Expression through writing: Boys & Girls Club of Central NM hosts poetry workshops for middle school students

If you ask Reed Bobroff what poetry means to him, you’d get a pretty unique answer: freedom.

“Poetry to me means freedom,” he said. “Freedom of expression. Poetry has no rules on grammar, form or punctuation, but it gives me the tools to express myself.”

Bobroff (Diné), began using poetry’s tools of expression at the age of 13. After he started writing, it didn’t take long for a lifelong love of poetry to develop. Soon, he was performing his poems at local poetry slams in Albuquerque and speaking about his lived experiences as a young, Native American poet.

Expression through writing: Boys & Girls Clubs hosts poetry workshops for middle school students

“I was the only Native American poet in the (Albuquerque poetry) community and I was exploring themes and topics that were filling a hole that wasn’t really being talked about in the scene,” he said.

The more he preformed, the more comfortable he became in his own voice. Bobroff would leave Albuquerque after he graduated from the Native American Community Academy to attend Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in theater studies in 2016.

In 2018, he returned to Albuquerque and quickly returned to the poetry scene. When he was preforming, he was helping with community organizations and other art projects. But his love of poetry was always present. In September, Bobroff received a text message from an old friend, Mercedez Holtry, who offered him a unique opportunity to share his love of poetry with today’s youth.

Holtry, who is the teen program manager at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central New Mexico, asked Bobroff if he would be interested in leading a series of after-school poetry writing workshops for middle school students. A poet herself, Holtry performed slam poetry and held workshops around the nation, before joining the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central New Mexico last year.

Since joining the organization, Holtry has looked for ways to incorporate her passion for poetry into her work with the clubs, and saw a collaboration with Bobroff as the perfect opportunity to merge her two passions together.

“Reed’s an awesome member of our community and he’s an excellent writer,” she said. “I wanted someone who could understand the demographic that we were working with and come at it from a cool angle, and that was Reed.”

Bobroff accepted the offer and began working with several groups of students from Harrison, Ernie Pyle and Polk middle schools.

“For most of the students, this was the first time they had really engaged with poetry,” he explained.

Bobroff started the students off with basic forms of poetry, like “I am” poems.

Once they got the structure of those poems down, he moved them to more expressive forms of writing and asked them to write about their own experiences and culture.

“Poetry at its core is really about expressing ideas, and if you present poetry like that, it becomes less intimidating to students.” Bobroff said.

For Ally Chavez, a sixth grade student at Ernie Pyle Middle School, there was a bit of a learning curve when it came to writing poetry for the first time.

“I was a little nervous, but it did get easier as we went along,” she said.

Chavez and her fellow group mates wrote about everything from their experiences growing up in the South Valley, to their favorite person in their life.

The culmination of the poetry workshops came in the form of a poetry reading that was held in the cafeteria of Harrison Middle School on the evening of Nov. 8. Chavez was one of the nine students from all three schools who read their poems.

“I was scared to read it at first, but after I was done, I was really proud that I did,” she said.

Holtry said the Boys & Girls Clubs is looking to possibly expand the poetry workshop program out to several new schools next year and is looking to partner with more poets, who will work directly with students.

“Poetry and writing is a great coping mechanism and a great way to express yourself,” she said. “It’s beautiful to see young people who have never done that before, do it for the first time. Because they feel seen, heard and validated.”