ANN ARBOR—The three R’s take on a new meaning — reading, ‘riting and rapping — during a weeklong summer program for teens and teachers at the University of Michigan starting July 28.

Poetry Outloud: Teaching Slam and Other Spoken Forms is organized by the U-M School of Education and the English department, Ann Arbor’s Teen Center, and the Neutral Zone. This Making American Literatures Summer Institute for students and teachers from across the country will feature daily workshops and free evening performances for the public. U-M graduate students and nationally recognized poets and writers will teach participants, who will interact during afternoon discussions, nightly readings, and writing sessions. The program exposes participants to traditional and non-traditional spoken poetry, and to demonstrations of how both styles can be similarly cultivated. Professor Anne Gere, School of Education; Cari Carpenter, English department; and Jeff Kass, director, Neutral Zone’s Creative Writing Programs, collaborated to develop the institute. The student track, called the Volume Summer Institute, is for middle and high school students and will focus on improving writing through critiques and exercises, such as one-on-one sessions with poets. Students will express themselves through writing and performing. The Volume Summer Institute is a part of a year round program operated by Volume, an after-school creative writing program headquartered at the Neutral Zone. The teacher workshop track, the Spoken Word Workshops, will unite high schooland university instructors to study the making of American literature. Workshop models are based on those developed by the National Writing Project and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which support university-school collaboration. “It is a wonderfully exciting opportunity for both students and teachers to work, write, and make literature together, as well as forge new paths through the electric frontier of performance poetry,” said Kass, who coached the Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam Team to two national championships. “Hopefully, it can provide a model for future collaborations between writers in the community and at U-M.”

• Public performances begin at 7 p.m. and include: · — Poets Kimberly Blaeser and Regie Gibson · — Al Letson presenting Essential Personnel · E. Liberty — Poet Bassey Ikpe · Aug. 1, Borders Books and Music, 612 E. Liberty — Performances by Ayodele and Sailor J Gere is available for interviews at (734) 647-2529 or argere@umich.edu.

For institute information, call (734) 647-2529 or (734) 615-1409. To find out more about the U-M School of Education, visit http://www.soe.umich.edu/. To read about the history of slam, visit http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2002/Mar02/r031802a.html. RELATED LINKS: argere@umich.edu >> http://www.soe.umich.edu/ >> http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2002/Mar02/r031802a.html >>  

Or Mary Nehls-Frumkin

argere@umich.eduhttp://www.soe.umich.edu/http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2002/Mar02/r031802a.htmlargere@umich.edu >>http://www.soe.umich.edu/ >>http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2002/Mar02/r031802a.html >>Mary Nehls-Frumkin