Whether you’re basking in the sunny days or feeling the impending doom of finals that are quickly approaching, April is a special month for writers and creatives alike.

It’s National Poetry Month!

It’s a time to celebrate the art of poetry and the community of sharing the multifaceted artform with peers, and even strangers.

Even if you're not ready to call yourself a writer or poet, I encourage you to take that leap and indulge in the craft. While this can look different for everyone, the first step is to simply start.

Ironically, however, that’s often the hardest step.

But I believe in you! And there are an abundance of resources out there that are waiting to be utilized.

One of the remarkable things about poetry is its ability to transcend conventionality. Audre Lorde famously wrote, “Poetry is not a luxury.” She said:

Lorde uses poetry as a necessity rather than a necessity as a framework for describing the nuances and complexities of womanhood. Lorde says that poetry is a state of mind, a state of being for women, and it’s a language that is created by and for them. A language that, she says, does not already exist.

Therefore, everyone, not just women, should be using poetry as a way to make their own language and curate a platform for their voices and stories to be told.

We need poets and writers of diverse perspectives. We need languages that amplify and uplift underserved and underrepresented voices and communities.

It may seem small, but language and storytelling has tremendous power – power that you can harness.

Here are some ways you can start to gain control of that power and utilize your voice to speak new languages:

Poetry Contests

• I know these may seem daunting. They are. But that does not mean they’re not worth submitting to. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you the importance of representation in literature and literary spaces; you probably still remember the time you saw yourself in the narrative of a book, not as the goofy sidekick but as the main character kicking down doors or being fearlessly original.
• And guess what? I happen to know of a local organization accepting poetry submissions until the 26th. *wink*wink*
• Consider submitting a poem or two inspired by the works of Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry about dreams unbound.

NaPoWriMo

• If you’re familiar with National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, in the fall each year, then you’ll love NaPoWriMo, which is National Poetry Writing Month.
• April may be half way ove, but it’s not too late to try your hand at writing a poem a day, even if you don’t share it with anyone.
• Follow their website for daily prompts and join in the effort to write 30 poems in 30 days.

Escapril

• Similar to NaPoWriMo, this social media poetry challenge invites participants to escape into poetry every day in the month of April by writing a poem based on a given mini prompt, posting it on social media, and tagging @letsescapril.
• The Instagram-project is in its six year of existence and continues to grow with more and more people wanting to “esapril” each year.

Whether you’re scribbling poems in an old journal, submitting them to poetry contests, or sharing them to social media for the world to see, simply writing in any capacity is the start to cultivating conscious and diverse literacy spaces that welcome all people.

Maleigh Crespo is a junior English writing major, journalism minor on the education track at Loyola University New Orleans. She has been writing for as long as she can remember and couldn't see herself doing anything else. When she’s not writing, she can be found blasting Taylor Swift, online shopping, or feeding the squirrels in Audubon Park. You can reach her at macrespo@my.loyno.edu.