Advanced American Studies Students Celebrate Extended Family Through Poetry
Marta Napiorkowska, St. Luke’s Upper School English Department Chair
Inspired by our nation's founding poem, "Song of Myself," by Walt Whitman, and Jennifer Crandall's video project “Whitman, Alabama,” our Advanced American Studies class created a celebration of their St. Luke's extended family, using Whitman's lines to reveal the transcendent experiences, both small and large, that bind us together as One Community, One St. Luke's.
Students selected a section of Whitman's poem, which is well known for exhaustively celebrating and including all sorts of Americans and all sorts of American experiences, and then picked one person in their lives who inspired them and who they felt was represented by their section of Whitman's poem. They then recorded their person reading the passage of the poem in that person's environment. The result is a beautiful collage of our extended community's diversity and spirit, highlighting the sometimes unsung people who touch and are connected by our work and lives at St. Luke's.
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 35 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Leading with Humanity curriculum builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.