Spreadingtheword

Dodge Teen Poetry Ambassadors share their love of verse

Back in 2024, Londyn Rogers of East Orange thought she’d “test the waters” by checking out one of the free Dodge Poetry in the Community writing workshops at locations across the city offered through the partnership between the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and NJPAC.

Londyn had been studying acting at NJPAC’s Saturday Arts Training program since 2020, but writing poetry was something she only did at home, for herself.

She went to one workshop, then kept going back to more. “I felt like I kept learning something new each time, finding new creative abilities that I was able to tap into,” she said.

By summer 2025, Londyn, still only 16, found herself reading one of her poems before hundreds of people to open for MC Lyte’s appearance at Horizon Foundation’s Sounds of the City.

“I didn’t expect all that to come from poetry,” she said. “I didn’t think my poetry was that good. But now I’m taking every opportunity I can to learn more.”

This year, Londyn was one of four inaugural members of the Dodge Poetry Teen Ambassadors program, which gave four outstanding young poets, who had attended the workshops the previous year, an opportunity to work closely with mentor poets, including Newark’s first Poet Laureate, Mia X — and to appear at events around the city, sharing their love of poetry with peers through a year-long stint. (The students were paid for their appearances.)

That included performing before MC Lyte’s show, at the UP Next after-show following the Represent! Rap and spoken word concert in November and at community events at libraries and other venues.

“The performances were great, but I really liked the community events — just speaking to a small group of people in a room,” Londyn said.

“She took being an Ambassador so seriously, and she came out shining,” noted Paul LaTorre, a poet and Assistant Producer for NJPAC’s Dodge Poetry in the Community, who managed the program.

The Ambassador program was only one element of Dodge Poetry at NJPAC in 2025. In addition to the continuation of the teen workshops — rebranded as Write to the Mic workshops, a nod to the reading that closes each — several concerts featured poetry before, during or after the mainstage event. Following a Raphael Saadiq concert in October, NICO Kitchen + Bar was transformed into the Lyric Lounge, where concertgoers could listen to community poets reading in between DJ sets.

“The energy in the room for that was electric; it really carried the energy of the concert forward for folks who weren’t ready to go home yet,” said Ysabel Gonzalez, Producer, Poetry and Social Impact. “People stayed until midnight.”

And the championship slam poetry team from the famed Nuyorican Poets Cafe performed at NJPAC in July, followed by an open-mic reading featuring local poets.

“As much as that was a Nuyorican event, it was also a beautiful representation of the poetry community here in Newark,” LaTorre said.

In 2026, “drop in” poetry workshops at MENTOR Newark in the Hahne & Co. building on Broad Street have been added to the Arts Center’s Dodge Poetry offerings — and an NJPAC slam poetry team is in the works!