By Milton Hinton
For the third time, teens from the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement won the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival held in Atlanta.
The competition included more than 600 poets, ages 13 to 19, from Ireland, South Africa, Bermuda and many other nations. By the time it it was over, the winners had established themselves as creative artists, and the Philadelphia area as a hot spot for spoken-word and writing talent.
Many years ago, I was trying to find my method of expression as I hit those teenage years. Like many young men, sports was my first chosen path. I earned varsity letters in two sports but never really excelled. I also became a musician because of piano lessons my mother paid for, then taught myself to play the flute, guitar and organ.
It was sort of a "jack of all trades, but master of none," scenario. It was fun but, regrettably, I left a lot of unused talent on the table. That's because I developed an interest in anything about author James Baldwin, and read as many of his writings as I could find.
Reading and writing was something I had been doing from an early age. My mother was not just a teacher, but a reading teacher. At 4 years old, she had me reading the "Dick, Jane, and Spot" school books designed for new readers. By the time I entered kindergarten, I had a solid reading base on which to build, and began to read various stories of interest.
I later learned that my mother used phonetics to teach me to read, and I can still hear her voice encouraging me to "sound it out" when a new word was encountered. But what I did not realize at that time was that if one reads well, there is a very good chance he or she will write and speak well. The learned skills of reading, speaking and writing have served me well throughout the years. Unfortunately, these skills, especially writing, are seemingly becoming lost arts -- and that should be of significant concern.
Writing, no matter the form, is a part of the foundation of a civilized society. It is a conduit for effective communication, for recording and documenting history, and for discussing and debating critical issues impacting our society. Writing enables us to accurately re-live and replay events -- fictional, biographical, historical -- and to express opinions, as often as necessary.
Without writing, there is no written record and, thus, little content for computers, tablets or smartphones. Physics and mathematics have enabled human beings to accomplish what was once unimaginable and thought impossible. But the arts -- writing, music, drawing -- are what has allowed us to develop and grow as a society, record our history, establish a viable culture, and express our feelings of content and discontent.
The application of the arts has enabled us to move in a relatively short time from hunters and gatherers, to readers and writers, to philosophers and thinkers. Today, schools often do not have the resources for writing, art and music. Thus, our society is left with a void: Our youth can design a website or database. They can produce code for a cell-phone application. Too often, however, their writing skills are lacking.
Society often fails to realize that writing skills take as much -- or more --creativity and imagination as the sciences. When students could no longer learn to play a musical instrument in school, as many did in the past, creativity took hold and they started rapping. That's why my faith and hope are restored when I am made aware of the successes of groups like the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement.
South Jersey is by no means left out of this discussion. In April, the Society for Poets of Southern New Jersey, along with Paulsboro High School, held its 11th annual AMPD (Artists, Musicians, Poets and Dancers) event. The theme was AMPD Around the World. The sponsors not only allow students to express their creativity and to be heard through written and spoken word, they encourage such expression.
Writing affords an opportunity for expression that many young people crave, and gives them a voice in a rapidly changing world.
Milton W. Hinton Jr. is director of equal opportunity for the Gloucester County government. He is past president of the Gloucester County Branch NAACP. His column states his personal views, not those of any organization or agency. Email: mwhjr678@gmail.com.