STANZABREAK

A QUIVER OF COBRAS

2010-01-21T20:12:00.000-08:00

AN EXERCISE IN NAMING the WORLD with COLLECTIVE NOUNS by erica tryon

a shrewdness of apes
an obstinacy of buffalo
a quiver of cobras
a murder of crows
a pietousness of doves
a charm of finches
a busyness of ferrets
a smack of jellyfish
an unkindness of ravens
a crash of rhinos
a murmuration of starlings
a lamentation of swans

what about other obvious groups, collectives?
1. think of a group/pattern of people in your life
2. brainstorm a list of characteristics associated with that group
3. invent a name for that group that fits the characteristics of that group
4. ex: a hush of librarians, a clog of plumbers, a bolt of dresses

thanks erica, i love this exercise!

STORYBOARD AN EXHIBIT

2010-01-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

1. pick 3 pieces in an exhibit
2. choose something that represents a type of beginning, middle/shift, and finale/endpoint/conclusion
3. in your own mind, what is the story of these 3 pieces?
4. draw 3 squares horizontally
5. visually represent/draw the first piece in first square, 2nd piece in 2nd square, 3rd piece in 3rd square
6. under each drawing, tell a brief story of your drawing
7. at the end you have 3 drawings and 3 short writings/descriptions that tell a story. it looks kind of like a comic strip
8. share with the person next to you

this was lead by evan plummer and mario rossero and it really invites viewers to connect with works of art in new ways/make meaning. try it the next time you go to an exhibit!

AN EXERCISE IN LAYERING/BURYING/HIDING/REVEALING

2010-01-21T19:54:00.000-08:00

1. think of an experience of significance to you.
2. create 3 symbols to represent that experience.
3. reproduce one symbol on a separate sheet of paper and "gift" it to the person next to you.
4. explain that one symbol with words on a separate sheet of paper and give that explanation the person sitting on the other side of you.
5. create a symbol for the words just given to you.
6. using lots of various materials, create a visual artwork using only the images/symbols in your possession. layers, erasures, burials, hidings, revelations emerge through repetition. imagine these symbols competing for attention. often switch use of materials every 15 seconds or so.

after jasper john's exhibit at the art institute --- exercise led by jorge lucero

stuck with me and i've wanted to try this again and again

A POEM WITH 6 WORDS -- after Roberto Juarroz' poem

2010-01-15T09:30:00.000-08:00

by 8th grader Jaime H. at Greeley Elementary in Chicago:

She fell.
She stood.
She fell then stood.
She fell then stood stronger.
She stood then fell.

She fell stronger, she stood stronger.
She stood then fell.
Then stronger she stood.

She fell.

AFTER JUARROZ' POEM:

I'm awake.
I'm asleep.
I'm dreaming that I'm awake.
I'm dreaming that I'm aslseep.
I'm dreaming that I'm dreaming.

I'm dreaming that I'm dreaming
that I'm awake.
I'm dreaming that I'm dreaming
that I'm asleep.
I'm dreaming that I'm dreaming
that I'm dreaming.

I'm awake.

Estoy despierto.
Me duermo.
Sueno que estoy despierto.
Sueno que me duermo.
Sueno que sueno.

Sueno que sueno
que estoy despierto.
Sueno que sueno
que me duermo.
Sueno que sueno
que sueno.

Estoy despierto.

ROBERTO JUARROZ

I'm ________________________MAD! a social justice writing workshop with Lady Terror @ Crown

2009-11-25T11:08:00.000-08:00

8th grade students in Luke Albrecht's math class at Crown Academy are working with me and performance poet Lady Terror on a social justice writing project that explores food as freedom. What is enough? How is food like freedom? What is worth gettting mad about and why? This is a project through Columbia College Chicago's Center for Community Arts Partnerships. Here are some responses to the poetic question: What kind of mad are you?!

I'm balistic mad.
I'm driving in a wall mad.
I'm devil mad.
I'm social justice mad.
I'm hit my cat mad.
I'm 2010 mad.
I'm hitting the locker mad.
I'm Tears of a Tiger mad.
I'm fighting my mom mad.

Latoya

I'm brothers mad.
I'm brother took my X-box mad.

???

I'm throwin' people out the window mad.
I am on fire mad.
I am punching the wall mad.
I feel like killing myself mad.

???

I'm stomping mad,
fire off the black board
Mr. A on my case mad.
I'm smack my momma mad,
flamin' hots mad,
smash a window mad
ball your fist mad
red stop sign mad.
I'm failing math mad
wanna torch the school mad
just wanna quit school mad...

Tatianna

I'm the devil mad
I'm smokin' someone mad
I'm walkin on the moon mad
runnin' this town mad
turning my swag on mad

Breanna

I'm fire mad
I'm crying red mad
I'm jump off a bridge mad
I'm going in a lion cage mad
I'm getting my face ripped off mad
I'm run away from home mad

Brandon

I'm red pissed off
I need to get away
I'm red mad bloody red mad
like, damn! red get off red
just let me be mad.
Get out of my head mad.
Stay off my feet mad.
Just let me be mad
cause you don't know me mad
I'm red mad, just like red man,
He's red mad.

Tyshonda

I'm black and red mad
momma steady yelling mad
shootin' up my brain mad
crying black tears mad
I wanna kill this cat mad
I wanna go home mad
I wanna jump in the river mad
I'm Darkness by Dawn mad
I'm crazy mad
I'm Latoya mad
I'm teenage mad
I'm scholastic mad
I'm rotation mad
I'm translation mad
I'm dotted mad
I'm itchy mad

Brittany D.

I'm Michael Jackson mad
Jason mad Freddy Krueger mad
I'm cyclops mad
I'm garbage man mad
I'm black mad
I'm five heart beats mad
I'm busting glass mad
I'm kick my neighbor
bust my head mad
I'm ignited and damned mad
I'm undertaker mad
I'm nightmare mad
I'm ripping my heart out mad

Malik

I'm sabertooth mad
I'm extreme mad
I'm killing spree mad
I'm wolverine mad
I'm out of my mind mad

Kyle

I'm gun mad
I'm diamond mad
I'm jerkin' mad
I'm mowing the lawn mad
I'm washing the dishes mad
I'm cleaning the whole house mad
I'm doing my essay mad
I'm dancing mad
I'm listening to music mad
I'm dreaming of me as a robot mad
I'm vocabulary mad
I'm spelling mad
I'm on stage singing mad

Andre

I'm emotional mad
I'm crazy, stupid, sick mad
World going crazy mad
Cursing out people mad
Crying mad

Simonne

I'm riping up my social security card mad
I'm burning stuff up mad
I'm jump off a mountain mad

Vernisha

I'm baby just born mad
I'm crying light green tears mad
I'm dumping my lover mad
I'm writing so much mad
I'm putting my head in the toilet mad
I'm mummy mad
I'm shrinking mad

Shampayn

I'm driving my car mad
I want to frighten a cat mad
I want to be a baby mad
I'm climbing up the tree mad

Keara

I'm skinny mad
I'm hungry mad
I'm throwing my computer out the window mad

Tranisha

I'm pissed off mad
I'm emotional mad
I'm black, blue, red mad
I'm glad I'm mad
I'm crazed energetic mad
I'm betrayed mad
I'm damn-gotta-problem mad
I'm just me so let me be mad
I'm putting somebody in the locker mad
I'm screaming mad
I'm hitting my mom in the face mad
I'm burning up mad

Brittany R.

So Far Away...6th Graders Deal with Emotional Distance

2009-10-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

6th graders at Columbus Elementary School read poet Susan Stewart's "yellow ice and stars," about feeling really really far away from one another. I asked them to think of what it feels like to feel far away and to describe those feelings by talking directly to the person/idea so far away.

Death Is Near

You are as far as god and I

am as far as the world

on a planet with a house on it.

You are as far as a memory

in the sky and I’m as far as

my cousin’s death, as he rides

in the sea like a dead man.

You are as far as my sister’s

lies, I’m as far as my death is

near, and you are as far as

Navy Pier in an old place. I am

as far as gods in the sky.

You are as far as my love.

I am as far as my love in the

blue sky. You are as far as the

trees. I am as far as a river

of love.

You are So Far I Never Saw Your Face

You and I are as far as where

Jesus is. I am as far as the bottom of

the boat of the Titanic. You are so far I

never saw your face. I am as far

as the first day I saw you. I am so

far away that nobody is understanding you.

You are as far as the day I was born.

You are so far away that I don’t

even remember your name. I am so far that

I don’t even remember my brothers’ and sisters’

names. You are so far away into the first

War we ever had. I am so far where

I could see the universe. You are so far that

You don’t even know the place you are.

You and I are so far away, where only god

sees us.

Jessica A.

As Far As...

I am as far as a gem that is

cascading down eternity and you are as far as

a computer with its vast knowledge.

You are as far as the heavens that rain

smoldering, flipping boulders and I am

as far as the person on the bottom of the

pain where darkness is eternal.

I am as far as destruction and you are far as creation.

I am as far as a black hole at the nexus

of nothing and you are as far as the person

trapped in that hole. You are as far as the river

o life and I am as far as the person

who sings “oh how far I am from life!”

I am as far as destruction and you are

as far as creation.

You are as far as a boy playing in a field

and I am as far as the father calling

the boy from the mountains. I am as far as

the sky and you are as far as the

mountain piercing the sky.

I am as far as destruction and you are as

far as creation.

Alexander C.

Until We Turned To Dust...4th Graders' Takes on Origins

2009-10-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

In 2003, at Columbus Elementary School in Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood, I worked with 4th graders once a week. One week, we wrote poems about rewinding the universe and finding the origins of things around us. What was a baby before it was a baby? An egg. What was an egg before it was an egg? Dust. What was dust before it was dust? An idea. and so on...there were some really wild spiraling ideas in their poems...

Origins

The car turns into wood and wood turns into a tree and a tree

turns into a root and the root turns into water and the water

turns into a seed and a seed, how can all things come from a

seed?

The door knob turns into iron and the iron turns into a

railroad track being torn down or maybe being torn

up.

The milk turns into a cow and the cow turns into a cattle

and the cattle turns into a lost cloud.

A letter turns into a memory and a memory turns into a

big Glob of Nothing.

Gianna S.

And Where was I?

The world turned into an egg again and then

into a rock. I was in the rock.

The board would turn into a rock and I

was in a volcano.

The clock would turn into a stick again and I

was a rock.

Chicago was a small fort on land and I was

on a mountain.

The White House would turn into sand and

I was in a store.

The sky would turn into water and I was

a tadpole.

The land would turn into sand and I was

in a tree.

The boat would turn into sticks and I am inside a

clam.

The light would turn into dark and I was in the

shadows.

The ocean would turn into land and I was in

a pond.

Tomasz B.

God's Breath

The house turns into bricks.

The bricks turn into dust.

The dust turns into air.

The air turns into God’s breath.

God’s breath turns into us.

Becky N.

The Origin of Humans

The humans turn into monsters.

The monsters turn back into big piles of goo.

The big piles of goo turns back into a green sun.

The green sun turns back into Venus.

Venus turns back into the Earth.

The Earth turns into a bird.

The bird turns into an egg.

The egg turns back into a human.

Jonathan F.

The Words

The seas turn into bees

The bees turn to E’s

The E’s turn to nothing

Nothing turns to air

Air turns to Jesus

Jesus turns to God

God turns to Christ

Christ turns to spirits

Spirits turn to hope

and hope turns to love

Love turns to wife

Wife turns to husband

Husband turns to dust.

Alexandra P.

