AUBURN — L/A Arts has announced Maine Writes poetry students from Edward Little High School are participating in a live poetry slam competition in the Bronx, New York City.

The students are part of a class that has received a free 30-week poetry residency from L/A Arts. L/A Arts educator Joshua Vink and classroom teacher Jill Hyland have teamed up to teach the students poetry and literacy-based skills and forms, and about basic poetry slam performance. These students’ learning has been expressed in original written pieces they created, which they are performing at the competition in New York. The poems cover powerful topics, from their lives to the meaningful aspects of their community.

In New York the students are competing against other high school students from schools in Brooklyn and the Bronx. A morning first-round competition will take place, from which three finalists will be chosen to perform in front of an audience of 500 people in the Lovinger Theater at Lehman College. Winning students will receive special commendations and awards.

This trip marks the second year that L/A Arts and the Auburn schools have partnered up to send a group of students to this poetry slam event.

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