‘I felt her poems were more like my life’: cultivating BPoC teenagers' writer-identity through a poet residency

Abstract

This article examines the impact of a poet-led classroom-based poetry programme on secondary school students' writer identities and self-expression, particularly focusing on BPoC teenagers. Drawing on the Writing Realities framework, the research uses focus groups, participant observations, and interviews with the poet-in-residence. Rather than analysing the students' poems, the study explores their engagement with poetry writing and the poet-in-residence, highlighting the contribution to self-reflection and meaning-making. The findings reveal how the residency introduced students to diverse poetry forms, community-based poetry, and collaborative writing, facilitating critical engagement with themes relevant to their lives. However, the school's status as a Predominantly White Institution hindered full expression of BPoC students' identities. The presence of the poet-in-residence, a young mixed-heritage Muslim woman, positively influenced students' relationships with writing, particularly for BPoC students, by providing a protected space for self-expression and identity exploration. The study underscores the importance of creating supportive environments in schools to nurture BPoC students' creativity and writer identity, emphasising the need for anti-racist practices and culturally sustaining pedagogies to empower students from socially marginalised groups.