Bunker Hill Community College Student Poets Published in The Nation Magazine

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The current issue of The Nation magazine has published the poetry of five students who were enrolled in a College Writing I class at Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC). The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the country, and is widely recognized in literary circles for its poetry.

The students are: Neehmias Afonso; Felipe De Moraes; Arlyn Gonzales; Chantal Midgette; and Joe Saia.

Wick Sloane, the students’ writing professor, wrote the article in which the poems appear.  Sloane said that in his writing classes he stimulates the students by asking them to write their own version of Walt Whitman’s famous poem “I Hear America Singing.” 

The poems touch on themes that are both personal and political, such as a widow who lost her husband to a war, a mother’s night prayer for her son to make it home safe, an America where the sounds of shootings resonate in the streets. Another poet ends on a note of hope, writing that hard-working students are “the future of the next generation.”

“We were moved by the vision, passion and brilliance of these student poets, by their disappointment in as well as their hope for America,” said Roane Carey, managing editor of The Nation.” “We must give such students, and the community colleges that nurture them, the opportunity to build a better future for themselves.”

See article at: http://www.thenation.com/article/169763/poetry-americas-best-and-brightest 
(On newsstands September 24, 2012).

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About Bunker Hill Community College
With more than 50 years of academic excellence, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is one of Massachusetts' largest community colleges, serving approximately 16,000 students annually. With campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, BHCC offers a broad range of educational opportunities throughout Greater Boston. BHCC fosters a welcoming and supportive learning environment for students by offering associate degrees and certificates, early college and dual enrollment, community education, corporate training, and industry-specific programs.