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
Celebrating 50 years of excellence, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is Massachusetts' largest community college, annually welcoming a diverse community of around 16,000 students. With campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, BHCC extends its reach across several locations in Greater Boston. BHCC is celebrated for its diversity, boasting a student body where 65% identify as people of color and more than half are women. The College also embraces a global perspective, with over 600 international students representing 90 countries and conversing in more than 65 languages. Our commitment to diversity is further reflected in BHCC's designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).