Community school poetry and art festival held
By Christabel Oboshie ANNAN & Zeenatu ABUBAKAR, Accra
As part of efforts to commemorate this year’s World Poetry Day, the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) has organized a community school poetry and art festival for some pupils in Accra.
The festival under the theme ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants’ aimed to facilitate pupils’ interaction with poets and nurture their talents in poetry and arts.
About 159 pupils from three schools—Sempeh Primary School, Bishop Mix Junior High School, and the Seventh Day Adventist school—participated in the event.
Pupils were guided by artists, visual artists, and poets, to gained a unique historical perspective that is different from classroom learning.
Site Manager for the forts and Castles of GMMB, Natalyn Oye Addo, stated that the board organized the programme under the auspices of the Accra World Book Capital to engage community school children to nurture their creativity.
She emphasized the board’s commitment to interacting with children at various levels and expressed a desire to replicate such initiatives in other communities with more partners.
Addo highlighted the programmes success adding that the board plans to compile the poems written for the day as well as share them with other schools.
According to her, the artworks created by the children will be displayed at the Fort as a reminder of their achievements for this year’s festival.
She expressed gratitude to partners and teachers who contributed to the event’s success, noting its transformation from an initial thought to a replicated success.
A representative from the France Embassy, Professor Gerard Chouin, commended the initiative for promoting Ghanaian culture and providing an opportunity for children to understand the historical significance of forts and castles in the landscape.
He advocated for continued community involvement in heritage preservation efforts.
A facilitator at the event, Apiorkor Seyram Ashing Abbey, emphasized poets’ desire to reach out to young people and help them unleash their talents.
She advocated that the festival be replicated each year to help groom young people with such talents to unleash their creativity.
A pupil at Bishop Mix Junior High School, Joanita Tsey, expressed her appreciation for the festival, stating that it educated her and instilled courage and confidence.
She eagerly anticipated its replication next year with more schools.
World Poetry Day is celebrated every March 21, with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard.
The occasion seeks to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry, foster the convergence between poetry and other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting, and raise the visibility of poetry in the media.
