Poetry day is an event for both students and teachers alike to appreciate poetry and the arts.

Although the name alludes to being all about poetry, the event is an open door to all sorts of talent. Students should expect to see all sorts of artistic acts and performances from students and staff.

“We’ve always tried to keep it open to other artistic performances besides just poetry. It also depends on what people are willing to do. We’ve had quite a bit of music over the years, we’ve even had some student bands play. We’ve had whole classes come and sing, kids read their own poetry and they’ve read other people’s poetry. Kids have acted and we’ve had dancing, drama and all sorts of things,” English teacher Andrew Bulat said. “It really depends on what kids are interested in doing and what they feel comfortable performing. But the more diversity we have, usually the more enjoyable it is.”

Coming up on it’s 13th anniversary, the event first kicked off in 2010 in honor of the late Joanne Schubert, an English teacher at Eisenhower. Schubert had taught at Eisenhower for about 36 years, and after her sudden death in 2009, the whole school had greatly mourned her loss.

“She was my best friend. She was kind of like a mentor to me, she was so sweet. She would do anything for anybody. The students absolutely loved her here. She was just the type of person that would give up the shirt off of her back for somebody else,” English teacher Holly Kralik said.

Poetry day will be taking place all day on Thursday, April 20. Students will be taken down to the PAC during their English class to watch the performances for that hour.

“I’m excited to participate in Poetry day this year. I kind of wanted to do it last year, but I couldn’t really decide on what I should do up on stage,” senior Kaitlyn Mulville said.” This year though, I’m going to be reading a piece of poetry we covered in class earlier this year in my AP Literature and Composition class, ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost.”

Alongside the festivities, there will also be a raffle opportunity for everyone to participate for a chance to win a multitude of gift cards. Raffle tickets are a dollar each, and all proceeds will go to support the Joanne F. Schubert Scholarship.

“Every year the scholarship goes towards a graduating senior. Her family originally started this by personally donating their own money for that and what we’ve tried to do is continue to replenish it every year with raffle sales,” Bulat said.

Today is the last day to make English teachers aware of participation.

“It’s a great and honorable thing to have that courage to speak in front of the audience in the Performing Arts Center. I think it’s good that students have the opportunity to showcase their talents to their peers. It’s great that they see something different for the day and see poetry actually performed instead of reading it from a book,” Kralik said. “It’s something different than the typical English class. I’m glad poetry day was started. I believe it is an excellent day for staff and students to enjoy the day and continue to honor the remembrance of Joanne Schubert.”