#BigClassBestTen: Fourth Annual Pizza Poetry Day

In Big Class tradition, we celebrated National Poetry Month, youth voice, and the unifying power of pizza on April 21st, 2017.

Since 2014, the Pizza Poetry Project has celebrated National Poetry Month and the power of youth voice by publishing poems written by young New Orleanians ages 6-18. This year, Pizza Poetry Day was part of the first ever New Orleans Youth Poetry Festival (NOYPF). Big Class teamed with New Orleans Youth Open Mic (NOYOM) to host the inaugural event. NOYPF included readings and workshops for young poets.

Many of 2017’s pizza poems were written through Big Class’s Poets In Schools free workshops, where poets worked directly with students in classrooms. Some teachers led their own poetry lessons, and submitted poems online. In total, Big Class received over 550 entries from students across the city. A teen council selected 20 standout poems to become the 2017 Pizza Poet Laureates.

On Pizza Poetry Day, Big Class partnered with some of the best pizza joints in town to publish these amazing poems onto pizza boxes for delivery and pickup. Pizza eaters and poetry readers posted their poems on social media using #pizzapoetry17.

Huge thanks to our 2017 Pizza Partners: G’s Pizza, Garage Pizza, Mid City Pizza, Pizza Delicious, Reginelli’s, and Theo’s.