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CATHY WURZER: Let's move on to some other news. A film about a deaf poet struggling to perform for a hearing audience has been challenging students at Sheridan Elementary in Minneapolis. Minneapolis actor, Maya Washington, created the White Space project to encourage students to look at how they communicate with the world and to write poetry of their own. Euan Kerr has the latest in our Minnesota Mix Series.

MAYA WASHINGTON: Poetry is. Poetry is.

AUDIENCE: Poetry is.

EUAN KERR: In the Black Box Theater at Sheridan Elementary, the sixth grade class warms up with an exercise. Actor Maya Washington leads the students in calling out one word, which describes poetry to them.

MAYA WASHINGTON: Peace. Love.

AUDIENCE: Love.

EUAN KERR: Washington is in the classroom as the result of an epiphany she had a few years ago. She grew up in Minneapolis and performed at Penumbra Theater, the Guthrie and others. Then she moved to Los Angeles and found work in TV. However, it wasn't satisfying.

MAYA WASHINGTON: I one morning woke up with a dream or just this image in the waking hours of the morning of this deaf performance poet going to perform at an open mike night for a hearing audience.

EUAN KERR: Washington turned that image into a short film called White Space, named for the relationship poets have with the blank page. The film shows a deaf young man trying to find the courage to get on stage to perform.

SPEAKER: For the first time on the sweet alabaster stage, welcome, my man. He calls himself "The Poet," y'all.

EUAN KERR: He initially stuns the audience by delivering his verse in American Sign Language. But that surprise turns to appreciation as he gets a standing ovation. Washington directed and acts in the film. But as someone who has worked as a motivational speaker, she wanted to take it further. She drew together three things, the film and accompanying poetry anthology.

MAYA WASHINGTON: And then the third component is to take the work, the anthology and the short film, into schools, into communities and expose people to both deaf and hearing artists, and specifically in the medium of poetry and film.

EUAN KERR: And at Sheridan Elementary, Washington found an appreciative audience.

MAYA WASHINGTON: Focus.

AUDIENCE: Check.

MAYA WASHINGTON: Focus.

AUDIENCE: Check.

MAYA WASHINGTON: All right, so word on the street--

EUAN KERR: As the sixth grade class progresses, Washington works hard to keep the students' attention. There's a lot of emotional energy on this Friday afternoon. In fact, a few of the kids are sniffling because they've just learned a beloved student teacher in another class was about to leave the school. But Washington draws them in. Why are we in a space where we need to collect ourselves a little bit? Are we ready to just get on it?

AUDIENCE: Let's get on it.

MAYA WASHINGTON: All right. Get on it.

EUAN KERR: These students watch the White Space movie. Sheridan's theater teacher, Kathleen Hession, who has been working with Washington, says the film left them mesmerized.

KATHLEEN HESSION: They're a rowdy bunch of kids that have a lot to say. And when we screened the film, it was the quietest, stillest moment that I have ever seen here.

EUAN KERR: A few days later, the students present name poems in which they, like the poet in the film, describe themselves to the world. The pieces are short, but often, revealing. A number talk about family members no longer in the home. Some of the students rush through their work or mumble shyly. Others, like Ajoyia Hand, speak loud and clear.

AJOYIA HAND: My name is Ajoyia. It means giggly, loving, and caring. It is like a flamingo or eating a watermelon. It is like--

EUAN KERR: The students listen and applaud using American Sign Language when she finishes. The class learns some signs, and teachers report seeing the students signing outside the classroom. Washington says she's been careful as a hearing person in her portrayal of the deaf community. She worked with several non-hearing artists as she prepared the project, including Twin Cities-based film maker and poet Raymond Laczak. Speaking through an interpreter, he says she's done a good job.

RAYMOND LACZAK: So it's not just her coming in and portraying the community as a hearing person. I think it's been done in a respectful manner. And I think that's the way to do it.

EUAN KERR: And Laczak says, getting sixth graders to consider poetry is a good thing.

RAYMOND LACZAK: I think at sixth grade, that's when I started to identify as a writer.

EUAN KERR: While White Space is based in poetry, it's also a lot about identity, not just who you are, but who you could be. Maya Washington says it's also about perspective. She says as an African-American woman, it can be tough to get good acting jobs. But she knows if she were deaf, it would be so much more difficult. It's a message she wants to pass on to the students.

MAYA WASHINGTON: You think you've got it so bad. You think it's so hard to just speak up in class or read a line from your poem. But imagine If you spoke a completely different language, and you had to get up and attempt to communicate, but you're communicating in a language that we all understand, so you can do it.

EUAN KERR: However, theater teacher, Kathleen Hession, sees a further advantage to having Washington in the classroom. Many of the questions in class have been about making the film itself. It's the first time many students have seen someone acting in a film and then being able to ask the person questions. Hession says this led to the youngsters considering their own futures.

KATHLEEN HESSION: It was very clear that a lot of them were began to think, oh, this is a real life possibility, something I could do, something people do, rather than something I pay money to go watch other people do.

EUAN KERR: After completing classes at Sheridan, Maya Washington will present white space to the Young Authors conference at Bethel University in Saint Paul at the end of the month. Euan Kerr. Minnesota Public Radio News.

CATHY WURZER: Minnesota Mix, by the way, is our ongoing series examining how youth and ethnic diversity are changing the Minnesota Arts scene. For other reports by Minnesota Mix go online, mprnews.org.