Haley Grays feeds her “poemy” daily, dashing off a poem in a minute or two, sometimes more than one at a time. Haley is 10. Her “poemy” is her diary. She is a precocious, shy and talented fifth-grader at Robinson G. Jones Elementary School on West 150th Street, and she’s going to be a star soon.
Haley will join artist Lisa Meeks this Saturday at the Inspired Art Benefit Auction at smARTspace at 78th Street Studios in the Gordon Square Arts District. About 150 people, including students in grades 3 through 8 who participated in the AmericaSCORES Cleveland project with 38 area artists, are expected.
Founded in 2004, AmericaSCORES Cleveland is a national non-profit that uses soccer and writing to engage low-income, inner-city students. What soccer and writing have in common are creativity and improvisation, suggests Katie Blackley, development and communications associate for the local SCORES, located on Perkins Avenue in Cleveland.
Grays and Meeks, who met for the first time June 2, seem born to each other. Grays’ work inspired Meeks, who lives in Pepper Pike, to create her striking work, “I Feel Pretty?”
“When SCORES contacted me about being an artist for this event, they had 40 poems to choose from,” says Meeks during a joint interview with Grays at Robinson G. Jones. “I was one of the early artists, so I got the best pickings. I read through several and was immediately drawn to Haley’s, because I thought it was really elegant and simple, and spoke so much from the young poet’s voice.”
“It’s really about what I think about the world,” says Grays. “You know how people judge you, like bullying, like saying you’re not pretty, not beautiful? I was just talking about how beauty is on the inside, not the outside. So I wrote the first part.” It took her “about a minute. I write fast, and I have a good memory.”
Since she was 6, Grays has kept a “poemy,” like a diary but all poems. “It’s like the size of a hardcover book, a Harry Potter book.” She keeps it to herself, writing mostly at night, under her pillow, “my secret place.” Grays has three sisters and a brother. She’s the next-to-youngest child and the only poet.
Most of her poetry is sad, though she can write poems that make people feel better. She wrote one called “Soulkeeper” for a friend who was feeling down. “She smiled the next day.”
Grays also sings (privately, for the most part), writes songs, and has taught herself guitar, piano and drums. She also draws imaginary characters and dragons, anime-style. But poetry is her forte. When she grows up, she said, she wants to be a “a poet or a singer – and sometimes a cartoon artist.”
