High schoolers come together for a cross-county poetry slam
Emily Kicklighter and Bernard Clay reflect on their Intercultural Microgrant project, which brought together students from Jefferson County and Estill County schools for a poetry slam at Kentucky State University.
a golden thread binds
dried cut flowers long since gone
at least in a way
Last fall, Emily Kicklighter and Bernard Clay teamed up to organize a cross-county rural-urban poetry slam for tenth-grade English Language Arts students at Butler Traditional High School in Louisville’s Jefferson County and at Estill County High School, a rural Appalachian county in the Red River Gorge region.
Emily and Bernard met during the 2022 Rural-Urban Exchange (RUX) Community Intensive season. Upon reading and hearing Bernard’s poetry, Emily knew she wanted her students to know his work. Emily & Bernard organized two in-class poetry workshops for students at each school in October, facilitated by Bernard, with help from Emily’s Estill County High School teaching colleague Julie Poynter. Microgrant funds helped supply each classroom with 50 copies of Bernard’s poetry chapbook English Lit, which will continue to be used for reading, reflection, and inspiration in school years to come.
“It wasn’t just about having the experience of a poetry workshop with a local Kentucky poet, which made poetry very accessible and obtainable to the students,”reflects Bernard. “It was about bringing together high school students from different places—some from the countryside, others from busy cities—and seeing them connect. It was truly heartwarming to see these friendships form as they shared their poetry with each other.”
View from the poetry slam at KSU.
Students from each school worked and shared poetry & feedback digitally between the workshops. The collaboration culminated in an in-person poetry slam at Kentucky State University in November, during which the high schoolers had the chance to perform their poetry onstage and also hear performances by KSU students & faculty.
“These young poets, who had grown so much through our conversations and guidance, stood up and read their work to a room full of cheers,” remembers Bernard. “This moment was the perfect example of what Emily had envisioned: a chance to bring people together and spark inspiration in a community. It showed just how powerful it can be when we reach out and connect with others.”
“My students were interested in Bernard’s generative workshop, and a few even came away with poems they liked and revised and revisited with pride,” reflects Emily. “I’m so grateful to Bernard for writing such a moving book and being game for anything I threw his way. I’d also like to extend gratitude to our hosts at Kentucky State University and to all the educators, administrators, and bus drivers who indulged this little dream of mine. And last, but certainly not least, many thanks to Art of the Rural and the RUX for theopportunity to bring more great work by Kentucky writers into the classroom and for givingstudents a glimpse of what lies on the other side of the rural-urban divide!”
The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange (RUX) Intercultural Microgrant Program launched in 2023. We are deeply grateful to the Pluralism and Civil Exchange program of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Their support helped us launch this microgrant program and invest in our alumni network to employ the skills they’ve learned in the RUX program to the benefit of their state and local communities.