Door-to-Door Poet Rowan McCabe Returns to the BSN

This week, the three Junior Schools hosted door-to-door poet Rowan McCabe, who is returning to the BSN after being a featured speaker in last November’s TEDxYOUTH@BSN event.

Rowan is the world’s first and only door-to-door poet, where he connects with people from across the social spectrum to give them poems about the important things in their lives. During his visit to the BSN, Rowan got students involved in exercises that would help them learn to use poetry to express themselves and as a tool to learn more about other people.

At JSL, Rowan trained a league of apprentice door-to-door poets in a Door-to-Door Poetry Boot Camp. Students got comfortable with knocking on other classroom doors, speaking with students they did not know so well, and asking the right questions to get to know who they are and what’s important to them. Year 4 and Year 6 then transformed the notes they took from these conversations into poetry.

Rowan then collaborated with JSV Year 1 to Year 6 students to sum up the heart of the school in a poem. Students opened up and shared what was truly important to them about being a part of JSV and the events that shape their experience here.

“Having never come to The Hague before, I took this as a great opportunity to find out more about what life was like for these students and it became clear that, not only did they have a great school, they could also describe really profound and moving events that had happened during their time there.” – Rowan McCabe

At JSD, Rowan held a War, Peace and Changing the World Poetry Workshop, working with two Year 6 groups writing about the wars we wage in our personal life and finding out about the moments we feel most at peace. He also worked with two Year 4 groups, looking at and appreciating the unsung heroes all around us.

Students across the BSN Junior Schools were able to use poetry to express themselves and learn about the experiences of their fellow classmates – a lesson that is close to the heart of our international community. Thank you to all involved in organizing this special week, and a huge thank you to Rowan for returning to our school to bring your unique brand of door-to-door poetry to the BSN!

You can find photos from the week on Flickr here. 

Watch Rowan's talk Fighting Hate with Poetry at TEDxYouth@BSN here.