This is an important book. It marks an achievement and a transition in the lives of thirteen middle school students from Fairfield Scholastic Academy in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. For many of the authors represented within these pages, youÕre witnessing the moment that they discovered they are poets.
During the fall of 2012, a cadre of Open Books staff, interns, and tremendous volunteers spent seven weeks traveling to Fairfield to work with the students there as part of their after school program. In some ways, we had it too easy. The Fairfield poets were eager to learn about writing, to delve into reading, and to perform, tweak, and script their words. We just helped them along.