A Teacher Who Inspires: Peter Kahn

Poet Dan “Sully” Sullivan reflects on his former teacher, Peter Kahn, recipient of the AWM’s 2024 Inspiration Award

The following is a transcript of Sullivan’s remarks given at OnWord 2024, the AWM’s annual benefit.

Written by Dan “Sully” Sullivan

I first met Peter my junior year of high school in 1998. I was an apathetic student. Teachers generally liked me. I just didn’t like to do things like, homework or stay awake in class.

One day, Peter noticed that when he brought in a former student to perform some spoken word and host a classroom poetry slam, some of the students who normally, like me, were harder to reach suddenly lit up — students who might’ve had things going on at home or didn’t have a home, or were struggling in myriad ways. It’s hard to be a teenager in this world. 

Peter saw an opportunity that transformed his teaching. And I was his guinea pig. I’m joking, but I did get to witness this change in the way Peter approached education in real-time and reap the benefits. He began to use poetry slam and spoken word as a tool for curriculum integration. 

I wasn’t used to being seen at school. Sleeping at my desk was a kind of ghost work. A way of disappearing. Because of Peter, I was able to step in front of the classroom and then a stage in a packed theater in front of my peers, parents, and teachers to say this is who I am and be applauded for it. 

In 1999, my senior year of high school, Peter founded the Oak Park River Forest High School Spoken Word Club. It became the largest of its kind. My hometown newspaper, The Wednesday Journal, called it “a model for more equitable education.” You may have seen the club featured in the Siskel/Jacobs documentary Louder Than a Bomb, or the Starz docuseries America to Me, or students from the club performing poems on HBO’s Brave New Voices. 

Thousands of students have passed through the club, and this year it celebrates its 25th anniversary, with one of Peter’s former students, Adam Levin, now at the helm.

In the spirit of the club’s collaborative group pieces, I reached out to a few alumni to ask how Peter impacted their lives. Asia Calcagno, Program Director at Young Chicago Authors, said:

I became an educator because Peter was one of the first consistent and genuine educators I’ve ever met. I’ve witnessed him make writing feel possible and accessible and cool to the most stubborn of students, but more importantly he’s guided those who never knew they had a story inside of them back to themselves through the power of a pen. What he’s deposited into the world of education is beyond poetry, beyond teaching, and beyond storytelling: it’s life changing.

Langston Kerman, whose stand-up comedy special just aired last month on Netflix had this to say:

Peter Kahn introduced me to a world of poetry and language that transformed my understanding of the world around me — and I immediately used everything he taught me to write the filthiest and most vile jokes I could come up with. In short, brilliant teacher, awful judge of character.

David Gilmer, a Teacher of English at Jones College Prep wrote:

PK has dedicated his life to helping students write “striking lines” and avoid cliches, however the stories his students have to tell about him have all become cliches. There is a chorus of voices from OPRF or those who have encountered the OPRF spoken word program who all share the same words: PK helped me find my voice, grew my self-confidence, saved me. Pete taught every student at OPRF, a school of thousands. I have no words to describe the magnitude of his impact. And For the three years we knew each other in high school. Pete never let me skate by, and in my worse days he challenged me to be better.

Peter never let any of us skate by. He didn’t let me sleep at my desk.

I want to close with this: When I considered education early on as a career path, I remember PK saying to me that there are two kinds of teachers, the ones who at the end of the day go home and remember all of their successes, all of their students’ successes, and it lights their path. Then there are teachers who could reach a thousand students but the one kid sleeping through class, that one will keep you up at night. If you’re that second kind of teacher, know that you’ll have to give all of yourself to this. And that’s what Peter has done and that’s why he is so deserving of this recognition. Peter, thank you for your continued mentorship, your friendship, all that you have done, and all you continue to do.

Respect the mic. Take the high road. Please join me in congratulating legendary spoken word educator Peter Kahn.