Programming Spotlight: BAM's Word. Sound. Power. 2023

 On Wednesday, April 26th Belmont’s St. John’s group had front row seats for BAM’s annual celebration of poetry and hip-hop called Word. Sound. Power.

This year’s performance highlighted the griot as emcee with the ever-fresh artist-poet Baba Israel in that role.  Students’ favorites included  Dahlak Brathwaite, Helixx C. Armageddon, Silent Knight, and Pri the Honey Dark.  

Brilliant, heavy, inspiring, and hard-hitting,  and just when we  thought  the show couldn’t get any better it found new ways to amplify the messages we all needed to hear.

Even better yet, the following week, Jayson P. Smith visited with our students and led a creative writing workshop which brought us back to Armageddon's "James Baldwin."
A language-rich SEL-grounded experience indeed.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Guest Post: I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano

I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats offers us a sweet, humorous, and rather  bold look at how cats view their interactions with us humans and with the world around them.  I personally enjoyed the obnoxious "Man's Best Friend" and the adorable "Cute Bed Jump.”   But it’s the title poem that for me seals the deal and blows my mind as I imagine cats actually having those thoughts. 

Readers of all ages will find enjoyment between the covers of this book,  and educators will find the poems,  with their use of humor and irony,  an excellent way 

to engage students -   even those struggling  with literacy - in writing poems of their own. --E. Latham

Guest Blogger E. Latham currently teaches at Passages Academy.

Shine by Passages Academy Students

We’ve been celebrating all month long, first with Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” and Zetta Elliot’s "We Can't Breathe" and "We Are Wise" from Say Her Name .  Then, thanks to generous funding from our partners at LIT, we gifted every student with a copy of Ink Knows No Borders.  Last week we invited students to play with language and composition with Magnetic Poetry kits, also provided by LIT, and today we’re publishing their collected compositions in Shine,  our first epub. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Programming Spotlight: Poetry Performance at BAM

Students residing at the Blum group home attended Poetry 2016: Past Is Present, a performance that opened on Thursday and will continue at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Fishman Space through next week.  Attendees were welcomed by DJ Reborn, warmed up with Baba Isreal, and then took in performance poetry from Climbing PoeTree, Liza Jessie Peterson, Flaco Navaja and Jennifer Cendana Armas, as well as a couple of impressive peers giving debut readings.  Poems were accompanied by beatboxing, dancing, and live music, as well as moving projections, making meaning on a variety of levels and adding to the complexity of the art.  The performance was followed by a Q & A onstage with all of the participants and everyone seemed to enjoy this foray into a new space.  Many thanks to Literacy for Incarcerated Teens for providing the critical funding to purchase tickets, and to Ms. Nadel, Ms. DeLara, Ms. Aiyana, Ms. Sandra, Blum Staff, and Mr. Watters and Mr. Moe at ACS for working as a team to make this trip a success.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Casey at the Bat by Ernest L. Thayer, illustrated by Joe Morse

Teachers looking for a narrative poem to illustrate the genre, as well as poetry lovers searching for a read-aloud poem to serve as an invitation to a story may wish consider this contemporary issue of Thayer’s classic.  I shared Casey this week at the commencement of baseball season and its confluence with the start of National Poetry Month.  This particular version initially grabbed students’ attention with its urban illustrations, though the poem itself seduces the reader using the traditional elements of poetry.  The poem’s pacing and suspense are enhanced by this publication’s layout.  This selection proved perfect for a shared reading and librarians will want to have multiple copies on hand so that students eager to study the images can do so without interrupting the rhythm and rhymes of the poem as it builds the momentum to its final anti-climax, leaving students hankering for more.  --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Kids Can Press provides a pdf containing lesson plan ideas on their website.  Click here for the website and then scroll down for the pdf labeled “teaching.”

Thayer, Ernest L. Casey at the Bat.  Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2010.  Print.

Words Unlocked Guest Blog Post

With National Poetry Month just a few days away, I’m already full with anticipation as teachers across the country prepare to embark on Words Unlocked 2016! I imagine the conversations young people will have with one another, the understandings they will dis-cover, and the connections they will make in places most people will never truly know. Words Unlocked is designed with young people held in secure, locked facilities and their teachers. The Words Unlocked website is packed with free resources including downloadable lesson plans, student handouts, poetry resources, and how-to guides. My favorite resources by far are the Words Unlocked Anthologies. These collections give all who venture in a glimpse into the hearts and minds of our young people held in confinement. 
 

words unlocked evolve

glimpses into times of change

pause, transformation

Last year’s theme was transformation. Words Unlocked 2015 Focus Poet and Lead Reviewing Artist, Jimmy Santiago Baca, had this to say about the poems he read:

“You hear their lives and feel their faces and you want to sometimes hold them and protect them from the cruelty and injustice in our world, and you can.”

Experiencing poetry, whether through reading or listening, unlocks words once held by others and allows us a doorway into worlds beyond our physical reach. Just this morning I was watching Words Unlocked 2016 Focus Poet and Reviewing Artist, Donté Clark, perform his piece, "Let Me Breathe” imagining the faces of thousands of young people captivated by his words and sharing an experience.

The theme for Words Unlocked 2016 is interconnectedness. We each interact with one another, making understanding impossible if we are simply considered alone. What bold truths will our young people share about being mutually connected—to others, to communities, to systems, to the world? Words Unlocked assures that bold truths permeate facility walls and travel into the consciousness of those of us living our lives on the outside. As Jimmy Baca wrote “...you can.” Listen to the words of our young people. How might they move you into action?--Christy Sampson-Kelly

Christy Sampson-Kelly is a tireless advocate for a particularly vulnerable group of young people—those with special needs held in locked juvenile and adult facilities. She is also the author of reMembering Mulatta, a book of poetry that exposes her journey through the lived experience of being neither this nor that as a woman of mixed ancestry. She currently serves as the Director of Practitioner Support at CEEAS, leads Words Unlocked, and provides direct coaching to schools in the areas of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and student engagement.

Guest Post: Why I Think This World Should End by Prince Ea

In honor of Earth Day and National Poetry Month, my students and I watched rapper/activist Prince Ea perform his spoken-word poem “Why I Think This World Should End” about the damage humans have done to the environment. Noting the mass destruction of trees to make money, pollution caused by carbon emissions, and the government’s inability to prevent any of it, Prince Ea apologizes to future generations for leaving them a dismal place to live.  Though Prince Ea’s message reveals the brutal reality of the Earth’s decaying state, it also provides hope by reminding viewers that individuals can take action.  My students were moved by the performance, and also alarmed by the new information they received.  One student, T, asked, “If they cut down all the trees, how are we going to survive?” J added, “How are we going to breathe?” Though my students were disturbed by the facts in the video, it prompted them to brainstorm ways they can help save the environment, including recycling, planting trees, car-pooling, taking public transportation, and minimizing their energy use.

I recommend this six-minute video to teachers, especially English teachers, who want to celebrate Earth day with their students. Because this video combines poetry with information about the environment, it serves well as an Earth Day/National Poetry Month text for the month of April.  --Mackenzie Magee