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Professional writers are visiting Detroit public schools in an effort to turn students into authors. "I want to build confidence with a pencil in the hand more than anything else," said teacher and poet Peter Markus. Part of the “InsideOut” program is learning to write poetry, which many students struggle with. "A lot of times, I can just tell that early on a child doesn’t like to write or feels, I don’t know what a poem is," said Markus. "I want to sort of disable them from that kind of thinking and saying, sure you can. You just wrote a poem." For students in struggling Detroit neighborhoods where poverty and crime are part of everyday life, the school turns into a haven, and the poetry turns into a point of pride. James Hearn, principle of a school where InsideOut is implemented, says that the program is instilling a love a writing in his students. "This poetry really gets them truly motivated and excited. And I’m talking about my football players, my athletes, my basketball players want poetry," he said. "When I saw the kids produced a book at the end of this particular experience, and they could take it home, and the pride those kids have, that was outstanding. So, that really won me over." Natasha Trethewey, the U.S. poet laureate, recently visited one of these classes to talk with the students about their poetry. "It was a sense of power that they have from being able to imagine, and to create, to name themselves, to speak for themselves," Trethewey said of the students. "It did really remind me of being in my school and learning poets, the work of poets, African-American poets, that I have carried with me since then." "We’re trying to revive our city, not just in the cultural center, but neighborhood by neighborhood. And I think that every school needs a poet, because this poet can help the school, the children give voice to their lives," said Terry Blackhawk, who founded InsideOut. "And you can also build connections in the community at large."