Nyaommi Atkins, Jayla Patton-Fry, and Joniya Allen are poets. They also happen to be 8th-graders at Sherman Multicultural Arts School, in teacher Brandy Muex-Wiggins' class. 

The students have different styles — Nyaommi writes her poetry by hand and makes it rhyme; Jayla and Joniya write their free verse on computers.  

But, as in their topics, there is universality, too. All three are enthusiastic about reading and listening to other poets (Joniya listens to poems found on TikTok while cleaning her room) and about creating their own poetry.    

“I can express myself in a way through it,” Jayla said. Nyaommi agreed. “It shows my feelings through it. Also, I just love writing.” Joniya said, “I’m a listener” — more so than a talker — and poetry is the space where she expresses herself.  

In Nyaommi’s “Lost Child,” Joniya’s “Can You Respect Me Too?” and Jayla’s “We Could Have Just Stayed Strangers,” they examine relationships with peers and adults and hope for a connection with their audiences, stirring emotion or empathy.  

“My perspective might be their perspective,” Jayla said.  

The public can hear their poems and the others selected to be featured at the 2026 Poetry Showcase on Wednesday, Aprill 22, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. The showcase takes place in the auditorium at MPS Central Services, 5225 W. Vliet St. 

Students will have one to two minutes each to read their original work; in all, nearly 30 students from kindergarten through grade 12 were selected to deliver their poems and spoken word poetry. A break in the middle of the program will allow visitors to view poems on display. 

Celeste Ochonogor, who has organized the showcase the past four years, said students this year for the first time weren’t assigned a theme — they could write about anything. 

“The writing this year was phenomenal,” Ms. Ochonogor said. Without the limitation of an assigned topic, the students’ writing took flight, she said. Poetry comes down to “voice and choice,” she added — how writers express themselves, and what they choose to focus on.  

Writing serves two purposes— one is reflective, and the other is expressive, she noted.  

Expressing themselves through poetry can be freeing, allowing students to take on difficult topics.

“Some of these things can’t be said aloud but still conveyed,” Ms. Ochonogor said. “Your pen is doing what your mouth can’t say, sometimes.”

She suspects that leaving the topic open also increased participation. Last year, one high school student took part; this year, 15 high schoolers submitted poems.  

Some students love writing poetry so much, they participate every year. One 8th-grader whose poem was selected this year started writing poetry for the showcase as a 6th-grader. 

“It’s interesting to watch them grow from year to year,” Ms. Ochonogor said. “You hear their voice in their writing.” 

“I always tell people, ‘They’re reading like writers, then they’re writing like readers.’ It makes your writing different” to think about who the audience is and how readers will be affected by the poem, Ms. Ochonogor said. 

Ms. Ochonogor wrote three mini lessons for teachers’ use in preparing students. The lessons discuss finding something worth saying, crafting the poem, and revising. Students were encouraged to choose a topic that resonated with them — a topic they could connect with or would connect with the community. 

With no limitations, students chose topics such as an influential teacher, and missing loved ones. Some poems are written in Spanish. A 2nd-grader, meanwhile, wrote about a monkey. “This baby is learning about science right now,” Ms. Ochonogor recalled thinking. 

As students read and listen more widely, they might try to emulate well-known poets. Ms. Ochonogor muses: Who will be the next Langston Hughes, or Maya Angelou, or Jill Scott, for that matter, working at the junction of poetry and spoken word with music? 

“I would love to come back to see these children write books of poetry. That would be the ultimate. I could say, ‘I remember when,’ “ Ms. Ochonogor said.