Our youth in Antigua and Barbuda are under tremendous fire, with the negative influences that exist in our society, more should be done to occupy their time positively. August Rush Productions is proud to introduce its newest programme, the Young Poet’s Society of Antigua & Barbuda (YoPoSAB). The purpose of this new initiative is to use poetry as a means of self-expression to help free the restless soul of our youth, while affording them the opportunity to define themselves through the individual creativity of their own words.

The poetry sessions will coincide with the school term, and will break during school vacation. Each month will consist of three Saturday sessions; a time to be announced at a later date. These sessions will be held at The Best of Books branch located on Friar’s Hill Road. Sessions will be divided as follows; Writing Techniques, Public Speaking and Expression, and Finding Your Inner Creative Voice. YoPoSAB will be directed by Linisa George, with assistance from Zahra Airall. Some of the confirmed guest speakers and facilitators are Marcella Andre, Floree Williams, Brenda Lee Browne and Joanne Hillhouse. All activities will challenge the minds of the YoPoSAB members, with the hope that the society will be able to create an environment that will ensure that the love and development of the literary arts continues into our country’s future.

Members will be given a personal folder that will contain all reading and writing materials needed for their sessions. As part of the programme, the participants will also study the works of poets such as Shakespeare and William Blake to Maya Angelou, Derek Walcott, and our very own Motion and Joanne Hillhouse. They will also learn to incorporate music and beats, to communicate their messages through the rhythm and sound of their words.

In conjunction with the University of Central Florida’s programme ‘Writing Across Waves’, headed by Terry Ann Thaxton who is the founder and director of the Literary Arts Partnership at UCF, all YoPoSAB members will be matched to a UCF creative writing student. The university students, under the instruction of Thaxton, will be responsible for providing writing prompts to the YoPoSAB members, which will contribute to the completion of assignments that will assist with their development. The society’s members will be expected to communicate regularly with their UCF mentors. This UCF programme is also being instituted in St. Kitts.

Towards the end of every term, YoPoSAB will publish a newsletter that will showcase the work of its members along with exciting news about the development of the programme. A Young Poets Night showcasing the talents of the participants will also be scheduled at the end of every term. YoPoSab members will be challenged to produce a studio to stage performance of their work at the end of the programme’s curriculum year, which would fall at the end of June. This will help them to engage each others’ talents through teamwork, helping to provide and nurture the skills needed to help propel them and their communities forward. The production will speak to the art form of poetry and their interpretation thereof. The public will be given an opportunity to witness their progression, as tickets will be sold to view the production.

Registration to become a member of YoPoSAB will begin on September 1st 2010. Parents who wish to register their child will be required to pay a $5 application fee, in addition to $10 per month, or $25 per term to facilitate attendance. Registration forms to become a member of YoPoSAB can be obtained at both Best Of Books branches; space is limited. The completed form with the registration fees should be returned to Best Of Books no later than September 30th. You can email the society’s director at youngpoets.antigua@gmail.com or call 783-4120 and 780-7754 for more information on how you can become a sponsor or donate items, and for any other enquiries about the society. The first session will begin on Saturday October 2nd. There is also a Facebook page for the society titled ‘The Young Poet’s Society of Antigua and Barbuda’. The society’s blog address is http://youngpoetsofantiguabarbuda.blogspot.com. For more information on UCF’s ‘Writing Across Waves’ programme, you can check out http://english.cah.ucf.edu/outreach.