Montclair Adult School Celebrates Poetry Month

In celebration of Poetry Month, the Adult School of Montclair will bring Project V.O.I.C.E. and its acclaimed poets Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye to Montclair on Thursday, April 25, for two workshops and a live performance.

The first workshop from 5 to 6 p.m. is reserved for high school students. The second workshop is from 6 to 7 p.m. is for post-high school adults. The cost is $25.

Following the workshops Kay and Kaye will take center stage and perform their own work from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.. The performance will be followed by a Q&A session and a book signing by the poets.

The cost to attend the performance is $20. Space is limited. Register now at www.adultschool.org.

Kay and Kaye have traveled the world bringing their teaching and performances of Spoken Word Poetry to audiences of all ages and nationalities in venues that have included TED conferences, HBO, the United Nations, and Lincoln Center. The two take audiences on an intimate tour of writing and self-expression.

In the workshops, the two will combine writing exercises with constructive feedback to give participants an arsenal of tools to approach not only spoken word poetry, but for all performance-based creativity.

Born and raised in New York City, Kay began performing her poetry when she was 14 years old. She made herself at home at the famous Bowery Poetry Club, where she was adopted by an unruly community of poets. In 2004, Kay founded Project V.O.I.C.E to encourage creative expression through Spoken Word Poetry.

Kaye was raised in a California beach town, the son of a Japanese mother and a Jewish-American father. He is the former head coordinator of SPACE and held weekly poetry workshops in maximum security prisons. He is a two-time recipient of the National College Poetry Slam award for “Pushing Art Forward”, given for outstanding innovation in the art of performance poetry — the only person to ever receive the award twice.

Both poets draw from a tradition of theatre, storytelling, slam poetry, stand-up comedy and song to create a show that welcomes while it wows. They have performed in thousand-seat amphitheatres, late night dive bars, gymnasiums and university auditoriums.

They approach topics from the personal to the fanatical, infusing laughter and sorrow along the way. Their performances are a poetic conversation that gets people talking, thinking, and feeling.

Adult School offices are located in Montclair High School, at 100 Chestnut St. Staff and volunteer help can be reached Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at (973) 746-6636.