Quartez Harris leads Chaney High School’s Writing Fellows and students during the African American Read-In and Write-In class Wednesday at Chaney High School.
Stacy Quiñones
During the event, students at Chaney High School discuss texts written by Black authors throughout history and more recently will be shared.
Principal Tricia Mulcahy brought author Quartez Harris to the event at Chaney High School as a Title 1 Schoolwide Project.
“This whole-school approach will allow our entire staff and scholars to celebrate black excellence in the Literary Arts with authors and guest readers from the community as well as with Ohio’s 2021 Poet of the Year, Quartez Harris,” said Mulcahy.
Who is Quartez Harris?
Principal Tricia Mulcahy brought author Quartez Harris to the event at Chaney High School as a Title 1 Schoolwide Project. Stacy Quiñones
He’s an Ohio-based poet and author of several collections like Nothing, But Skin and We Made It to School Alive.
He led writing workshops for different classes and the Chaney Writing Fellows on enhancing sentence structure and storytelling.
Harris visited Chaney High School for the last two years, and his work engaging scholars around reading and writing compelled the staff to bring him back.
“I am convinced that the poetry that we generated at Chaney, particularly from our young men, was very much inspired by Quartez. He showed the scholars firsthand that it was cool to write and recite poetry,” said Maria Pappas, a literacy coach at Youngstown City School District.
Local authors Monica Beasly-Martin and Cherie Eldridge also presented sessions on their work.
Students were also encouraged to participate in sustained silent reading of works by African American writers throughout the day.
The Chaney Writing Fellows are now creating a “Poetry Cafe” at the school. Starting in May, they’ll be taking their show on the road, performing poetry readings for the public in local coffee shops.
Harris has been featured in The Plain Dealer, Ideastream and The City Club of Cleveland.
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