Poetry for the People isn’t just any poetry class

This past semester, I decided to sign up for African American Studies 156AC, more commonly known as Poetry for the People (P4P). It is a four unit class with a two hour lecture and two hour discussion each week, and it satisfies the American Cultures requirement for the university.

The class itself is modeled after the work of June Jordan, a Berkeley poet and activist who founded Poetry for the People in 1991. It is centered on three specific types of poetry: African American poetry, Arab American poetry, and Multiracial/Mixed race poetry. Jordan’s model has a set of guidelines for this particular style of poetry, with emphasis on creating maximum impact in minimum words.

Aya de Leon is the current professor of Poetry for the People. She is a novelist and nationally acclaimed spoken word artist who gained attention through her work in the San Francisco Bay Area. de Leon creates a community in the classroom that is supportive of all backgrounds and receptive to personal feelings and stories. The class involves difficult subjects, but the feeling of solidarity I gained in lecture from her teaching was something I’ve never felt in a classroom before.

My own experience in this class was very transformative. The truth is that I’ve always known I love to write, but I have never taken myself seriously enough to write poetry on my own. I didn’t know if there was a correct way to do it or not, and I felt lost every time I looked at a blank word document trying to write something lyrical rather than my typical snarky opinion pieces. Coming into this class, I was intimidated and worried I’d be out of my element, especially when it came to spoken word.

My awesome discussion section, right after we all performed our poems at the final reading!

But what truly made a difference was the accompanying discussion section, which is especially intimate and unique to the class. My discussion had eight people led by a “Student Teacher Poet,” or STP, who was hand-selected by the professor to facilitate these workshopping hours. I am incredibly proud to have worked with all the talented students in my discussion section – we even have a group text going because of how much we’ll miss each other now that the class is over!

In the past, I have experienced some condescension from people who don’t consider my chosen fields of study, English and Creative Writing, to be lucrative or worthwhile. But after seeing the power of writing in this class and witnessing how much it helps people grow both together and independently, I feel so much more confident in pursuing the humanities as a major and developing my writing skills. It truly is life changing to find an outlet like this for feelings you would never express otherwise.

After so many successful semesters, Poetry for the People is expanding next year to be available to more students than the typical upperclassmen crowd! It will be available as a larger 150 person lecture and have both upper division and lower division sections (AfricAm 156AC and AfricAm 56AC). If you have ever wanted to challenge yourself in a new, expressive way, I highly recommend signing up to explore the P4P community.