Dear Site Leaders,

Please see the message below from Sacramento Poet Laureate, Andru Defeye. If you plan to engage with this opportunity, please feel free to share the Poetry Contest or any other information below with your teachers or community. The website is filled with wonderful resources for students and educators.

Thank you!

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Thank you for all of the hard work that you do every day to bring learning to life for the students of our city. As Poet Laureate I have witnessed the power of our city’s educators continuously since being awarded the position in 2020. This year I was awarded a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets in support of a community poetry project which is what I am writing to you about today. Sacramento Poetry Day was declared in 1986 and this October 26th we have some gifts for Sacramento’s language teachers and students! Everything is available at SacramentoPoetryDay.com (except the zoom link which will be shortly).

SACRAMENTO POETRY DAY CURRICULUM

The Ten Twenty Six poetry curriculum can be used all year around and meets many California education standards. These are age appropriate lessons that foster both literary and social-emotional learning for grades K-12. All poems were contributed by living Sacramento poets who currently perform and publish work around the city. Poems, lesson feedback, and reflections from students are encouraged. I would ABSOLUTELY love to hear what your students came up with and hear how we could improve this curriculum. 

LIVE POET PERFORMANCES AND Q&A VIA ZOOM

October 26th we will have Sacramento poets performing and answering questions live via Zoom. We will be sending this link out soon and it will be posted on the Sacramento Poetry Day website well in advance of the 26th.

• K-4th grade: 9-9:10 am
• 5-8th grade: 9:15-9:25 am
• 9-12th grade: 9:30-9:45
• K-4th grade: 10-10:10 am
• 5-8th grade: 10:15-10:25 am
• 9-12th grade: 10:30-10:45 am
• K-4th grade: 1:15-1:25 pm
• 5-8th grade: 1:30-1:40 pm
• 9-12th grade: 1:45-1:55 pm

CASH PRIZE YOUTH POETRY CONTEST

Open to all Sacramento youth currently enrolled in grades K-12, the Sacramento Poetry Day contest is really more of a drawing and it costs one poem to enter. This is not a talent competition. This is about getting as many kids to write poems as possible. Winners will be drawn at random. Cash prizes include one $500 prize, one $300 prize, and two $100 cash prizes. All work MUST BE ORIGINAL and composed by the student entering. 

Thank you all so much for what you do every day. It is my hope that this year at least for one day we can help make it easier on you and bring you some fun and entertaining ways to teach young people in Sacramento the power of the written and spoken word. Poetry is everywhere. Thank you for all of the ways you help our young people find it. Please let me know if I can support you or your students in any way. Don’t hesitate to reach out. Attached is a flyer for the youth poetry contest. Please spread far and wide to your students and encourage them to enter! 

See you on October 26th, 

Andru Defeye

Sacramento Poet Laureate 2020-2025