Fresno Poet Laureate Tyner brings love of language to PC
As students and adults took their seats at the Porterville College theater Tuesday evening, Fresno’s first poet laureate prepared for his awaited speech to talk about his experience with writing and his poems.
James Tyner, presented ‘Of Dust and Words: Story of a Central Valley Poet Laureate.’ He read ten poems in total, all from different experiences and different styles. Tyner shared stories about each poem and how they reflect his backgrounds and learnings from life as he grew up.
“Those who are thinking of getting a writing degree I generally say don’t do it,” Tyner said. “Those who still are passionate and have a burning anxiety to write and create with all your heart, then I will support you with all my heart.”
Tyner is a librarian at Fresno Public Library and a Fresno State graduate. He teaches free poetry classes and workshops at several libraries in the county.
Tyner came to PC for a special two-week program for students and teachers. Tuesday’s pre- sentation came after he had spent all day with students in workshops and sharing words of wisdom with them.
“The students were absolutely amazing. The level of intensity, the level of writing, I was actually not prepared for,” Tyner said of the students. “What I ended up doing was to give them Masters-level work, and they were up to the task. They created poetry on the fly, they were able to take in big concepts like image, clarity and they did fantastic.”
In his presentation Tyner talked about storytelling, poems and other creative endeavors, like the formats of poems and the most important pieces in a poem. Tyner hopes to help individuals and families thrive in their communities.
The presentation ended with a Q&A between the audience and Tyner following a poem signing with copies of his work.
Tyner’s poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including “Transcendence,” “Avatar Review,” “The Working Poet,” “The Autumn House Anthology of Best Contemporary American Poetry” and others.
The two-week professional development
program and writing workshop for kids and teachers aims to promote community awareness of literary arts and make poetry accessible to a wide range of audiences.
“I felt like it would enrich our community,” said PC Professor Catherine Hodges. “Our students this week have proven to us that they are interested, they are alert, they are working hard and are very creative.”
In 2016 Hodges said she applied for a sabbatical proposal to research on writing programs for young people in middle school and high school. Hodges said the professional development idea for teachers and
students evolved over time.
The workshop is a partnership between PC and the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project for young aspiring writers and poets in middle and high school. Students attended the program in hopes of improving their writing skills said Hodges.
“Students produced some beautiful work. They proved to us teachers that they are very excited about the writing process itself and about expressing themselves,” said Hodges. “I believe that as we give the people the tools to improve their writing, those tools become critical in their writing, and transfer into compassionate thinking and good lives.”
The first week of the program was just for Porterville area secondary
teachers doing professional development. The second week, 17 students going into grades seven to 12 participated, where teachers who were part of the workshop last week were coleading with Elaine Guzman, and Melinda Scott lead the workshop last week. SJVWP is part of a state wide network, they are part of the National Writing Project committed to improve the teaching of writing.
Juliet Michelsen Wahleithner, director of the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project, said the project took two years of planning.
“Today was special because we had Tyner all day do workshops with the students,” said Wahleithner. “These are students voluntarily coming by themselves, and we are extremely excited about it.”