Poetry In Motion

icture this: a dark, smoky
coffee shop, filled with
jean-clad adults and teens.
Sheaves of loose paper scat-
ter the tops of tables, and a bright
light shines on a makeshift stage.
This is Poetry Night, Anywhere
USA. Situate the microphone near a
stool, and adjust the amp.
It begins. One poet reads, another
drags props to the stage, emotes dark
lines. As the performance continues,
people sit cross-legged on the floor, a
couple makes out in the corner, par-
ents watch their teen-age children —
from preppy to purple hair punk —
recite original work.
Dan Jacobs takes the stage. He
reads an epic poem about beer. Dan's
a physical poet — moves from one
end of the room to another, gestures
with his hands, his face showing the
emotion behind the words. That
night, he will win the slam, get the
right to compete on a national level
at the Austin, Texas, poetry slam
face-off. Dan may appear petite, but
his words carry a lot of weight.
"I've always been interested in
poetry," says the 29-year-old foren-
sics coach at Roeper. As a child, he
memorized poems in the mornings
before school and walking up and
down the aisles of his father's Grosse
Pointe drug store.
"I stared at bugs and plants in the
backyard at 6 a.m. I would hide
behind trees. I had a weirdly shel-
tered, romantic childhood. The sub-
urbs are good for hiding behind
evergreens.
"My philosophy as a teacher is to
create spaces where people can do
what they need to do without hurt-
ing themselves or others," says Dan,
who grew up in Southfield in a fami-
ly where creativity reigned — his
mother was an English teacher and
dancer, his father a pharmacist who
loved literature and music, and his
brother wrote animated films.
Dan graduated from the
Univeristy of Michigan, where he is
now finishing a masters in education.
He credits a professor, Alan Howes,
with igniting his interest in literature
through the New England Literature
Program (NELP), where students

PI

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN
Stair Writer

now and then. Everything in my life
seems to be covened in teaching. I
kept third grade vocabulary lists in
case I could use them for teaching."
But Dan never thought of himself
as a focused person. He loves science,
English, the. outdoors — just every-
thing in life has been directed toward
teaching.
Westside Press in Plymouth pub-
lished his first collection of poetry, a
chapbook called Bonus Time. Steve
Marsh, the man who runs the press,
'was sort of my mentor. Steve helped
me keep my wits about myself. He
doesn't know how much he taught

me.

Dan Jacobs:
inspired by the outdoors.

Dan Jacobs animates his verse with
energy and passion.

spent class time in canoes under the
stars, on mountainsides, studying
where people wrote.
Dan is all about encouragement.
You kind of picture him on the side-
lines, yelling to young students,
spurring them on with encouraging

words. As a forensics coach, he tries
to connect with kids well enough to
help them "express what's in their
hearts."
"If nothing else, I write for me
down the line. I have bazillions of
journals, stacks; I go through them

A few years back, Dan "took my
dream money and opened an 'illegal'
coffee shop in Ann Arbor, in an old
newspaper building" — illegal
because it was zoned for residential
use. He called it Cafe Cadre, served
coffee and hummus.
"My students would come in on
Friday nights; we would fill it up,"
recalls Dan, who gives extra credit to
students who attend poetry slams
around the city.
Dan student-taught at Plymouth
Canton High School where he creat-
ed a program called LEAP (Living
Educational Alternatives Program).
He took students on a weekend trip
to Chelsea and they wrote poetry in
the cold.
But the biggest thing taking up
Dan's hours these days is the Route
12 Project, along Michigan Avenue.
A while back, Dan drove across
the country, following Route 12. He
wrote poetry on the journey, "met
small-town people I'm still friends
with." In fact, he took the job at
Roeper — middle-school forensics,
two computer classes and eighth-
grade English — because it allowed
him the flexibility to keep up with
the Route 12 Project.
The program links a network of
students, teachers, libraries and
museums along the 2,500 miles of
Route 12, from Detroit to Aberdeen,
Wash. "We use not only the people,
but the stuff on the road, to learn,"
he says. Between here and
Washington state, students are learn-
ing school subjects through the peo-
ple, places and history of Route 12.
"I've never been happy just sitting
still," Dan says, slyly grinning.

❑

3/6-
1998

83

