April Director's Journal

“It’s official: poetry is cool,” reports Leeauna Perry, Sitka’s Youth Program Director, from a rising tide of classrooms along the north-central Oregon coast. “Students and teachers are so inspired that Ada Limón is coming—and that their work will be part of her public reading in the community.”

With a mix of curricular inspiration and tri-county logistical wizardry, Leeauna has orchestrated something truly epic: a project that connects kids across rural communities and landscapes through place-based photography and poetry.

Last month, K-8 Create students learned to use point-and-shoot instant cameras and built a collective image library of more than 15,000 photographs. Now, each young artist is curating a visual story using three images—one by a peer from each county—and writing original poems inspired by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s work and Library of Congress projects. For many students, Sitka’s curriculum marks both their first time writing poetry and their first exposure to free verse.

“I didn’t think I could write a poem, but I liked it,” a 3rd grade poet at Warrenton Grade School confided to Iris, his K-8 Create art instructor. “I think I wrote a good one. I’m going to try it some more when I get home.”

“Photos helped me to imagine and create my poem where I said, ‘hear the nature in the calling of a bird’ and finish with the theme of friendship,” a 5th grade poet at East Elementary School shared. “I am so excited to share my poetry art.”

The excitement is unfolding quietly, powerfully—a butterfly effect in motion.

When Sitka learned that Ada Limón had accepted our invitation to visit the coast, it was important to us that her readings be free and accessible. Often, lectures with nationally recognized authors and artists are hosted in urban centers with expensive ticket prices, doubling as fundraisers for the organizations that host them. Events like that are an important part of the arts and culture ecosystem. They are also often financially and geographically out of reach for many rural residents. Our aim is that Sitka will be able to bring more free public events with leading voices to the rural coast in the future.

While these events will be free to attend, however, they are not free to host.

That’s one reason I traveled to the Oregon State Capitol last week for Arts Advocacy Day, joining cultural leaders from across the state. We gathered to champion increased statewide funding for the Oregon Arts Commission’s grantmaking budget and to support capital investments in 14 cultural anchor institutions. As I spoke with rural representatives from both the House and Senate and from both sides of the aisle, I was struck by how often the arts were framed not as a luxury, but as a lifeline—vital to enriching the lives of kids and families and essential to bridging partisan and urban-rural divides.

For those able to attend the reading with U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón on May 20 in person, I can’t wait to see you at Nestucca K-8 School and to celebrate the power of poetry together. For those who believe in the importance of free programming and want to contribute—whether you give, spread the word or support Sitka’s work in other ways—I hope you feel what I do: awe, joy and a renewed belief that art, when made, shared and experienced together, can shift what we see and how we see it.