Origins

Your words turn out to be air

The great lakes become ponds

My heart turns into sadness

A person becomes death

The devil becomes an angel

The teacher becomes a student

The world becomes a map

The picture becomes a country

Power becomes a spirit

Love turns into sadness

Earth turns into a singing bird

The teapot turns to water

A family becomes love

Ice becomes a book

The tree becomes a desk

The gold turns into silver

Khrystyna K.

Rewinding the World

My pencil becomes a wooden stick.

All humans become clouds.

The water becomes the sea.

One hour goes back to one second.

The world becomes a huge forest.

All chalk becomes dust.. This is what

would happen if we rewind the world.

Xavier M.

The class will turn into glass.

The city will turn into sand.

A pupil will turn into your eye.

The train will turn into rain.

Your hand will turn into your skin.

Alyssa R.

The air turned into solid gold

The wind turned into a whistling

Pole. My hair turned into

slimy stones. Five socks

made of gold break my bones.

A bird walks over the sea

10 fish turned into flees

A hippo couldn’t have broken

my knees oh please oh please

don’t change back, oh please.

Jasmine H.

Cruising Away From the Madness -- 4th Graders' Poetic Escapes

2009-10-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

In 2003 at Columbus Elementary School in Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood, I was working with 4th graders. We read Naomi Shihab Nye's poem called The Rider -- about a boy who leaves his Loneliness panting on a street corner because he's riding so fast away from it on his roller skates. So I asked these guys to think about what they wanted to get away from and what mode of transport they'd use to get away -- how far would they go and what would whatever they escaped be doing if/when they were finally gone?

The Boy Left

I wanted to get away from war so I got in a

spaceship and flew over the world and

the war disappeared.

I wanted to get away from the world so I

borrowed a flying machine and I flew

all the way through the atmosphere and

the world followed me all through the

galaxy. And it caught me and smashed

me in a thousand pieces.

Tomasz B.

Anger

anger anger dries up like a solid

stone. broken up like fearful

tone. having pain and wonder

of the torturing cold. being an

angel of the goodest poem

i’m stone can’t break my bones.

so i hop on a flying poem

my body’s wondering where i’m goin’.

my soul is heading to the north pole..

who knows where i’m goin’?

Jasmine

I Wanted

A wise man told me he wanted to jump in

his red truck and go so fast just to get away

from fear. He said he would be going so fast

that fear would be left in the middle of the

earth panting. It didn’t sound so wise to me.

That night I thought about what he said and

thought about my fear. I thought of what the

old wise man said and it kind of made sense.

So I hopped into my red roller skates and

went so fast that I went half way across

the world and I did it. I left my fear

swimming across the Pacific Ocean.

Gianna S.

Trying to leave my soul behind,

I hop on a hot air balloon and took happiness.

Trying to get away from love,

I left my soul and she’s still trying to find me,

Looking all over the world.

She said, please Alyssa, find me oh please,

Banging her hands, having a fit for me.

I tried to get away from love but

Love still found me under a rock

So little you can’t see me.

Alyssa R.

I was really, really so sad that I hopped to my

Airplane and traveled all around the world. And my

Sadness was left on top of the ceiling.

I was really, really so angry that I hopped into

A motorcycle and I traveled to the moon and my

Anger was left in a garbage can.

I was really, really so shy that I hopped into an air

Balloon and flew to Mars and my shyness was

Left in the sink.

I was trying to get out from an enemy’s house.

I got on my bike and traveled to China and my

Enemy was left in a pile of garbage.

Anahi R.

I want to get away from loneliness.

I got on my boat and I went to Hawaii, leaving

loneliness swimming in the ocean.

Michael L.

I wanted to get away from an enemy.

I got in my limo and went around the world and my enemy was sitting on the front

stoop.

I wanted to get away from a bully

and went on an air balloon and went to

the Great Wall of China and the bully

was crying out loud.

I wanted to get away from sadness

and went on a helicopter and then

came back and my sadness was down

in the basement trying to get out.

Sandra M.

One day I was so bored so I got on

my roller blades and I rode 400,000 miles

and my boredness got tired and went away

from me forever.

I tried to prevent war but a nuclear bomb

blew the world up so I got on a train

and flew out to space and landed on

Mars.

Lyubomir S.

The Loneliness

I had a big anger to

I go on my motorcycle and

went all over the world.

Anger started spinning away from

me.

I had a big sadness so

I got on my jet plane

and sadness was burning

in the clouds.

I had a big cold so

I hopped on a bus that

went so fast, cold couldn’t

keep up and it got freezing in the

street.

Xavier M.

EKPHRASIS -- EKPHRASTATIC -- Poems & Paintings, Poets & Painters

2009-10-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

responding to works of art through poetry:

 NOUN-VERB-NOUN – identify nouns, verbs, and nouns in 3 columns and begin to mix and match new imagery as a result of various combinations (first taught to me by Evan Plummer)

 GETTING TO THE ESSENCE – write 24 words in response to a work of art, then reduce it to 12, 6, 3 and finally 1 word as the essential “essence” of the work (first taught to me by Jenn Morea)

 3 WORDS ONLY – on small post it notes, respond by describing, analyzing, interpreting works, but only write 3 words per post it note – then arrange/rearrange post it notes into a poem

 JUST OUTSIDE THE FRAME… -- imagine what is “just outside the frame/image” – what do you see, hear, imagine, remember, dream, wonder about?

 JUST BEFORE/AFTER…what happened just before or just after the narrative in the art work?

 FIRST PERSON MONOLOGUES – pick a person or object in the work of art and speak from their perspective/voice

 WHAT YOU DON’T SEE IS…/WHAT YOU DON’T HEAR IS…/WHAT YOU DON’T REMEMBER IS…

 QUESTIONS TO…the object, person, landscape

 I AM…place yourself inside the work and become an object or landscape, etc. What do you see/experience/feel/remember?

 ___________IS___________________ -- pick an object/person/landscape and compare it to something else

 LETTER LIMITS – write about what you see/hear/think/feel only using words that begin with certain letters of the alphabet

 EPISTLE/ODE TO AN OBJECT/SUBJECT WITHIN THE WORK – directly address an object, person, etc. through a poem or ode praising that thing/person

 LIST POEMS
o TEN THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER ABOUT…
o TEN QUESTIONS FOR…
o TEN THINGS I HATE/LOVE ABOUT…
o TEN SOUNDS…
o TEN VERBS…

 IN THIS MOMENT… try to capture a single moment in the work of art – expand – and choose another moment – expand

 WHAT IF… what does this work of art make you wonder – start with a “what if” question about the object, person, etc. and keep asking

 HAIKU-or-LUNE-AS-REFLECTION – write a haiku (5-7-5 syllables, 3 lines) or lune (3-5-3 words peron line, 3 line poem) about what you see/experience

 FIVE TITLES AS A POEM – come up with at least 5 different titles for the work of art

 I KEEP DREAMING OF…-- imagine that this work of art is causing you to dream – what is happening in this dream?

EKPRHASTIC POETRY --http://valerie6.myweb.uga.edu/ekphrasticpoetry.html
FROM POETS.ORG: The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden
The Painting by Jon Balaban
War Photograph by Kate Daniels
The Family Photograph by Vona Groarke
Museum Guard by David Hernandez
The Mad Potter by John Hollander
Messieur Degas Teaches Art and Science at Durfy Intermediate School, Detroit 1942 by Philip Levine
Ode to a Grecian Urn by John Keats
Die Muhle Brennt—Richard by Richard Matthews
Photograph of People Dancing in France by Leslie Adrienne Miller
Why knowing is (& Matisse's Woman with a Hat) by Martha Ronk
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams
Stealing The Scream by Monica Youn
Joseph Cornell, with Box by Michael Dumanis
QUESTIONS to consider when writing in response to a work of art: (from http://wwwf.countryday.net/FacStf/us/hammondk/Ekprasis/Default.htm)
• What's the perspective of the poem? Does the poet "enter" the painting and join its world? Does he/she become a figure in that depiction? Is the poet a spectator? Participant? Art critic?
• What part of the art work has inspired the sentiment? Is the poet sympathetic? Compassionate?
• To what is the poet responding: the subject? the technique? the history? the artist?
• Does the poet make mention of the time difference between when he/she writes and when the work was created?
• What special language does the poet employ to deal with the art work?
• Is the "point" of the poem the same as that of the art work?
ANOTHER GREAT SOURCE FOR EKPHRASTIC POETRY:
http://www.dwpoet.com/poetassign.html “ekphrastic excursions” -- David Wright

ekphrasis --
 give voice to the work of art by entering its world
 praise the work of art by examining what you learn from it, why you need it
 examine a personal issue by zoning in on a specific feeling/issue raised in the work of art
 examine a social/historical issue by zoning in on the work of arts’ context/intent

FB Status Updates from Tanzania 2009

2009-09-16T18:26:00.001-07:00

jet lag pulls the lids down like the undertow of night dream waves. i wake to sleep and take my waking slow...don't want to wash the coast off my clothes...

in the middle of the night i wake up and can't be certain which world exists beyond my bedroom door.

heart breaking taarab music with rasta zanzibari omani fisherman, babu ali, where are you now?! dalla-dalla ride to paje, glittering white sand, turquoise water, sweet love and sleep in a tree house, women walk the low tide collecting seaweed, rustle of palm leaves, three hours on the porch for piko and hennaed feet, a ferry ride to dar hand in hand, good byes extended, dar to arusha, never want to leave...

reunion with hemedi khamis in dar, spice tour tomorrow, dinner at two tables tonight, sunset at africa house, swahili classes with teacher daulat, yet another marriage proposal from omani sisters (second wife seems to be the trend), and small run in with zanzibari police, revealing the seedy underworld of robbery, prostitution, and drugs here -- no worries, i'm a witness, not participant...well, sort of. long story.

swahili language classes at the institute for kiswahili language and culture, roof top coffees, strange re-verb from the past, incredible fresh fish, lush gardens, grilled octopus, soft dhows, sugar cane memories, winding roads, impossibly lost.

mombasa to takaungu to dar bus ride, remembering giriama disco in the middle of nowhere, palm wine, stars, muslim ladies, tawakal bus co. pride, bananas and cashews for sale by open window, arusha friends in dar, seedy air-con disco, fierce heat, ferry ride to zanzibar, arriving to a new reality here, single-cigarette purchase ten cents, women all dressed black, flip flop fashions remix, internet cafe in shangani

last & first days, corn fields & cows, narrow, winding pathways through banana tree forests, flickering electricity, indian buffet, masaii market sister-friends, sketch & shade, reality & trust, fierce sun, chapati. row boats and musical chairs, wet black boots, back-breaking dala-dala rides, the unknown, last show at school tomorrow, beautiful asmaha, conjuring inner strength, michael jackson kangas. seriously.

negotiations with yaz the sign painter, a long walk to duluti lake, distant singing voices in church cave, clouds on water, belly ache, heart ache, weird and great talks with too cool hard to the core teaching assistant, preparing for solo travel, question of visas, points of entry, permission, desire. dress rehearsal, tomorrow.

sipping whiskey with exiled black panther pete o neal in his living room, performing for u.n. tanzanian ambassador augustine muhigu, posing for a picture with rap star professor j (tanzania's biggie smalls), directing a scene where a monster of secrets and lies about hiv/aids melts and dies, learning tanzanian sign language. immersed, in it, fully. belly & all.

hazy evening market, ugali and beans, deranged missionaries, masai regalia, obama hand painted beauty salon signs, banana leaf umbrellas, rich coffee, freeze improvisation, theater is real life.

banana leaves, chickens & cows, flip flops, kangas, sky of stars, hazy smoke, masaii plaid, rolling hills of meru, ugali and beans, green lusciousness, rocky dirt roads, women with baskets on their heads, bustling markets, swahili everywhere, mambo! poa! vipi! safi! used clothing markets, piles of shoes, cardamon chai, sleep tight, mosquito netting, love love love the return. scotland: plaid. masaii men: plaid.

