Camden students learn and perform with poet Lamont “Napalm” Dixon

On August 16, 2007, over 20 students from Camden City and Cumberland County performed spoken poems at the Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission in Haddon Township.

The event was part of the closing ceremony for the C.H.A.M.P./GEAR UP summer program, a six-week state- and federally funded program run by Rowan University in Camden.

Students from Camden and Cumberland counties participate in C.H.A.M.P. as part of their preparation for a college education when they graduate from high school. They begin the program in as early as sixth grade and are expected to participate each year in Saturday classes and summer programs in preparation for life after high school.

C.H.A.M.P./GEAR UP has asked Lamont “Napalm” Dixon, performance poet and teaching artist, to teach a summer poetry segment for high school students for the past several years. As part of the curriculum, students study poetry, see it performed, and write and perform their own.

The poetry module is only one of the many academic courses high schoolers can take during the summer. One of the benefits of continuing with C.H.A.M.P./GEAR UP into high school is that students spend the summer on the Rowan University Glassboro campus, living in the dorms, taking classes and studying, and in virtually every other way experiencing what college life is really like. It’s an important factor in students choosing to go to college once they graduate.

At this year’s final ceremony, poet Nancy Kaplan was featured, performing readings of her own and others’ work. Ms. Kaplan teaches English-World Literature at the College of Staten Island High School for International Studies.

Sandra Turner-Barnes, executive director of the Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission, welcomed the students. A prominent poet herself, Ms. Turner-Barnes read one of her own poems to the crowd.

Johanna Pardo, a senior at Creative Arts High School in Camden, served as the event’s emcee, introducing students and reading one of her own works.

Providing background music that varied based on students’ particular poems were musicians John Coley on drums, Warren Orre on upright bass and Barry Sames on keyboards.

Several parents and family members also attended to see students perform.

C.H.A.M.P./GEAR UP is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and by matching funds from the state, higher education institutions, and other partners. The program is administered by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education with the goal of increasing the number of low-income students who enter and succeed in college. For more information about NJ GEAR UP, visit www.nj.gov/highereducation/gearup/index.html.