Boston Public Library‘s Grove Hall branch is air-conditioned, but that wasn’t why I headed over there on a 90-degree late July afternoon. I went to visit the branch’s teen center in order to see the brand-new display of work from my Writing Is Thinking teammate Alice Laramore’s students from the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School/Alliance for Inclusion and Prevention Summer Spot program.

As part of our Writing Is Thinking collaboration, Alice and I had read Linda Christiansen‘s  influential article “Move Over, Sisyphus!” from Rethinking Schools at one of our team meetings this past spring. It was exciting to see how the seed ideas that Christiansen planted had blossomed into meaningful pedagogy, and, ultimately, poetry written by our Boston middle schoolers that pops with the rhythms of Caribbean music, the splashes of tropical colors, and the intense heat of summer sports.

Below are photos of the display and a few of the poems. There are many more to read in Grove Hall’s teen area.