International Theater Literacy Project in Tanzania 2009

2009-08-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

I think I might have been the luckiest teaching artist on the planet this summer. I spent two weeks in Scotland on a teaching artist exchange with the Scottish Arts Council through Columbia College Chicago, and then I spent five weeks in Tanzania (East Africa) as part of a team of teaching artists with the International Theater Literacy Project, led by Marianna Houston, on an exchange via Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education, Chicago, IL. Along with 7 other teaching artists, we were paired up to led a 2 1/2 week theater project with amazing young students from Nkoanrua and Akeri Secondary Schools, located outside of Arusha near Tengeru/Patandi.

Teaching poetry and theater in Tanzania was one of the most extraordinary teaching artist experiences of my life. I'll be writing about it in more formal ways, but for now I wanted to post some pictures of the process and the people, so that everyone can get a feel for the work. At some point, I plan to write more about our poetry writing process. One of the main poetic structures taught was the Pantoum -- not at all of African origins, but the circle structure worked so well for our play, and the students really got into it, writing both individual and collaborative poems shaped around questions that punctuated our performance piece. Who am I? One day, where shall I go?

After a week of writing and experimenting with theater structures, we produced a play called "The Four Karina's Ask Their Questions" - a coming of age play about a young girl whose questions lead her on a journey through a Forest of Mirrors, to a Monster of Lies, and a Community of Survivors of HIV, who help her understan complex issues surrounding health, sexuality, and relationships. We performed this play near Patandi Teachers College near Tengeru market with 3 other ensembles and a wonderful primary school -- St. Margaret's -- who performed a Midsummer Night's Dream -- amazing ITLP theater festival! We also performed this play at their secondary school. Extraordinary experience, every minute.

The theater festival was all about the dizzying joy of completing an artistic process in community. Incredible love and talent all around! Thanks to Lee Sunday Evans, my teaching partner, Julie Simpson, ED of Urban Gateways, Marianna Houston, of ITLP, and the MacArthur Foundation for making this experience possible for me. I am completely humbled and grateful for the opportunity. Much love to my students, too! I miss you!

I will post some of our students' wonderful poems soon. For now, enjoy these photos! For more information about the International Theater Literacy Project, check it out!

Particle Monologues with Grangemouth High School

2009-06-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

Particle Monologues found its way to a high school in Grangemouth, Scotland! I had the pleasure of working with the wordsmith Elspeth Murray along with Grangemouth High School librarian Joyce Barnes and her incredible students to arrange and rearrange their particle monologues into collaborative poems, which were then transcribed into a poetry installation at the Scottish Book Trust in Edinburgh! We did a collaborative arranging exercise, stream of consciousness writing, and shared our poems back to one another in a two hour workshop that could have gone on all day. Thanks to Grangemouth students for such wonderful energy, spirit, and questions. I miss you!

If.When.Then Remix: Post-Writing @ Crown Last Day

2009-05-30T14:57:00.001-07:00

RULE: Think back to the If.When.Then Surrealist Conditionals game. This time, using everything you know about poetry rules and techniques, write a poem that borrows from the conditionals construct.

If I was invisible,
I would still be right here.
I might even be the one who caused you to shed tears.
You might be able to see me as a ghost
I could be a horrifying imaginary television host.
I could walk right beside you in the night,
Go deep inside your body and commit suicide with all my might.
If I was alive, I might still be dead.
When I'm lying there unconsciously, please don't be sad.
If I'm reading this right and you think I'm actually here,
Don't be confused because I am a Black African American,
a ghost from the past years.

By Shiara Jackson

If I fall in love,
you are the one.
If we break up,
tears will come.
If I wonder why,
tears will dry.
If someone else comes,
they'll heal my heart.
But I don't know when
my love for you will stop.

by Jasmine H.

If earth would stand still,
then roses would smell like dooky,

If I were a jelly bean,
then frogs would float.

When school is over,
then rocks would turn to liquid.

When the snow shines,
Then quarters turn into time.

If grass was orange,
then smoke would become pain.

If shadows come out of walls,
then there would be no zombies.

If love turns into like,
Then there would be no more hearts to fill.

If snow turns into a river,
Then pillows would feel like bricks.

When aliens come to Earth,
They will suffer.

If school stops teaching,
There will be no more brains to fill.

By Rodney Scott

Experiment Translating Equations

2009-05-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

THE FOLLOWING POEMS ARE BASED ON THE EQUATION:

GIRL (to the second power) (-protection + boy)
______________________________________________

DISEASE

THE NIGHT THAT CHANGED MY LIFE
BY FELICA TOWNSEL

We're all here together
No one's around
Don't know what to do
I can't make a sound
I know what they're up to
But I don't know if I'm down
She says one thing
And I say another
But we all really like each other.

After that night,
everything would never be the same.
I might lose my life,
Even my game.
I don't know what to do,
I'm in so much pain.
The doctor told me
We just can't be together.
I got something --
a disease called VD.

I AM THE DISEASE
BY DEMARIO COLLINS

I am when boys
never use protection.
I am when boys go
from girl to girl to girl
I am when he give it to her
and she give it to him
and on and on and on.
I am the most deadly
dramatic and dumbest
disease: HIV.

HOW I FORMED
BY RODNEY SCOTT

I am the STD
One day there was this boy
who sleep with different girls
and without using protection
which is when
I formed inside
of this boy's body
who sneaks up
in different girls' bodies
of those who have
unprotected sex
and unsolved deaths.

PROTECTION
BY JOSHUA E.

Girls using no
protection will feel
bad at the end
either sick or with
twins.

Girls using no
protection will regret
what they did.

Girls using no
protection will suffer
with pain and sorrow.

Girls using no
protection and
boyz not using their
brain will both suffer
in pain.

BRAVE BOY GORGEOUS GIRL
BY CORNAIL ARTEBERRY

Brave boy is friends
with gorgeous girl.
Brave boy hangs out
with gorgeous girl.
They spend time together.
Brave boy and gorgeous girl
hold hands in the park.
They become close.
Brave boy doesn't
use protection, brave boy
and gorgeous girl consume
a disease. Brave boy
blames gorgeous girl.
Gorgeous girl breaks up
with brave boy.

Experiment New Math by Crown Students (based on the work of artist Craig Damrauer)

2009-05-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

JAIL =

crime - black man
_________________

life

by Joshua E.

GUN SHOT = run + down + (run and duck)

FIGHT = push + punch + run + I will fight you

by Elijon

FIGHT = talk - dislike / I hate you - step back x (police) + (trouble) x (embarrassed)

GUNSHOT = duck + down / cry x funeral - mother lost her baby

by Tyrone S.

JUSTICE = law - crime / living for good

FREEDOM = free - enslaved / fighting for freedom

by Corey F.

STREETS = violence + drugs + money (-peaceful)

JUSTICE = fighting for good + law - killing / hero

by Eric G.

RELATIONSHIP = love x crying + depressed to the 5th power + (anger squared) + hope + (pregnant) x girl/boy + baby weight x (offspring)

DREAM = hope x happiness - faith

by Keon G.

CONFUSED = I don't know what to do - I didn't make up my mind

HATE = (no love) + (stop talking to me) + (you have no place in my heart)

STREET = money + power + respect + drugs + homeless + prostitution

by Jaquanna W.

STREET = thugs + drugs - love

by India J.

UNKNOWN = not knowing + (need squared + to know) - never knew + why?

by Sabrina F.

RECESSION = (-job) + (-home) + tears

by Jimone S.

2009 = me + age + smart 4th + cool 5th + funny 6th + bad 7th

by Deandre F.

LOYALTY =

(trust) + (friends)
___________________

respect

by Carnail A.

EXHAUSTED = no air + suffocating + tired + you can't breathe

MISERABLE = lonely to the 21st power - friends to the 19th power + nothing to do

by Rodney S.

FIGHT = bloody nose squared + fears + weapons + hearse + 20 to life - your future + more tears

ENEMIES = I don't like you (to the seventh power) divided by Why are you so mean to me? - friendliness

by Nicole S.

FIGHT = 2(anger) + (fist) 4 divided by reality

IMPOSSIBLE = Imagination to the 10th power + dreams - reality

by Leroy C.

EMOTION = feelings - happiness + hard time

by Rodney S.

FIGHT = punches + blood - a clean face

by Devonta A.

FIGHT = slap + pulling hair - cafe

by India J.

HATE = disrespect + attitude - love

by Felicia T.

POOR = - home - money - hope

by Sabrina F.

LOVE = happy + sweet - hurt x true love

by Danielle

LOVE = sorrow - strong affection - (lust)(hate)

by Michelle W.

FIGHT = punching + kicking - teeth

MR. ALBRECHT = tall - disresepectful + committed to being a math teacher x compassionate to the 5th power

by Shiara J.

BROKEN-HEARTED = sad + crying + confused - happy - love life - relationship

by Danielshe

FIGHT = loser + winner - happy + consequences

PREGNANT = girl/boy - baby weight + offspring

by Tyleisha L.

HURT = cries + pain to the 2nd power - heart divided by love

by Tatyana S.

DECISION = consequence + choice x action

by Carnail A.

HATE = anger + rage - love

by Booker F.

RUN = push + down - here I come

Tyrone S.

GOD = (people / belief ) + religion

TEACHER = homework + friends / school x graduation

by Tyrell W.

FIGHT = hand / revenge + anger

by Kewon P.

LOVE = pain to the 3rd power + decision / thoughts - what anyone thinks

by Jasmine H.

BABY = friend + girlfriend - love

Experiment Try My Idea by Crown Algebra Students

2009-05-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Directions by Nicole Smith:

Close your eyes and think of a food. It can be whatever food you want.

If you thought of a healthy food, multiply the number of vowels by 2. If it's a junk food, multiply the vowels by 5.

Once you multiplied your food vowels, write a poem with a squared number of multiplied vowels.

When you're done, stand up.

When you stand up, shout, "hurray!"

Result:

CARAMEL CAKE CRUNCH
6 squared=36
36 vowels

I have a decision to make.
It's not all fun and cake.
to do my stop tomorrow,
or go to a funeral with sorrow. Sorrow.

Hurray.

by Tyleshia Lynn

Felicia Townsel's Rules

Go in the hall
Walk 3 squares
Then jump however many times
the number of letters in your name.
Untie your shoe.
Write a poem
about the first thing you see
After doing this.

Results by Shiara Jackson

My stomach is turning upside down
It feels as if my world is crashing around.

I feel kind of weak inside and out
My legs are wiggling and I'm about to sprout.

Now I realized I shouldn't have jumped so much
And right now, I can hardly think about lunch.

Shiara Jackson's Rules:

You have to repeat the word amazing 5 times.
The number of letters in your name is the number of words per line.
Your poem has to be about your favorite president of the United States, past or present.

Results by Felicia Townsel:

OBAMA IS AMAZING

He is amazing, just so, so amazing
People be praisin' him, just just praisin' him
Cause he is just so, so amazing
He is Obama. I love him like
my momma. Cause he just so amazing.
Obama is amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing.

Demario's Rules:

Walk 20 steps.
Turn to the right.
Write about the first thing you see.

Results by Tyrell:

The thing that I
see is the dream.
They say it is one
team.
And he say we all
have one dream.
And they say

"ONE TEAM"
"ONE DREAM"

Kewon Pettis' Rules

Figure out when Mr. Albrecht was born.
Add up the numbers of that year.
That number will equal the number of words in your poem.
Find the letter in the alphabet that goes with each number of the year.
Look up and write down the first thing you see.
Every line of your poem will start with the letters that go with the numbers.
Your poem is about the first thing you see.

