Buffalo Grove HS hosts poetry slam with poet Kevin Coval

Buffalo Grove High School will host its first Poetry Slam on Thursday, April 5, during all three lunch hours in the school's Community Room.

Students and staff are invited to either read a poem or enjoy the work of others. Anyone who signs up may share three minutes of either original or published poetry.

Kevin Coval, of Young Chicago Authors and co-founder and artistic director of the Chicago youth slam “Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Teen Poetry Festival,” will perform at the end of the slam.

Coval is poet-in-residence at the Jane Addams' Hull House Museum and teaches at the School of the Art Institute and University of Illinois-Chicago. He can be heard regularly on National Public Radio in Chicago.

A workshop will follow the event for two creative writing classes and any Poetry Slam participants who sign up. Attendees will have the opportunity to hone their skills by working with Coval, whom the Chicago Tribune has called “the new voice of Chicago.”

Coval's appearance is made possible through District 214's Arts Unlimited, a festival of fine and performing arts.