This presentation will be a speech/lecture on the importance of poetry among youths in the community.  Rose Weaver and Lillian Shafer will present some of their own poems.  They will discuss where inspiration comes from and how it has impacted them and their vision for future writers in the community.

Rose Weaver is involved with organizations and projects throughout the city of Oak Ridge and east Tennessee.  She is involved with youth enrichment programs through her not for profit 501 (c)(3) providing informal career and youth empowerment services.  She served as the 65th Anniversary School Desegregation Committee chair.  She currently serves on the Scarboro Monument Committee and the Oak Ridge/Anderson County NAACP Education Committee.

Weaver has traveled throughout east Tennessee area to festivals, workshops, educational institutions, and conventions, connecting with communities about literacy and the arts, self-expression, and individuality.  Through local schools she has used her poetry as a teaching tool to address literacy deficiencies in children, by facilitating self-expression and encouragement to read.

In 2023 she was appointed by the City of Oak Ridge Poet Laureate with the responsibility to serve as the ambassador for the city at events, workshops, and public meetings.  In 2021, she launched the "Express Yourself" program where youth are encouraged to express talents and abilities through spoken words and visual arts.  She has read poems at events held at American Museum of Science and Energy and the Historic Grove Theatre.

Lillian Shafer is a junior attending Oak Ridge High School.  She has been writing short stories since the age of 8, and found passion in the emotions that words convey through poetry at the age of 14.  She has taken Advanced Plac ement courses in language arts to further appreciate all aspects of writing.  She hopes as poet laureate that she can ignite this passion among fellow peers by taking on this role.