Results by Demario:

1976
1+9+7+6 = 23
1976
AIGF

The first thing that I see is a book about eggs.

A+ on that summary about the book about eggs.
I hate eggs.
G is the last two letters of
the word egg.
Friday, we'll be finished with
the book about eggs.

A Walk on the Beach -- a group poem by 2nd graders @ Columbus Elementary School May 2009

2009-05-12T13:00:00.001-07:00

On The Beach

I saw an igloo made of ink in India.
Peter saw purple pollen on a banana peel.
I found fifty fingers in Florida.

Carlos caught classy schools with high cholesterol
But Cindy was cold with crabs, caught creatures
In the sea – coconut caught Carlos’ attention.

I found a ruby.

I do want to see you.
I do not want to see you cry.

I found sea turtles.
I found shark bones.

Van on the beach.
Violin on the beach.
Violets on the beach.
Violas on the beach.

George guarded the garden.

I found schools, and sharks, and starfish and shells and seven squares.
I found a net of nickels, one hundred pennies and a parakeet.

People push people – all people – every day – until they push.

I found a nun, preying.
I found jam and jello and jacks and Joe and jelly beans and Jupiter and jeans and justice.

I saw a turtle and the turtle was big.
I found a turtle in the water.

I found a jelly sandwich and a jack in the box.
I found ants and angels and apples on the beach.
I found pretzels and parents and Paul’s pencils, pickles, popcorn, and pants.
I found a cat fish.
I found a shell in the sand.

I found a beach ball and boats and volleyballs and last but not least, bathing suits.

I found a girl standing in the water.
My brother bought boats, breakfast in bowls.

I found a concert ticket with a backstage pass with a key next to it.
I found a koala swimming with a kangaroo.
A snake slithered somewhere.

By Columbus Elementary School 2nd grade class with Ms. Pino -- 2009

Swahili Proverbs/Kanga Sayings in East Africa -- Columbus Students Write Their Own Sayings!

2009-05-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

In East Africa, the kanga cloth dominates the fashion landscape. These brightly pattenered textiles all feature a poetic phrase/proverb printed at the bottom of the cloth, and often use metaphor and colorful language to express abstract meanings and interpretations of social reality. Kanga cloths are often traded or purchased for friends and family both for the sheer beauty of the cloth, but also to communicate messages embedded or implied by the poetic phrase on the cloth. In this way, the kanga is used as a poetic note silently passed between two people, a form of potent, indirect communication between two people having an on-going conversation. In this way, poetry and poetics plays a major role in the daily conversation of East Africa. Columbus students studied Swahili proverbs found on Kanga cloths, and then we took a turn at creating our own phrases.

Here are a few by 3rd graders:

If money falls from the sky, then help the homeless.

If you see a robber, use god's power to stop him.

If you had no mother, you would not be alive.

If your blood is hot, then you will fade.

If you play the piano, then angels will sing.

If you got hit by a car, you will turn to metal.

If you touch a thorn, you will run out of blood.

If you had no heart, then you have nothing but hatred.

When you are injured, you will heal.

When an elephant is running toward you, you will die.

If you ever find your dog, then you should live with him.

If all the clouds fall down, we will all blow up.

A small fear turns into a nightmare.

A small world can be bigger than you think.

If you don't listen, your ears will turn very big.

If people had magic, noone would have to work.

If you ran really fast, you'd travel all around.

If my mother was down, then I would have to be up.

If thunder is following you, grab the thunder and throw it back to the sky.

When you stomp your feet, you'll find a dollar.

If my brain was red, then my world would be red.

Without bones, you are made of jello.

Without your brain, you would just be dead.

If the earth was just water, we would all drown.

If you read "yam" backwards, you would know it was made in May.

With no mother, I would not live at all.

If friendship does not work, I will find a new friend.

When our teachers leave us, we will cry a pool of water.

Without the sun, there is not life.

Without gravity, we go to the moon.

A little is enough to be whatever you want.

If I see god, then I would die to live with him.

Singing too loud breaks glass.

If our grandfathers lived again, we would protect them so they wouldn't die.

If I look long enough at the star, I would become the star.

If we change the date, we get to eat the cake.

If you don't have a plan, you don't have a train.

If our grannies come back to life, let's take care of them.

If you really love your favorite color, then be your favorite color.

If you run really fast, you will turn very old.

If I die, then I will continue in my dead mansion.

If I have love, I will keep it a secret.

If the Sears Tower tilts, I will leave Chicago.

Even if we get into a scramble here, you will still be my sweet love.

If you wonder too hard, you won't find your way.

If you fly, you can touch the sky.

Clever people have brains.

Being lucky is like singing the song of your life.

Don't set sail when I say to set sail.

You build someone else's place, you feel greatness in your heart.

Me and you find great happiness.

If someone shouts, then noone dies.

If life dies, then god will die.

If there was no moon, there would be no beauty.

Earth will die when time stops.

If fire hits you, you will become it.

If you get born the love will stay.

If you point at the rainbow, the love will come true.

If you make a bird, you will never forget.

You should pick life over death.

If I had a sword, I'd use it for justice.

When you read, spells will come out of the book.

If you stare at a bee, you might get eye contact.

If you have the might, you might get the fight.

If you are a nice person, I will love you.

If your dad is sick, what will you do?And a few by 2nd graders:

If you see a bug, you should be brave.

If you love someone, keep it to yourself.

If you stop talking, you will become a king or queen.

If you dream of a spider, you should make it real.

Even if you fly away, you will come back.

If you really learn something, you will never forget it.

If you can love, then you can help.

If you see a bird, you should sing to it.

If I count to ten, I will get sophistication.

If you disobey the law, admit it to make justice.

If I get wasted in the USA, I would be reborn in Canada.

If you claim a rainbow, you'll find gold.

If you buy a present for your mom, she will never forget that.

If your parents point at the rainbow, you will see the future.

If my mom and dad grow, I will grow.

If I swim with the shark, I will turn into a shark.

I if I love, then I will get love back.

If I die, then I would come back to earth so I can relive my life again.

If I kill a bear, then I will turn into it.

People push people – all people – every day – until they push.

African Praise Poems @ Columbus Elementary School May 5, 2009

2009-05-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

In today's workshop, we learned about the African Praise Poem. In these poems, a call and response pattern reveals the revelatory and spiritual voice of the poet. The alternating lines can include conditions of entry into the world, unusual features of a birth, geneology or kinship affiliations, geographical affiliations with a place, elements of the natural world, totems (animals, plants, natural objects), an important past experience or unusual accident, and/or special "age-mates" to whom the person is bonded. Each line contains a name or phrase, uses metaphor or simile, pays careful attention to rhythm and sound, and uses call and response. Here are the poems written by incredible 3rd graders at Columbus Elementary School in Ukrainian Village -- I'm a poet in residence there through Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education. This is a 6 week residency and we're focusing on Tanzania/african poetry & proverbs.

I am here
Sleeping dark night
I am here
Spending money
I am here
Eating polish food
I am here
Playing video games
I am here
Learning poetry
I am here
Reading books
I am here
Werewolf howl moon
I am here

Klaudia

I am there
Loud, noisy, windy
I am there
Surrounded by noise
I am there
I yell to the spirit of the cheetah
I am there
Flying with birds
I am there
I can guide the animals
I am there
Riding in a car
I am there sleeping with a squirrel
I am there
Swimming with a shark
I am there

Adam W.

What I Say

Listen to me
You cry
Listen to me
Be happy
Listen to me
Go to your room
Listen to me
Don’t be sad
Listen to me
Be glad always
Listen to me
It’s just as easy
To smile as cry
Listen to me
You can win
Listen to me

Laquisha

I am here
Resting in peace
I am here
Starving to death
I am there
Protecting our country
I am here
Helping people like Jesus did
I am here
Drawing religion
I am here
Helping people from dying
I am here
Playing Devil May Cry
I am here
In a game zone
I am here

Sebastian S.

SMACK

Concentrate, I see it coming
Smack
I won’t hit it, but I have to –
Smack
It’s getting closer and closer
Smack
My muscles get tight
Smack
I have to hit it SMACK ---
It’s gone – HOMERUN!
I’m up again, muscles getting tighter
And concentrate. And closer and
Closer and SMACK another
Closer and closer and gone HOMERUN!
Up again, SMACK
Out in the field – SMACK
Inside, HOMERUN! Oh my gosh,
Up again, and whooping the Cub’s butt.
Now Armani is getting ready
Muscles tight, SMACK inside
HOMERUN again!

Armani

Dark brown eyes
Be still
Dark brown
Be still
Calling upon all spirit animals
Be still

Jacob G.

I am here
I have to talk
I am here
On fast, busy highways
I am here
Light or dark
I am here
Call on the snake spirit
I am here
In the game zone
I am here
Beating up Max
I am here
Watching wrestling
I am here

Denys K.

Stay here
In the wars of Halo
Stay here
Sleeping in heaven
Stay here
In underground tunnels
Stay here
Soaring with the birds
Stay here
Fighting with anger
Stay here
Jumping high in the sky
Stay here
Snowboarding on cliffs
Stay here
Running with the cheetah
Stay here

Sebastian G.

I’m alive
Jumping in the air
I’m alive
Hitting thunder
I’m alive
Drinking hot fire
I’m alive
A thunder strike
I’m alive
From a gun shot
I’m a live

Eric G.

I will survive
Alive in the north
I will survive
Soaring through the clouds
I will survive
Jumping out of a plane
I will survive
Light like the burning sky
I will survive
Never give up
I will survive
My spirit calls to the werewolf
I will survive
Floating through space
I will survive
The sky is red
I will survive

??????

I’m Still Right Here

I’m still right here
With my friends
I’m still right here
Covered with love
I’m still right here
Can you see me?
I’m still right here
Do you listen to me?
I’m still right here
Listen to my heart
I’m still right here.

Melisa F.

Listen to me
My heart is broken
Listen to me
I am talking
I am here
Listen to me
I am hurt
Listen to me
My power’s of the jungle
Listen to me
Don’t lie
Listen to me
You hurt me
Listen to me
You lie
Listen to me
Flying with birds

Xochitl R.

I’m still right here
Look at me
I’m still right here
Can you see me?
I’m sill right here
I don’t think you can see me
I’m still right here
Can anybody see me?
I’m still right here
You are not listening
I’m still right here
In my mother’s stomach
I’m still right here
Bored in my bed
I’m still right here
Reading a book
I’m still right here

????????????

Hear me
Roar with the lions
Hear me
Sing with the birds
Hear me
Pat my chest with the gorillas
Hear me
Shout with the monkeys
Hear me
Stomp with the kangaroos
Hear me
Splash water with the whales
Hear me
Fight with the jungle
Hear me

Samuel

I am here
Listening to people driving their cards
I am here
Telling my dog Mazzy and Star to come here
I am here
Don’t ignore me
I am here
Swimming with my spirit animal, the dolphin
I am here

Jasmine V.

Flying with a bird
I’m still right here

Singing a song
I’m still here

Can anybody hear me?
I’m still right here

Being in bed
I’m still right here

Sleeping at home
I’m still right here

Skipping
I’m still here

Jumping on my bed
I’m still right here

Playing with my friends
Divine and Kelly

I’m still here

Jasmine Q.

When I am here
I will care for you.

When I am here,
Your fears will forever be gone.

When I am here
You will never give up.

When I am here,
The tiger will lead us there.

When I am here,
I’ll send you flowers every week.

Myron N.

