Literature in English students participated in Poetry Remake, a competition sponsored by the English Language Section of the Curriculum Development Institute at the Education Bureau, earlier this year and were tasked with creating a visual representation of a poem by a local poet.
Students began by reading Mama by Akin Jeje and discussed what colours, symbols and images the poem brought to mind. Then, thanks to a suggestion and some technical support from the Visual Arts Department, they worked on creating collages to represent the main ideas of the poem.
On 30th June, the winners of the competition were announced. Nicole Ibardaloza’s (4S) submission was selected by the judges for a “Commendable Award”. Her piece features fragments of magazine photos arranged to recreate the image of a mother and child and scenes from nature. As Nicole explains,
I used the silhouette of a mother and son with sunset colors to show how much warmth their relationship has. The image I used for the mother’s dress is the night sky, to symbolize how she read ancient tales to her kids at night and the calmness he finds in her. I added an image of hands holding a story book too. I also put the ocean and sky in the background to link back the descriptions of the poem, and to show despite how vast the world is, the mother and son will still be close.
Congratulations to Nicole and well done to all the students who participated!
Figure 1 Collage of Mama (Nicole Ibardaloza)