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Celebrating Diversity Through Poetry

Be the change you want to see in the world”, advised Mahatma Gandhi. Donna Yates took these words to heart when she founded Poetry Pals in Chicago, Illinois in August 2007. True to its name, the project uses poetry to encourage exchanges between students and, in this particular case, between students of different faiths.

“Today, there is more awareness about the need to bring diverse communities together to encourage dialogue and create trust. Many programmes are being initiated on college campuses and in faith-based communities for youth groups and adults. However, we have not seen many programmes targeting elementary-age children”, says Yates.

Working on poems together creates a natural forum for dialogue. In the process of creating and sharing their poems, the children build self-esteem, gain public speaking skills, make friends and learn to listen respectfully. They become comfortable discussing faith and culture, without feeling that they are being asked to abandon or justify their own beliefs. During the course of the programmes, the students play interactive games and write poems about themselves, their families, their holidays and their traditions. When possible, they even tour each other’s places of worship.

“We believe that creating friendships while young, and interacting through art, poetry, games and service projects, helps children see how much they have in common. It breaks down stereotypes they may be exposed to from the media, in their community or even in their home”, says Yates.

When Poetry Pals first facilitated a meeting between Chicago students at the Muslim Community Center Full Time School—an Islamic elementary school—and Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Jewish Day School, students admitted to being apprehensive about the joint activities. By the end of the programme, they were exchanging email addresses. A beautiful moment occurred before a joint sit-down meal when each group recited their respective prayers and explained their meanings.

The students asked their new friends many questions: what are traditional Jewish foods? What do you eat on your Muslim holidays? Where is the most holy place for Jewish people? Do you pray a lot? What are the head coverings called? Do only girls cover their head? Why? Over the course of the workshops, time is allotted for answering the questions in a small group format. In a public school setting, the questions are more about culture and tradition rather than faith (due to the separation of church and state, most schools discourage discussions centred on faith and religion). In addition to this session, the students collaborated by participating in a service-learning project in which they collected food for a local shelter. The students made placemats for the shelter and wrote poems themed, “I am a Super Hero and I Fight Hunger” that focused on the shared tradition of caring for others—Tzadekah in Judaism and Zakat in Islam.

The service-learning component is crucial to the programme because it models the importance of community service, a crucial element within all faiths and in the children’s character development. In addition, by accomplishing a task together the students strengthen friendships, gain a sense of empowerment and pride, and learn that the different faith traditions share similar values. Harriet Rosenman, a poet-educator with the programme, believes that Poetry Pals is contributing to her vision of a peaceful future: “From these experiences, these children will grow up without stereotyping others on the basis of their ethnicity.” She then adds, “And they may even develop some lasting friendships.”

Naazish Yarkhan is on the advisory board and a poet-educator for the intercultural programme Poetry Pals (www.poetrypals.org), as well as founder of the Writers Studio workshop. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service