Yesterday a great friend of LitWorld, Luke Nephew, came to the office to lead the spring interns in a slam poetry workshop. For the workshop, Luke led us through written and spoken exercises that tested the ideas of a conventional classroom. We wrote about educators in our lives, and listened to an awesome recitation of Luke’s own poem “Professional Momma.” After the workshop, we discussed the importance of encouragement, the need to create trust within the group, and the power of vulnerability.

In the words of one of the other interns, the workshop was a “mental message.” It gave us a space to reflect on what we had learned from their internship at Litworld as well as pick up new skills to bring back to the LitClubs. Thank you Luke for taking the time to share your words and ideas with us and the LitWorld staff!

--Abigail Schneider, LitWorld Intern

Luke Nephew is LitWorld’s Intergenerational LitClub Leader and runs the Circle of Peace LitClub at The Hebrew Home in Riverdale. He is a member of The Peace Poets, a group of artist educators committed to teaching with a focus on our collective liberation. Their goal is to create safe spaces that allow us to deconstruct race, class, and gender as a community.