Founded by 2022-23 National Student Poet Vidhatrie Keetha, Wanderer Poetry Collective aims to provide both an in-person and digital space for creative students in grades 6-12 to engage in advocacy and community building, while simultaneously learning to hone their craft as writers. 

 

The collective hosts generative poetry workshops that guide participants through the process of writing poems inspired by themes related to social justice and activism (although participants can also bring in previously written poems for feedback). In-person workshops currently take place at libraries and organizations throughout New York and New Jersey, though the collective may offer virtual programming in the future.

 

A typical workshop will be around 1.5 hours long and might include poetry-related activities and writing exercises (depending on the age range of participants), readings and discussions of poems, as well as a 30-minute period for generative writing and sharing work in progress with the group.

 

In addition to producing work, participants will prepare their poems for publication in the collective’s online poetry magazine, which will serve as a digital venue for them to continue to connect and share their writing with each other. Participants will be encouraged to share as much as or as little as they would like about themselves and the stories behind their poems in an artist’s statement, which will be featured alongside their work. 

 

The concept of intersectionality is central to this initiative — rather than viewing identities in isolation and deepening divisions, participants will consider their experiences in light of overlapping identities. As such, the process of workshopping and publication will involve not only attention to poetic craft, but discussions about how participants can locate their personal experiences within a larger sociocultural context and utilize authenticity to enhance the quality of their work.