In honor of National Poetry Month, Niles West will be kicking off celebrations with a Poetry Day assembly on Tuesday, April 10. The assembly will highlight a visiting poet and will also feature student performances.

The assembly will feature a performance from visiting poet Emily Rose, as well as a Q&A session with her. There will also be student performances from Niles West’s Poetry Slam team (winners of the 2009 Chicago poetry slam competition Louder Than a Bomb), as well as from this year’s Class Poets, Poetry Out Loud students, and students from West’s online literary magazine Expressions (formerly the print magazine Images). Rose will also hold a workshop on how to make poems performance-worthy. The MC for this year’s assembly will be English teacher Paul Bellwoar, who is the sponsor for West’s Poetry Slam team.

Rose, this year’s visiting poet, is a Niles West alum and author of the book “Cigarette Love Songs and Nicotine Kisses.” A performance poet, Rose performs at The Encyclopedia Show, which is a live performance show in Chicago. She is also an MC for Louder Than A Bomb, which is a poetry slam competition for Chicago teenagers. Rose is also a friend of Roger Bonair-Agard, who was last year’s guest poet. According to English teacher Dana DesJardins, who is helping to organize the assembly, Rose is excited to have been invited. She is looking forward to seeing some of her former teachers.

National Poetry Month, which takes place throughout the month of April, was started by Marc Smith. It was started in 1996 in order to celebrate poetry and bring attention to it, having been inspired by Black History Month and Women’s History Month. Smith has actually visited West and thinks that it’s ahead of the game in regards to celebration of poetry.

A review of Rose’s book can be found here, which includes excerpts from some of her poems.

This year’s class poets are senior Sam Chao, junior Michael Gonzales, sophomore Emma Lazar, and freshmen Emily Maatouk and Hanna Rahman. To read their poems, click here.