Exploring Language at the Poetry Foundation

Students in the Stories class returned to the Poetry Foundation to revisit the beautiful visual poems by Monica Ong. In Stories, students explore their voice as storytellers while examining the power and responsibility that come with narrative building. In the first unit, students read creation stories from around the world in order to write creation stories of their own.

In the exhibit, Planteria, Monica Ong leverages the visual language of astronomy to explore the precarious territories of motherhood, women in science, and diaspora identity.  She imagines that if poetry and astronomy were to throw an art party, this one invites audiences across disciplines and cultures to imagine new cosmographies where everyone belongs. Inspired by the works of Monica Ong, Stefania guided students in creating a visual poem that tells the story of a constellation of their own creation.