and Marcia Ratliff came to talk about Teen Voices, a writing workshop being held at at the Lutheran Campus Center located in the Mugby Junction coffee shop on Huff St.

Teen Voices aims to “empower students to discover and share their voices through a series of monthly workshops.” Students who join the program will be in a group of 20-30 young writers who will see a performance and presentation by a professional poet.  The students will work on their own poems and be given a chance to receive criticism from peers.

The student poets will also be connected with a personal mentor.  They will use a workshop concept to develop their skills and poems.

There will be a culminating performance near the end of the school year and the group hopes to publish a book of student work as well

Interested students are asked to return a form by the end of the first week in October to register for the course.

Lowery, McCullough, and Ratliff all performed works of their own and the assembly and showed the Cotter students video clips of spoken word performance by Minneapolis writers Keno Evol and Ed Bok Lee.

Minneapolis poet and performer Ed Bok Lee:

a clip from Minneapolis spoken word artist Keno Evol: