Frederick-Douglass Knowles II, Hartford’s first poet laureate and an associate professor of English at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, will be offering two youth creative writing workshops at The Mark Twain House & Museum on Dec. 28. Grades 4 to 8 can attend from noon to 2 p.m.; grades 9 to 12 attend from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
The workshop, entitled “The Young Poetry of Tupac Shakur,” is sponsored by the West End Civic Association (WECA), The Hartford Creative Contest, and The Mark Twain House & Museum.
Knowles’s mission as Hartford’s first poet laureate is to create an interactive, creative writing campaign designed to amalgamate the literary and performing art of poetry. The intention is to combine the element of active reading with creative writing exercises to compose literary and performance poetry to improve the competency and confidence of young aspiring writers. Knowles calls his ongoing project BeatLit.
“I want to reach the kids who write on the school bus, thinking nobody wants to hear them, that they’re not important,” Knowles said in a recent interview for The Hartford Courant. “But people do want to hear them. They are important.”
The workshop at The Mark Twain House is free; no pre-registration is required.
More information is here.