Listen to me
I’ll make a difference
Listen to me
I’ll keep you by my side
Listen to me
I will help you
Listen to me
I’ll make dreams come true
Listen to me

I am here
No fear of me
I am here
We are here together
I am here
You have talent
I am here
Forever
I am here
To help you
I am here

Julia

Help the poor
Live life
Help the poor
Make a miracle
Help the poor
Help the difference
Help the poor
Make a life
Help the poor
Take care of them
Help the poor
Be the difference
Help the poor

???????

Never Back Down Like a Lion

Never back down
The spirit lion
Never back down
Soar with the Teradacthil
Never back down
The moon draws me
Never back down
Moving from place to place
Never back down
Fast like a cheetah
Be strong
Never back down
Be cool
Never back down
Do good in school
Never back down
Have fun with it
Never back down
Be calm
Never back down

Deangelo J.

Break a leg
Stop it
Drawn into the fire
Stop it
Dragon fly stinging
Stop it
Loud thunder
Stop it
Shut up when I’m talking to you
Stop it

Brandon S.

I’m still right here
Covered in green
I’m still right here
Flying with a bird
I’m still right here
In my mother’s stomach
I’m still right here
Under my covers
I’m still right here
In the hospital
I’m still right here
Do you see me?
I’m still right here.

Kelly M

Experiment 4.16 -- What Are You Doing?

2009-04-30T14:04:00.001-07:00

During our April 16th session, we learned the "what are you doing" performance/improv game. Students took turns acting out the directions given by their partner, while still performing the one given to them. This generated a whole list of interesting verbs, which we then turned into poems we considered "versions of me."

Here's a great poem by Nicole:

I am drowning in my own
sad disposition of hate and anger

I am giving birth to life; life that
cannot be put back.

I am riding a dragon to the never
ending story.

I am spinning in a tight circle.

-- by Nicole S.

I'm playing football with the Michael Jackson glove on
I'm fighting a snake
I'm having a seizure
I'm singing
I'm skipping around
I'm lying on hot rocks

-- by Danielshe

Experiment Always/Never @ Crown April 30, 2009

2009-04-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

In today's workshop, students broke up into gender-specific groups and had to come up with 10 "rules for being a guy" and "rules for being a girl" -- not necessarily that they agreed with, but ones that were understood as part of our culture/society. Here's an example of what everyone came up with in smaller groups:

Rules for Being a Girl

cross your legs when wearing a skirt/dress
dont' be too loud
keep your appearance up
never slouch
don't gossip
never be alone with a boy in a room
no fighting
don't have a lot of boyfriends
don't be nasty
don't be fast
don't do drugs
don't drink
respect yourself
girls mature faster than boys

Rules for Being a Boy

be strong
don't cry
be respectful
talk proper
be helpful
be all you can be
be a role model
be a leader
don't hit girls
keep a hair cut
don't skip or scream
take out the garbage
never cross your legs
don't wear make up

As a class, we read Jamaica Kincaid's famous piece "GIRL" -- about what it was like for the writer to grow up as a girl in Haitian culture. We briefly discussed the meaning of her words and experience and now everyone's assignment is to turn their group rules into individual poems that begin with:

Never...
Always...
This is how to...

This assignment is due next week. I look forward to reading these powerful poems!

Experiment Chalk Out Loud April 30, 2009

2009-04-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

Today, the amazing Algebra students worked together to piece together a small spoken word piece related to thoughts/feelings on RULES. We returned to our chalk talk days to select interesting lines and bits of text. Students memorized their lines and work in trios to set an order to their lines. Here's a copy of our script in progress:

BOYS: Promise
GIRLS: Commitment
BOYS: Participate
GIRLS: Community
BOYS: Function
GIRLS: Discipline
BOYS: Oath
GIRLS: Directions
BOYS: Boundaries
GIRLS: Repercussions
ALL: POWER

RODNEY: Silent reading – it’s a waste of 20 minutes because nobody silently reads 4 real.
DEMARIO: Look both ways – or you will get hit by a car.
JOSHUA: [------]
TYRELL: I don’t like the walk the dog rule, but I have to do it or else she’ll pee everywhere!
LEROY: I hate it when other people don’t do the dishes.
KHARI: It’s hard because sometimes I want to learn from my own mistakes -- not from yours.
TATYANA: There are different things that might happen to you when you don’t follow rules or by not listening. People have their own ways of dealing with it – depending on what they did or done.
DENEISHA: I got in big trouble for leaving my little sister at home while I was out with my friends. She was only 7 years old!
DANIELSHE: My mom slapped me for lying to her and she stopped giving me money.
SHIARA: I love school. To me, it’s not a waste of time. Do you like it?
TYLEISHIA: I hated it when I was your age, teachers were bossy, but now…I have good memories.
FELICIA: I hate school too. Sometimes I think about dropping out – at least most of the time!
JASMINE: Even though you are legally grown, at that age too much freedom could be a problem.
BOOKER: Stop looking at me, alright?
CARNAIL: Even though I don’t like rules, I think that we should have them for a lot of reasons.

Students also swapped invented directions for writing poems today and have one week to complete the assignment devised by a fellow classmate. I can't wait to see how this goes! These students are brilliant.

Experiment One, Two, Three @ Crown April 23, 2009

2009-04-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

When Elly Goodman, a theater artist and educator from Scotland, came to visit us in Chicago, she taught us a great theater warm up where two people count back and forth up to 3. Then we replaced one with a snap. Learned that pattern. Replaced two with a clap, learned that pattern. Last, we were asked to replace three with a move/sound of our own. The students @ Crown really enjoyed this game. So today we turned that theater exercise into a poetry exercise. Students started with three words, and then step by step substituted one word for another until they created an entire sequence of poetic lines.

free police station
stay police station
stay in station
stay in the game

by Kewon P.

pretty good eat
mad good eat
mad sing eat
mad sing adventures

by India J.

dead hate forgotten
tears hate forgotten
tears die forgotten
tears die before laughter

by Nicole S.

young, smart, fly
young, cool, fly
young, cool, stop
young, cool, stop hating

by Jiome S.

pow, stop dead
bang, stop dead
bang run dead
bang run cry

by Deandre F.

care friends trust
happy friends trust
happy boom trust
happy boom an angel

by Tyleisha L.

love hurts slow
falling hurts slow
falling happens slow
falling happens fast

by Jasmine H.

The Traveler Poem -- April 22 @ Columbus

2009-04-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the amazing poet, Elspeth Murray, currently residing in Edinburgh, Scotland, who tipped me off to the work of George MacKay Brown, we read "Beachcombers" and followed his form to write traveler poems of our own.

The Scary Desert

Monday I saw snakes hissing at me.
They were following me and they
were hissing so they can eat in half.

Tuesday I saw a camel stampeding
at me so it can trample me.
I ran so I couldn't get trampled.

Wednesday I saw some spiders.
They were shooting webs at me.
But this time the spider got me.

Thursday I saw a big hole.
I stepped inside it and a tarantula hit me.
I was hurt bad and poisoned.

Friay I saw a rattle snake
rattling its tail.
It was coming toward me, I ran away.

Saturday I saw a lot of
animals attacking.
That was a scare.

by Adam W.

Incredible snippets:

Friday I saw a space
ship.
I realized it was mine.

Sunday I found myself
in a bowl that was much bigger than me.
It was all filled with gold.

by Vitaliy D.

Sunday
Watching movies, hitting
the t.v., I saw a ghost
in the wrestling ring.

by Sebastian G.

Tuesday I heard
a song
kiss me through
the phone.

Monday -- I was on an island, lost.
I grew a long beard. I had to
bite on it to cut it. Then I
could not do anything. I could not
eat, catch, fish, or sleep.

by Brandon

Experiment: Rule-Making/Team Work @ Crown April 16, 2009

2009-04-16T13:22:00.001-07:00

Today, the algebra/theater group broke up into two teams. Their challenge was to devise a series of directions for the other team that would result in some sort of poetic outcome. The group decided to split according to gender -- boys and girls in two separate teams. They had 4 minutes to devise the directions/rules. Once devised, the teams swapped directions and had an additional 10 minutes to execute the directions given to them.

BOYS' RULES FOR THE GIRLS:

1. Walk the circle (there was a circle in the room drawn on the floor). Find the diameter of that circle and that will equal the # of words per line.

2. Think of your birth month. The number of letters in your birth month is the # of lines in your poem.

3. Then come up with 3 emotions and that is the poem's theme.

RESULTS:

I was mad at my friend because
she lied and made me feel sad.
But now she apologized and we're ok,
Not doing great, but I'm not mad.
She left me hanging in the dark
And now our relationship has a spark.
Now it's over, we talked it through.
But now our friendship is seriously true.

written by Tyleisha

I hate being this way, I cry and
cry.

Everyday I look into different
parts of my life.

It's full of silent dark. When
you look

into my eyes, I feel hurt and
despised. So

go away, leave me alone and don't
call my

phone. Today is not the day
So go home.

written by Shiara

Depressed, you could say, is how I feel.
Excited is how I feel the day after that.
I'm sad the days I can't have my way.
Today is the day I can't have my way.
So how do I feel? Well, sad of course.
I can't recall a time where I was depressed.

written by Tatyana

Look and stare and wonder why
sad, upset
Do you know why you are really mad?
Cheer up -- get glad, about the things you do
Sad, cheer up, get glad
Stay on your head

written by Jasmine

I am so mad right about now.
I am so mad that it makes
me sad, I hate being sad, man.
I'm so sad until I'm just mad.
I don't know whether or not I'm
more of mad or more of sad.
I'm sad and mad to say that
say that I'm indeed confused today.

(9 lines -- 7 words per line)

written by Denisha

GIRLS' RULES FOR THE BOYS:

Add up all the # of letters in each person's name in your group. After you do that, you must then divide that number by the number of people in your group. Then when you have figured that # out, then figure out what position that # is in the alphabet (ie: 7=G). Then write a poem beginning with that letter as a group.

RESULTS:

Total # of letters in all the group member names = 42
Divided by 7 people in the group = 6
6=F

Friday is fun
for friends
who like to
fry french fires
on a freezy day.

Experiment: Name Squared -- Day One @ Crown Part II

2009-03-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

What's a poem, squared? After a conversation on rules -- inventing them, breaking them, knowing them, we decided to count the letters in our names and write poems that was equal to that number, squared -- as many lines as words per line. We also discussed the reason why we call something "squared" -- remembering the actual shape of a square and denoting base x height. We reviewed the notion of "function rules" and "substitutions" and listed the various modes of expression -- algebraic, concrete, numerical, verbal, and graphical -- making ties between those forms of expression in math and the ways in which our poetry/theater connected.

Here are a few examples of NAMES SQUARED!

L E R O Y (5)

say hi and good bye
see you again another time
when life is just right
see you in high school
see you in college years

T A T Y A N A (7)

Tatyana is a thirteen year old girl.
She is a creation to the world.
She's brilliant, talented, and funny. And sometimes,
her nose is a little runny. I
really like Tatyana. She's a really cool
person. She lights up my day. She
makes me feel great. I love Tatyana.

K H A R I (5)

When I think of me,
I think proud and free.
Love, faith, and belief is
a part of you and me.
Don't cry -- your hopes fly.

T Y L E S H I A (8)

I am short, silly, and really kind, small.
Every day I wonder if I were tall.
I am little, but I have a big
Dream. A dream that is more than it
May seem. I am a cool person to
be around. I like to walk and shop
all over town. So I am true and
me, the best that I can always be.

D E N I S H A (7)2

I really dn't know what to do.
This whole thing has me feeling blue.
I feel like I'm about to cry
but I'm holding the tears back in
my eyes. What's wrong with me, I
say to myself as I hold my
tears. Then I think I'm going away.

