Hopkins Senior Leads Community Education Class

Over the past few months, Tally Shaver, senior, has been creating a way for people of all ages to find a way to let their creativity free.

On Thursday Feb 25, Shaver held her first poetry class. Finding an outlet to be creative can be very difficult; Shaver has created a way that anyone can write poetry in a safe and fun environment. Even though only one class has been held she plans on holding more classes for all ages. 

“I personally have found it pretty difficult to get inspiration for writing over the past year,” said Shaver. “Over the spring I discovered that some people that I knew offered some poetry workshops, just short hour-long ones, where I found it was really great to be around people of a similar age in a super low-pressure environment to share our writing and passion for writing.”

The first workshop was held for those in grades 10-12. Shaver doesn’t hope to stop there, though, as she will also be holding workshops for students in grades 7-9 as well as a class for adults.

Having these three classes opens up for the students to be more comfortable with people who are of a similar age. Doing so allows a person to be much more open and willing to take risks.

“We focus on something that I like to call still life poetry,” said Shaver. “It is a cultivation of an image of an experience within a poem in a moment in time.”

In order to allow her students to get really in-depth with their poetry, she focuses on bringing descriptions to life. While each class may look different, Shaver likes to start with a warm-up that allows a person to get out of their word comfort zone. 

They read an example poem, the first of which was The World in The Evening by Rachel Sherwood, then Shaver gives the class a prompt to write about and they have time for free writing, finishing the class off by sharing with each other. 

Shaver hopes to keep this class going as time goes on and hopes to reach a broader audience. In the future she wishes to run more sessions, some even being in the morning in person. 

“You can think poetry is really lame but you can still come and you’ll probably have a good time,” said Shaver. 

While it can be tough to get people engaged, Shaver hopes that this class will allow people to find their creative outlet.