Arsenal and Washington D.C. community organisation DC SCORES joined forces this week to bring football and creative arts together at George Mason University.
Children from Bancroft Elementary were put through their paces by Jonas Eidevall and our first team coaches, before Lotte Wubben-Moy, Alessia Russo and Emily Fox joined the group for a poetry masterclass.
Founded as a legacy of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, DC SCORES serves 3,000 students – known as poet-athletes – at more than 60 schools, combining football, poetry, and service learning, and will celebrate its 30th anniversary this autumn.
We have collaborated with DC SCORES in our past visits to the US capital, but this was the first opportunity for our women’s team to connect with poet-athletes and celebrate a special connection to our home in north London.
Jonas spoke on the power of connection after his coaching session, saying: “The session with DC SCORES was really, really nice. You can see the love for the game was shining through in all actions, and I really enjoyed working with the group.
“It’s so important we have this opportunity to connect with our communities here. The poet-athletes here today look up to role models like Emily Fox, and when you can connect with your role models it gives you the belief that you can make it anywhere.
“Football is a tool to support people on that journey, sometimes to make it as a footballer, but sometimes as a foundation to succeed in other aspects in life. It connects people and builds bridges, and our session with DC SCORES was a perfect example of that.”
After the pitch, DC SCORES Program Coordinator Zarea Boyde hosted a lively poetry workshop, with our players working with the group to create acrostic poems centred on the term ‘poet-athlete’.
Our own poet-athlete, Lotte Wubben-Moy, took part by reciting her poem to the group. Lotte set up Time to Explore in 2022 in collaboration with Arsenal in the Community. The free weekly sessions, run in our Community Hub, are designed to provide creative opportunities for 16-year-old girls in Camden, Hackney and Islington.
Speaking about the session, Lotte said, “It felt inspiring to know that across two continents, two similar programmes are going on. It’s special to see that art, regardless of where you live, has relevance and brings a beauty and purity that we can all relate to. It levels the field, in a sense, like football does as well.
“I was sat next to Dylan, who was Latino. The word 'libre' came up in his poem, which means freedom. That’s a word that encapsulates how art and football makes me feel and, speaking to our poet athletes here today, how they feel as well.”
Our Olympic Gold medallist, Emily Fox, on her return to her home state of Virginia, said, “Anytime we can connect with our community and young people, whether we’re in DC or in England, I always want to do that. I’ve never heard of a poet athlete before, but it’s so inspiring. Poetry and football – in some ways many people think they’re both art. Being able to express yourself is so important.”
Anthony Francavilla, Chief Development Officer at DC SCORES, said, “We've had the honour of hosting Arsenal in past visits to D.C., and the club has always been great to us.
“This visit was extra special for a couple of reasons. First, it was incredible to see somebody like Lotte – a bona fide poet-athlete in her own right – and learn about Time to Explore and its similarities to our work at DC SCORES. The poet-athlete movement needs to be a global one, and we're glad to see it already is.
“Second, as a female-founded and female-led organisation, we're so thrilled to see the Arsenal Women touring the US and drawing such amazing support. It's great for the game and it's great for our poet-athletes to connect with their role models."
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