N I C O L E (6)

In the dark, scared and alone.
Where am I going now, friend?
If that is your real name.
You don't understand! The pressure's on!
I must fight this mirror fight
with the girl I don't like.

Experiment: If.When.Then @ Crown -- Day One

2009-03-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

Day One @ Crown

Conditional Exercise -- if/when/then in pairs

If I was a mountain,
then you would be an orange.

If I was a can,
then we would all live on the moon.

If I was pink,
then I would fly above the moon.

If chocolate tasted like mice,
then we would go swimming.

If you stop licking your lips,
then you will wear tight pants.

If I drove a car,
then I would leave.

If the world spun very fast,
then bubbbles would be blue.

If my head was big,
then I would get married.

If I die today,
then I won't see another tomorrow.

If I was a tree,
then I would cry.

If I get an A in math class,
then pizza will always be for breakfast.

If I was a boy,
then I would die.

If I turned to page 6,
then I will cry.

If I was to eat an apple,
then I would fall.

If I read a book,
then tigers would sleep in my classroom.

If I see Ms. Amanda,
then I would break a pencil.

If I ran outside,
then I would sleep forever.

If I ride horse,
then I will wish upon a star.

If I were to cut myself,
then I would be sure to smile.

If a giant learned algebra,
then you would get smaller.

If you look on the sole of your shoe,
then flowers will bloom.

If my leg didn't hurt,
then blue would be purple.

If I had a million dollars,
then I am going to dig a tunnel to Australia.

If I was Jamaican,
I would buy you a wig.

If you fly,
I will die.

If I fall off the bridge,
then I'll never know the real truth.

If I tie my shoe,
then I will marry J.

If I was to fly like a bird,
then you have to dance silly.

If I was the sky,
then you'd have to do the lean wit-it, rock wit-it.

If I was the moon,
I'd dress nicely.

If you start crying,
I will cheer you up.

If I were you,
then I'd lose myself in the world.

If two stars cross in the night,
then I will leave you.

If the world was no longer a world,
I'd wear my socks all at the same time.

If god hears my prayer,
I'll go the store and buy pigs' feet.

If I call you tonight,
then we could go to sleep.

If I beat someone up,
we'd go to sleep at dawn.

If I went to sleep,
then you would turn purple.

If I was blind,
you'd wake up wheezy.

If I go to school,
then I'll love you forever.

Surealist Conditionals -- Absurdist Logic

2009-02-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

"EVERYTHING IS FLEEING/TOWARD ITS PRESENCE." -- ROBERTO JUARROZ

For months I've been obsessed with this quote by Mexican poet Roberto Juarroz. I started writing it everywhere – as the signature to my email, on notes to friends, and in little spots around my office. It was the kind of idea that was planted like a seed and grew a thousand branches. I started thinking about absence and presence, energy and transformation. What is fleeing exactly? How do we know when we get there? And what gets lost along the way?

The line haunted me. A few months later, when fellow Break Arts artist Leah Sobsey and I began talking about leading text and image workshops with HABLA in Merida, I knew I wanted to use this poem in some way to organize our workshops. In many conversations between Greensboro and Chicago, Leah and I started making connections between the ideas in Juarroz's poem and the antique photographic process of cyanotypes, one of Leah's favorite photographic processes. Just as Juarroz's poem pushes the reader to think about fullness and emptiness, absence and presence, so do cyanotypes, which depend on the energy and heat of the sun to reveal or hide images placed on sheets of chemically coated fabric or paper. A transformation happens. Both the poem and the process itself asks us -- simply put -- what makes a thing – a thing? Where does its essence reside?

Leah and I began to plan a text and image workshop that would include a poetry warm up, close analysis and discussion of a poetic text, and the cyanotype process. Traditionally, cyanotypes entailed placing objects from the natural world onto treated paper, exposing the paper to sunlight, and removing those objects to reveal its after-image. But Leah explained the magic of using transparencies and black sharpies to write or copy text, placing it flat onto treated paper, making it possible to expose original handwriting and poetic text. The possibilities were endless and we couldn't wait to try this with workshop participants.

For the poetry warm up, we wanted to play with the idea of "conditionals" or "poetic logic" to fuel our thinking about absence and presence. We decided to play a Surrealist game in which two players invent poetic sentences by one player creating an "if/when" phrase and the other deciding on a "then" phrase without knowing or seeing the other half. To play this game, you can either write your part down or simply think it. When both players have decided on their part, the team reveals the thought in its entirety. You can also play this game by both players secretly writing an "if/when" phrase, folding or hiding it, trading their phrase with their partner, and completing a "then" phrase. No matter how you play, the idea is to generate surprising and audacious new language pairings that provoke new thinking about what makes a thought or an image whole.

HOW TO PLAY:

1. SURREALIST CONDITIONALS
Get into pairs and assign a Person A and a Person B.

Person A thinks of an “if/si or when/cuando” statement.

Ex: If a bird chirps or When a child fails

Person A does NOT tell Person B – they either think it or jot it down

…meanwhile…

Person B thinks of a “then/entonces” statement.

Ex: then all the leaves will fall or then I’ll have to wash the spoons.

Person B does NOT tell Person A yet – they either think it or jot it down.

When both Person A and Person B are ready – meaning they each have their secret phrase, they give each other a nod to reveal the conditional statement as a whole:

If a bird chirps
Then all the leaves will fall.

When a child fails,
Then I’ll have to wash the spoons.

The joy is in the audaciousness of surprising and unexpected connections. It’s fun for Person A and Person B to jot down the whole phrase before moving on to a next partner.

In the style of a salon, each person quickly finds a new partner, quickly decides who will think of an “if/when” and who will then of a “then” and begin again.

There are many variations on this exercise – and when working with children, it also works well if each child comes up with an “if/when” phrase on a sheet of paper. Each child also comes up with a “then” phrase. The children make two piles on the floor and then are invited to select one phrase from each pile to create surprising new phrases. That’s just one possibility out of many to make this exercise more hands on and interactive. You could also make a visible wall of “if/when” and “then” phrases and have students mix and match the phrases in pairs. The emphasis should be on the joy of outrageous pairings – constructing new meanings and images – and delighting in the results.

snowball experiments with 7

2009-02-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

in honor of the number 7, being studied currently by 7th graders at marshall middle school, we're experimenting with the surrealist exercise in which a poem "snowballs" from one word to two words to three words to four words to five words to six words to seven words -- well, we're stopping at seven. you could go on and on i suppose. content is up to you, which makes it somewhat challenging to get started, but here are a few i came up with on the fly to show our students. not saying they are the best, but i will say the experiments were delightful and took me to another head space.

SNOWBALL EXPERIMENT POEMS w. 7

ROAD TRIP

Dying

Is meant

For dangerous roads.

Take me with you.

We don't share the night.

I dream of you in gold.

You dream of me in green leaves.

I dream of you in gold.

We don't share the night.

Take me with you

On dangerous roads

Meant for

Dying.

WOMEN

Our bellies

Bulge and cave

Depending on the season.

What if our minds outlive

Our bodies and we fail to

Remember our lives? Crave me, still.

Our bodies and we fail to

What if our minds outlive,

Depending on the season.

Bulge and cave.

Our bellies

Women:

COME CLOSER

You

Don't know

Many things about

Me. You never asked.

Now you want to know.

I'll tell you later, but first:

Stand closer so you can really listen.

I'll tell you later, but first:

Now you want to know.

Me. You never asked.

Many thing about

Don't know

You.

Calculate Your Name

2008-12-30T22:23:00.001-08:00

I decided to lead a mini-workshop with my roommates to test run an assignment that would in some way play with ideas about translations between mathematical and poetic expressions. This idea emerged from conversations with Luke Albrecht, amazing mathematics teacher @ Crown Academy in Chicago, and Cynthia Weiss, brilliant arts educator. Here's what we came up with and the results that followed after an hour long workshop with artists Jamie Topper and Chris Salaveter. Inspired by Oulipo.

Assignment:

First, figure out where your letters of your name appear in the alphabet. Then, write a poem using the number of words per line that correlate with the number attached to the letters in your name. Then, add up all the numbers. Add the number in your total together. Repeat a word or phrase the number of times of that final total.

A M A N D A
1 13 1 14 4 1

1+13+1+14+4+1 = 34

3+4=7

1 Snow,
13 Where did we sled when the sky turned cold and we slept slow?
1 Worry
14 settled in when our fingers went numb --- how did we know when to leave?
4 Return home now. Hurry.
1 How?

7
Slow. Slow.
Slow. Slow.
Slow. Slow.
SLOW.

C H R I S
3 8 18 9 19

Canoe through lilies
Do you chew your food thoroughly while breathing?
Sleeping boy in headlights beyond hill house mess of clothes inflatable giraffe won at carnival by throwing darts.
What is the quickest way to the boiler room?
Staring contest with the owl still thinking of atrophied bengal tiger and cluster of policemen on the wall.

Cover Cover Cover Cover Cover Cover
Cover Cover Cover Cover Cover Cover

J A M I E
10 1 13 9 5

He spotted the stags.
Gentlemen deer
Then separately, the does.
Where to?

My walk to school
East Prairie Road --
One giant fissure in the
sidewalk

If you stay with your kind,
will we survive?

Yours: Half of the back seat

Half ! Half !

WHAT IS THE WHAT ON THE SIDEWALK -- Iowa Street Installation, August 2008

2008-10-25T16:48:00.000-07:00

Walking Inside Yourself #2

2008-08-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

i see my grandmother
and see my silver cage
with blood and the
slithering heart is
gone somewhere
in my body.
my heart feels
like my mom's
cooking mushrooms.
i see a piano lying down
feeling so sad because
my grandmother
is dead and i wish
she never died.
my weather feels dead
like my grandmother.
she's dead even though
she didn't want to die.

3rd grader, not sure who wrote this..., columbus

Walking Inside Yourself

2008-08-24T17:36:00.000-07:00

i walk inside myself and
see a scared, spotted snake
slithering to the planet
saturn

the floor was shaking
as fast as someone
on a motorcycle

and i see a soufle
of fluffiness

a forest of words

i walk inside myself
and see a piano plucking
the keys out and getting
a tissue box

i walk inside myself and
see more and more melting
monkies mowing lawns

by christina, 3rd grade, columbus

Accordian Bookmaking @ Greeley Elementary School

2008-06-28T09:35:00.001-07:00

Going Inside Yourself: A Poetry/Book-Making Workshop @ Columbus Elementary School

2008-06-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

Mapping Boundaries -- Defining our Lives @ Crown Community Academy

2008-06-28T09:32:00.002-07:00

The idea of a “circle of obligation” emerges out of conversations on the “ethics of care” initiated by philosophers such as Nel Noddings and Carol Gilligan. Educators involved with Facing History & Ourselves, a social justice education organization based in Boston, MA, also use the “circle of obligation” metaphor to encourage young people to consider the relationships they value most – to think about the people, ideas, places, and things they would most defend and protect – and why. The nesting circle is a powerful visual metaphor with which to experiment in attempting to express these layers of obligation – in identifying these circles within circles, we create “domains” or categories, inevitably leading to questions of belonging, inclusivity/exclusivity, human relationships, and to whom or what we are ultimately responsible for in developing an “ethics of care” in both our personal and public lives. How do we visually organize our feelings of love and responsibility, and what is the criteria we set for our “ethics of care?” This helps us navigate the complex conversation of self and other – pushing students and ourselves to consider who or what we exclude when we make decisions about who to include in our circles.

Step One: Brainstorm

Think of the people who have been on your mind most today

Think of the places that are most taking your attention today

Think of the ideas or concepts that are most taking your attention today

Think of what or who you’ve been most worried about lately or today

Step Two: Draw a “circle of obligation” using the “bull’s eye” or “nesting circle” image. Start with yourself at the center and consider the rings of obligation that surround you. Who, what, and where would you include?

