Pawtucket Students Use Poetry to ‘Slam’ Tobacco Use
PAWTUCKET – On May 23rd, Pawtucket students “slammed” tobacco as part of World No Tobacco Day (observed on May 31st) at the Blackstone Valley Visitor’s Center. Students from the City’s elementary schools submitted poetry encouraging a tobacco-free lifestyle, and were then selected to participate in the poetry slam.
Now in the 14th year, the collaboration between the School Department, the Cancer Prevention Task Force and the Pawtucket Prevention Coalition gives students an outlet for their creativity, passion, and advocacy of a tobacco free lifestyle.
The school winners competed for on grand prized winner of the 2019 Anti-Tobacco Poetry Slam in the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center. Prior to competing, each student was coached and mentored by Damont Combs or Jay Chatelle. Combs is the 2018 National Poet of the Year and winner of the Indie Author Legacy Award. Chattelle is a five time award winning Pawtucket Poet Laureate, a published recording artist, as well as a producer, director, and host of Rhode Island Public, Education, & Government Access Television.
Teresa Chopoorian, Chair of the Cancer Prevention Task Force, Diane Dufresne, Director of the Pawtucket Prevention Coalition, and members of the task force judged the poets.
2019 Poetry Slam Participants:
Delia Macedo Varieur
Kyle Lapanne Nathanael Greene
Leah Sanchez-Perez Potter Burns
Andrea Martinez Winters
Aiden Cerone Agnes Little
Jaleen Ramos Fallon
Ephraim Jean-Baptiste Curvin McCabe
Aniza Quiroga Baldwin
Brianna Silva Curtis
Idel Gomes Cunningham
The winner will be announced at the Anti-Tobacco celebration held on Friday, May 31st at Slater Mill from 6 pm to 8 pm.