Canyon Grade 3 students hold open mic event at Harvest Coffeehouse

Canyon School Grade 3 students at the Poetry Cafe
C. Davis photo

Frank van Zandwijk and Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

On Thursday morning, November 8, Canyon School Grade 3 students were at the Harvest Coffeehouse, reciting poetry as part of their Language Arts Poem unit in an open-mic style event. The Poetry Café was a big hit with parents and other customers alike, who were impressed by the performances.

The Harvest Coffeehouse is a brand new business located at 766 Main Street in Pincher Creek.  It's an intimate setting, a warmly welcoming room.

"We've been studying poetry for a month and they really got into it so we thought we'd have a poetry cafe so they can showcase the writing of their own poems or the reading of someone else's," said teacher Mrs. Susan Milligan. According to teacher Mr. Roy Lach, previously they set up a cafe environment at school "So we thought, this year, let's make it more real."

The event began with a group recitation of "Bubblegum Delicious" by Dennis Lee. After that the students took turns on the spotlight stool, reciting their own works or works of others. Many recited from memory.

Special Constable Nigel Whittington appeared as a special guest, reading the Shel Silverstein classic play-on-words poem "Little Hoarse". Harvest House staff member and former Matthew Halton School student Catherine Welke read a whimsical poem composed for the occasion by her older brother James, entitled 'A Poem from El Rickymerzoo'. Pincher Creek Municipal Library Manager and Librarian Janice Day read "Jim" by Hilaire Belloc, a poem she said she first heard when she was a child herself.

Through it all the young poets learned how to deal with both with an audience and the distractions that are common in such situations, like noisy cappuccino machines and an audience that included people who were strangers to them.  "I've been doing it in my classroom, so this (performing in public) is fun for them," said Mrs. Milligan. "So they did really well."

"I'm surprised that some of them got up there because they wouldn't do it in front of their whole class but here they would. It was really a neat place for them to do it."

The Harvest Coffeehouse supplied snacks for the performers once it was all over, and then the students moved on to the Pincher Creek Municipal Library.

Both teachers were confident that they will be doing a similar project next year, possibly even with some improvements such the addition of a microphone.  The atmosphere of the Harvest Coffeehouse was very conducive to the event, and will likely be the locale for the event again next year, according to Mr. Lach.