Step Three: Set Domains/Restraints

Draw a second version that only includes people and places.

Draw a third version that only includes ideas.

The main challenge of this exercise is to really engage in conversation on the concept of obligation, ethics, care, and responsibility. Once we create our visual maps of obligation – how can we engage students in interpreting these maps and making meaning out of them? Also, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to decide who or what is most important to you – don’t let this turn into a battle of which superstar is the best, or which friend likes who better. Really push students to think globally as well as personally about this concept of care – how far do our circles stretch – what do our lives have to do with lives lived across the continent? How can we encourage our students to even begin to consider the interrelational nature of life? This is a good beginning exercise to a longer unit or conversation on the personal vs. the universal, generating awareness about the boundaries that human beings shape and challenge in trying to navigate a complex world of power. Drawing these circles of obligation without leaving room for conversation could leave students feeling like this was a popularity contest of ideas and people in our lives instead a real exploration of why and how we care – and what that might have to do with justice and spirituality. We would recommend returning to this same drawing/writing exercise at the end of a unit of study on borders, mapping, boundaries, inclusion/exclusion, etc. as a way to gauge a sense of growth and heightening of awareness of self as it relates to other.

- Create a collaborative circle of obligation for the whole classroom/school

- Create multiple layers of circles on vellum and attached them so that the layers of obligation are visible

- Further explore the boundaries between two circles of obligation by asking students to imagine standing on the border and connecting to both at once.

- Further explore conversation by asking students to think about the distance between the closest and farthest circle, and to push themselves in either direction to name new layers.

Ask students to create conditions or situations in which these circles of obligations could be challenged – or think about situations in their own lives when they’ve been conflicted about caring for others.

Artist Trading Cards -- Marshall Middle School 07/08

2008-06-28T09:32:00.001-07:00

Nature Unleashed--Chavez Multicultural Academy

2008-06-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

GHOSTS OF DISRESPECT

2008-05-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

Educator Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot speaks so eloquently about RESPECT that I had to post some of her ideas here -- even though she doesn't write directly about poetry, I feel like so much of what she says has to do with real learning that lives inside relationships.

Lawrence-Lightfoot speaks about the educator as a "public adult" -- intense, wise, and generous, who enacts values through "authentic inclusivity" -- not just the rhetoric. The educator must bridge the gap between expressed values and daily actions, addressing the "ghosts of disrespect," both oblique and obvious, who haunt our school hallways and lives. She notes the "micro-aggressions" of the everyday that get in the way of enacting a compassionate culture with respect as the cornerstone. She insists that healing be a central part of education and that genuine interest in the lives of our students -- wanting to know and be known -- makes us vulnerable and open enough to hear difficult ideas and live the questions of our time. Endless curiosity is at the core of all meaningful relationships. To exist, we must be visible, and made visible by those around us. Finally, respect is about 1/symmetry, 2/relationship, 3/civility, and 4/storytelling. Respect is relational and generative.

A WORLD FULL OF BLIND PEOPLE

2008-05-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

Poetry is like a bird flying in the clouds
Poetry is Sofia sitting on a buffalo
Poetry is like a duck in a flower
Poetry is like an eye full of fire
like a wind making music
Painting without paint
When a person hits another person and they die
A world full of blind people
sitting in the park at night
Is like Sofia sitting in jail
Is like a dog chasing a mouse

Mary S. Columbus Elementary School 4th grader, "Poetry is..." workshop

EATING POETRY

2008-05-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

I soar through the sky looking
for dark poetry. I feast on dark poetry books.
The defenseless books beg for mercy.
I might spare 1 or 2 but no more.
I can see nothing but books and blood.
If I were ever confronted
by a holy poetry book, I would die
and hopefully I would remake a memory
forever, but till then, I will forever feast
upon dark poetry.

I hold the paper on a tilt
so the black, bitter ink slides
into my mouth, my lips are black
like the woods at night, but as silent
as a shadow. My veins turn black
as I devour the ink
on the ghost white page.

Alejandro and Luke, 4th grade (2001-2002)

Written in a poetry residency at Columbus Elementary School, Chicago, IL after reading Billy Collin's "Eating Poetry"

MAPPING OUR LIVES

2008-04-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

You wanna go to my footprint? Well, if you must. First, once you arrive, you’ll see a man in prison. That would be my father. Don’t ask why he’s there. It’s personal. He’ll ask you to help him. To tell me to forgive me. Don’t do either. He deserved what he got and I’ll die before I forgive him. Next, if you go in the right direction, you’ll see a large German chocolate cake. Don’t touch it. It’s mine. Greedy much? Good. It’s from my 5^th birthday. One of my better ones when I look back on life. If you keep on easing down the road, you’ll find a tooth. It’s the first one I ever lost. My mommy pulled it out so it hurt like…well, you know. Don’t touch that either. I’m still waiting for the tooth fairy to get back to me on that. After that, if you keep going, you’ll see my name spelled incorrectly. I know it’s hard to spell, but if you’re a 5 year old girl, it might be. I’m gonna tell you now. You’re not allowed to touch anything. So keep going and se a younger me with chickenpox. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep walking. Years later in my memory – you’ll find a red cross. I’m in the hospital. Come talk to me if you want. All I did was say I’m gonna kill myself. Keep going and you’ll see why I’m crying. Can’t you see? 7^th grade was hell.

J, 8th grade

this student is one of the most extraordinary writers i've ever come across in my years of teaching writing -- the strongest voice, the most feeling i've encountered in a long, long time. to respect her privacy, i won't say much about her life. but i couldn't help wanting to post this writing done in a residency on mapping, where students were asked to map their lives inside the shape of their own shoe print, and then write about it. i'm so lucky to know this young woman and her writing.

POETRY -- by fourth grader Egor D., Chicago, IL

2008-02-24T12:56:00.000-08:00

POETRY

Paint comes out of my eyes.
There's always sadness in my brain.
I've been eating poetry.

All the people see me.
They run away
and then they stop.

The poems have been disappeared.
The people cry.
More and more people are coming and
crying.

They drip and fall.
The blood goes down the stairs.
The poor people don't know what to do.

Now the people begin to crawl.
The people flew up and never came down.

*this poem was written by Egor Duma, 4th grader at Columbus Elementary School in Ukrainian Village, about 2 years ago. We read a poem on poetry by Billy Collins, and then I asked them to write about the "power" of poetry to make us do, feel, and think certain things. This is what he wrote, straight away, no cross-outs or erasings. Incredible imagery, incredible language. I love this poem.

REMEMBER EVERYTHING YOU CAN

2007-08-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

so i'm clearing out the "empty" room of all my mess of papers and poems, trying to get organized for another year of teaching and thinking about children's writing. and i'm startled by these little gems of light i'm finding! i think these were written at columbus elementary school in chicago, il, in the ukrainian village, an amazing little school tucked into the corner of leavitt and augusta. we had read a poem by joy harjo and i asked them to take on an authoritative voice, to call on others to remember what might be forgotten in the everyday. we also talked about belonging and used this prompt as a warm up -- "...blank...belongs to...and...belongs to ...blank..." pushing for them to think about relationships, connections, audacious or otherwise. the light belongs to the window, and the window belongs to the light. that sort of thing. i love re-finding these poems in my apartment. they make me smile. enjoy.

REMEMBER EVERYTHING YOU CAN

Remember when you discovered that there is a world inside your body.
Remember when you discovered that you live on the brightest planet.
Remember when you discovered that your dog always dreams about bones.
Remember when you discovered that books are smarter than you.
Remember when you discovered that everything that grows has feelings
just like you.
Remember.

Pavlo D.

REMEMBER

Remember the moon is you and you are the moon
Remember you are the star and the star is you
Remember you are the sea and the sea is you
Remember love is in your heart and the heart is you
Remember you are me and I am you
Remember love is in our heart and our heart is in you

anonymous 3rd grader

RIDICULOUS YOU

2007-06-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

check out this poem by 3rd grade student omari from visitation catholic school -- it's pretty intense. he wrote it during a workshop on "chants." totally unprompted, it just poured out of him (we were all writing about nature, he was writing this). omari...he's a beautiful, strange, round stuttering child, and i have a feeling he'll be writing poems his whole life. it's an amazing privilege to run into our future's poets. big love to all of you. xoxo, a

RIDICULOUS YOU.

You are full of mistakes.
You are full of mistakes.

No, I definitely am not.
You are full of mistakes.

Did you spill your mother's coffee?
You are full of mistakes.

You ain't perfect, I tell by your looks.
You spit vomit on your history books.
You are full of mistakes.

Why do you think your hair's in a bunch?
You are full of mistakes.

Gee, you're a tough cookie, see, you crunch.
You are full of mistakes.

I don't gotta do whatever you say.
You are full of mistakes.

Well, don't say it tomorrow! Say it today!
You are full of mistakes.

I hate you, I wish you are dead.
You are full of mistakes.

I'm going to tie you up with needle and thread.
You are full of mistakes.

And how exactly are you gonna do that?
You are full of mistakes.

I'll ask my mom, we'll see about that.
You are full of mistakes.

Oh, yeah, right, ya think you can try
to even make me slightly die?

Quit talkin' trash. You've got a rash.
You've caused ants by the Stikko's you smashed. -- (stikko's are chocolate swirl cookies).
You are full of mistakes.

Well, I ain't perfect and neither are you.
As a matter of fact, I hate you too.

You are full of mistakes.

WORDS

2007-05-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

Words, by Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish.

That's all it took -- a single reading in a fourth grade classroom, to inspire this poem by Tanaili, 10 years old, Columbus Elementary School, Chicago, IL:

THE BATTLE WITH MY WORDS

When I had feelings, my words crushed me.
Then came the war!

When my words were mad, I tried to forget
them.

When my words were scorpions, I ran away
from them.

When my thoughts felt sad, my words became
Hell.

When my words threatened me, I threw them
out my window.

My words hurt me on the inside. Words screaming
in my head. Will the war ever end?

GRANDFATHERS, ANGELS, 3RD GRADERS

2007-03-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I led a poetry workshop with 3rd graders at Columbus Elementary School. We were imaginng ourselves as animals, objects, and ideas in nature. Nicole read a poem about being a butterfly that flies so high into the air that she ends up in outerspace. She can't breathe and starts to fall down, down, down. The stars reach out and grab her, saving her from a terrible death.

Meanwhile, Hector is quietly falling apart over the loss of his grandfather. Hector is crying at his desk, mourning, holding his head down by his chest. He asks if he can write a poem about his grandfather and draws a coffin with his grandfather's body inside. He can't stop crying. Hector is a short, stout boy with a crew cut. He's wearing a white shirt and jeans. His eyes are red and swollen. I try to console him but he can't stop crying. We try to talk about it and suddenly Nastacia, a chubby girl wearing a hot pink sweater with gold flecks, cries out, "HECTOR! Your grandfater is an ANGEL looking down on your from heaven! Don't worry, Hector, don't cry, he's right HERE!" she says, pointing emphatically to his shoulder. She insists that Hector's grandfather in an angel and he's in the room with us right now. Hector stops sniffling. His neighbor Vincent agrees with Nastacia. He says, "she's right, your granfather is an ANGEL!" Hector nods softly and picks up a pencil. He draws haunting, stretchy hearts that seem to float out of the coffin. He seems to calm down a bit, and wants to read his poem out loud.

