Mississippi native Jermaine Thompson, an instructor of humanities and social sciences with the University of Missouri-Kansas City, leads a session for third- and fourth-graders during Friday's [April 28] Mississippi Young Writers Poetry Festival. Hosted by MSU English Professor Catherine Pierce, who serves as the Magnolia State's Poet Laureate, the event included poetry writing sessions, readings, and featured a keynote from 2022 Southern Regional Youth Poet Laureate Isabella Ramirez. The students who were campus guests for the day were selected through the statewide K-12 poetry-writing initiative and competition My Town Mississippi Poetry Project directed by Pierce. She is an advocate that "poetry is for everyone" and seeks to help students of all ages embrace the consumption and creation of the written art form. For more photos, click here.