WTCI announces its flagship program, Raise Your Hand, will broadcast a special series of episodes in partnership with local poetry organization, Rhyme N Chatt. This innovative series features local children’s and young adult authors, paired with local poets. The special series, titled Raise Your Voice, encourages viewers to use reading text as a way to inspire the creative process. Each segment begins with an introduction to acquaint viewers with the texts and themes, and concludes with a prompt for viewers to create their own stories or poems and submit for feedback.
Authors share their work and discuss the theme of their book, ranging from friendship to self-confidence to letting our feelings show. Poets then composed a signature piece, inspired by the author’s work, matching the theme in poetic composition. The goal of the show is to inspire viewers to read and write not only for education and entertainment, but also as a way to engage with the shared community.
Raise Your Voice celebrates National Poetry Month in April. This special series includes nine author-poet segments, to be released each Tuesday and Wednesday in April on WTCI-Educate’s YouTube channel. Segments will be paired and broadcast on channel 45.4 every Thursday at 10 a.m. in April.