Poetry Night in Ann Arbor took the stage November 4, 2010 at the Lydia-Mendelssohn Theater in the Michigan

League. This annual show lets teens and emerging poets perform with renowned artists.

Students from all four Ann Arbor high schools, as well as poets from local organizations U-Club and Wordworks performed. Also represented was the Detroit based group InsideOut.

Two world-renowned poets were featured during the performance. Samantha Thornhill, origninally from Trinidad and Tobago, recited a number of her pieces. Thornhill’s work is often about ordinary or typically uninteresting objects, but she examines them in ways that gives the listener a new perspective on an ordinary thing.

Martin Espada, another featured speaker, read from his book. A poet from Brooklyn with Puerto Rican heritage, Espada’s poems have an ethnic flair. The juxtaposition of pieces read in a Brooklyn accent with perfect Spanish mixed in is unique and memorable.

Both featured speakers were welcomed warmly by the crowd.

Watch poems performed at Poetry Night below.

Featured Poet Samantha Thornhill.

[quicktime]http://the-communicator.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/samantha1.mov[/quicktime]

Community Student Jon Daniels reads “The Night I Became a Poet”

[quicktime]http://the-communicator.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Jon-Daniel.mov[/quicktime]

Skyline student Edith Zhang reads her  poem about the pressure to get good grades.

[quicktime]http://the-communicator.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Edith-Zhang.mov[/quicktime]

Claire Schorin recites her poem called “The Furer Leads Me on The Road To Enlightenment: A Consequential Four Days  Before My Brother’s Bar Mitzvah”

[quicktime]http://the-communicator.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/holocaust.mov[/quicktime]

Andrew Barnhill, a member of InsideOut, recites a piece about the importance of reading.

[quicktime]http://the-communicator.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/insideout.mov[/quicktime]