This is the clearest expression of what my friend and artist Rachel McIntire calls "the value of emotional exchange" among children. They didn't need me. They had each other. Hector, Nastacia, and Vincent worked through their own ideas about poetry and spirituality and handled it with grace and calm. I watched them in awe. I wondered why adults so often forget these basic gestures of consoling -- perhaps it's that we lose our certainty that angels indeed live and move among us. I'm not so sure about angels myself but in this moment, I was relieved to know that Hector's grandfather WAS there to ease his pain, and also so grateful for Nastacia's absolute certainty that everything was going to be alright.

GREELEY DREAM POETS

2007-02-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

Amazing poems by amazing young poets from Greeley Elementary School @ Irving Park and Sheridan. This work emerges from our after school writer's workshop on Tuesdays and Thursdays!

MY SOUL

My soul is wandering through space

Flying through stars, wondering

Everything in the world, trying

To figure out questions that are

Never answered. Finding friends

And love that surround it,

Trying to know more and more

About the outer world. Thinking

What to do next and who to meet

Next. Asking, asking questions

That no one ever questioned. Wearing

Necklaces made out of moon rocks

With a dress of shiny stars. Making

Everywhere it goes shiny and

So smooth flying through with

All its poisoned self esteem.

Wandering what to tell me next

To give me some advice, to give

Me some warm advice.

Beatriz F.

ALEXANDRA, MY BABY SISTER (A VILLANELLE)

For you, and only for you, I live, I breathe, I dream.

Only for you do I have a word to say.

You are the only way that joy may I redeem.

Even when I am happy, or so it may seem,

I am crying deep inside, and your smile fills me, I’ll stay,

for you and only for you, do I live, I breathe, I dream.

When I look into your tiny eyes as they gleam

All fear, worry, seem to have flown away.

You are the only way that joy may I redeem.

And when you’re crying, my mind echoes each scream,

While my heart is a hollow cave, you fill me in a way.

For you, and only for you, I live, I breathe, I dream.

In time, life reminds me it’s not like whipped cream,

but as dark and as dreary as dirt, where you’re my gold today.

You are the only way that joy may I redeem.

Your feet and hands, so tiny, smile honest, like a dream.

Eyes like a pond of lightness, a small content light amidst the gray,

For you and only for you, I live, I breathe, I dream.

You are the only way that joy may I redeem.

Emilia Anna B.

DARK ROOM

I am in a dark room – no noise

except my voice

my voice

Braces the silence

and the only thing here

Is this paper and pen

that has pink ink

I could not see

though it is too dark that maybe

in this room I could see

all my memories

But only if I close

my eyes

I could feel and smell

the people

It’s like

there was magic in every corner

of this

room.

Brenda R.

WHEN A DREAM DIES

What happens when a dream dies?

Do people stop walking by?

Do the trees say good night?

Do people start to fight?

Does the earth start to die?

May it be that nature catches the flu?

What happens when a dream dies?

Do my eyes stop to blink and

start to rain?

Instead of falling water

Do my tears become blood?

Or will the world

be full of flood?

Jessenia G.

CAVE

Creatures of Death

Flag of the Cave

Lakes of Treasure

The little boy

cries for freedom.

Why in a cave?

He shouts.

He wants mercy.

His parents died

in a war with evil.

He saw a light

But then the

monster came

to life.

As he ran away

He saw a sword

shining like

Heaven.

He grabbed it

and then suddenly

He felt brave.

As he charged

He aimed to the
Monster’s stomach.

As it was fleeing

He saw his parents

Behind the monster.

They tested him

in courage and

braveness.

Isaias G.

RISING SOUL

She woke up.

The sky was mixed

in 5 different colors.

She put on her robe

And walked outside,

Breathing in the sweet smell

of the sky that warms

Her inside.

And just like that

She was dressed

In the finest clothes.

And her soul rose to God.

Brianna Lelan B.

HOPE

Hope: the softest clouds moving

Back and forth in the air. Shoot up! Come

Down. Birds chirping tweet! Tweet! Singing

A little tune. Crunch! Oops, stepped on a

Cookie. A doe nesting its baby and that’s

Called hope! A butterfly nesting and sipping

The sweetest nectar. Cats on the prowl

Hunting for food: Hope.

Amee L.

LOVE LISTENS -- Sherman Week Four

2007-02-14T15:54:00.000-08:00

So, Valentines Day. Just me, Jioni, and Antione again today. Halfway through the workshop, Jioni announced that his favorite word is "yesterday." He apparently calls Antione "tomorrow," so by default, they call me "today." For Valentine's Day, I decided that we would write love poems and eat pink cupcakes. First, they wrote their own poems and then we made a group poem imagining love as a person that walk in the room. What do we notice? What is up with Love?

INFINITE LOVE

Love walks in the room
wearing a a whole dress
made of flowers.
Love has a cool walk,
like it's sick: left foot
then right foot, then
left foot, then right.

Love dances like it
"walks it out."

Inside Love's pockets
you'll find 200 dollars
all sweet things
suckers and candy
you can even find
tomorrow or yesterday
in there.

Love listens for babies crying
tearing paper, splashing water
chairs sliding off the desk
and onto the floor, clocks ticking.

Love listens for crying people
Love listens to make wrong things
turn right. It spells wrong "r.i.g.h.t."

Love lives in heaven
in the sky
within us

in a black, green, and red house
with white walls, and purple chairs
and blue carpeting everywhere.

Love's house is full of furniture.
It is made of red brick hearts.

We know Love's biggest secret
But we can't tell you.

Jione and Antione

WHEN I WAS BORN -- Sherman Week Two

2007-02-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

SHIVERING GREEN GRASS I AM -- Sherman Week One

2007-02-13T08:54:00.000-08:00

On my first day at Sherman, I was introduced to Antione, the only child to sign up for after school poetry workshops. On his little red notebook he wrote, Antione and looked at me, waiting for direction. With one student I had to think twice about how to spend the next hour and a half. I'm used to huge groups of children where there's barely enough time to read a single poem let alone hear everyone's voice. But here I was with Antione in the upstairs classroom on the 3rd floor, sitting at a little cluster of tables. I usually hate doing the "I am" kind of thing, but I decided to try it with Antione, hoping I'd get a chance to see where he took this and also use it as a chance to talk about imaginative thinking, metaphor joy, and the use of alliteration and sensory details. So that's what I asked of him -- to finish the idea of I am any way he wanted -- the only catch was to speak absolutely from the heart. I also coached him to created a chain of ideas linked by becoming the one thing mentioned in the line that came before it. He nodded earnestly. And here's what he wrote:

I am a heart beating
like a drum, I am the
rain falling from the sky,
I am the sky filled
with clouds, I am the
clouds floating over
my head, I am a head
filled with thoughts, I am
thoughts that come out
and be a part of my life,
I am a blue book falling
onto a purple carpet,
I am the purple carpet
lying on the brown and white
ground. I am the ground
being stepped on by adults
and kids, I am a child walking
through a field of green grass,
I am the green grass
shivering in the
wind. I am a roaring
rocket blasting off
into the atmosphere.
I am a piece of paper
flowing through the
wind.

Antione

AN AFTERNOON OF IMPOSSIBLE -- Sherman Week Three

2007-02-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday afternoons, I drive to 51st and Morgan to hang out with two amazing 4th grade boys, Jioni and Antoine. We write together for an hour and a half on a little red carpet by the windows. By four the sunlight streaks our faces in strips of gold. Yesterday afternoon, I asked them to make a list of impossible things. I got this idea from writing mentor David Schein. What's an impossible thing? Jioni says, "something that's UN-believable." We made this list and then we each chose our favorite two and wrote them on little pieces of paper. Next, each of us chose a mystery impossibility and had to speak on that idea for two minutes each. We had to pretend that this thing was actually a possibility and that we had experienced it. We talked about what it felt like, what we smelled, saw, heard, and experienced. Then we each had to write a poem just about that single idea. Here are their poems:

I climb a ladder
all the way
to heaven
and I heard
babies crying and
God was cooking
cookies and I smelled
soap, God was cleaning,
and God was
having a party and
a mom was melting
chocolate on her
baby.

-- Jioni

I smelled lots of flowers
When I was a bird
I heard other birds singing
When I was a bird
I felt the love
from my parents
When I was a bird
The bird flies
in the school and
sees this crazy party
When I was a bird.

-- Antoinne

THE ALGEBRA OF AWARENESS: COMING OF AGE IN THE AGE OF AIDS

2007-02-07T10:09:00.000-08:00

What does it mean to "come of age"? What are the rituals, fears, and questions we have to mark the changes we experience in life? And what does it mean to come of age during one of the worst global health crises -- AIDS? At Crown Academy, I'm working with Mathematics teacher extraordinairre, Luke Albrecht, to develop a ten week unit that explores these ideas with 7th and 8th graders. We're using THEMBI'S AIDS DIARY (www.radiodiaries.org) to explore the stories behind the statistics. We're exploring the metaphors and functions of algebra to help us more deeply understand the significance of AIDS and HIV. Our first day was all about conversations related to "growing up." Students held silent conversations by writing to each other on large sheets of paper in groups. They asked each other questions and started to dig for the big ideas behind "coming of age."

THE POETICS OF TIME

2007-02-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

It's true, Time is everything. Forget God. My teaching artist friend Leah and I have discovered that all things lead back to time, and everything we think about is hinged on our understandings of time, or our lack of understanding. So we developed an entire unit of study based on how people across disciplines describe and experience time. From Einstein to Dylan Thomas, Ben Franklin to Roethke, students explored the poetics of time and found ways to express how time is experienced in their own lives.

BROOK'S HORSES

2006-01-31T16:13:00.000-08:00

RECIPROCAL OF YOU

2006-01-30T06:22:00.000-08:00

Here's another poem by a 6th grade Ripley student named Summer. Neither she nor Jacob knew that the other was writing about "blank space." I guess when you think of numbers, infinity, meaning, and god are just around the corner. I asked the class to make a list of words they'd studied in their math class earlier that morning and develop a poem using at least three of those words. Summer wrote:

RECIPROCAL OF YOU

If you simplify a blank space

then sum it up

break it down and

subtract it
from you, What would

you get?

Would you get
the reciprocal of who you

are?

Summer, 6th grade
Ripley, NY

MIXED NUMBERS LOST IN BLANK WORLDS

2006-01-28T09:31:00.001-08:00

I scribbled these words on Jacob's paper:

jacob,
you're a future
poet of the
world -- never
stop writing!!!!

love,
amanda

Minutes later, Jacob stood next to me, his rosy moon face looking up at me behind his round glasses, and said in a low voice (leaning in): you WROTE that i'd be a poet someday. Yeah, I know, I replied. I really think it's in you Jacob. You see the world through poetry. What do you think about that? He just nodded his head and walked proudly to his desk.

Jacob's an interesting kid -- His mind swirls with thoughts of infinity and minutia. I tell Matt, my guide this week, how much I'm loving Jacob and he goes, I knew you would. This kid -- his dad, well, he's what you call a "redneck," -- doesn't know quite what to do with a son like Jacob.

With no prompting whatsoever (just a conversation on math and numbers) here's what Jacob wrote: (mind you, after worrying that he wasn' sure he'd ever even SEEN a poem before!)

mixed numbers they're
mysterious -- just sitting alone ---
no one there ---
in a white world --- just staring into a white
space --- you hear your voice echoing and multiplying
voices in your head --- and dividing and dividing and dividing
and divided forever ---
nothing ever changes --- just a plane world

but never seen again as you walk
into the white, plane world

-- jacob, 6th grade

ripley community school
ripley, ny

RIPLEY WRITES

2006-01-27T15:54:00.000-08:00

hello loves,

i'm writing to you from jamestown, the birthplace of lucille ball. here's where i am for a week, teaching poetry through the RIPLEY WRITES project of the chataqua arts council (thanks to david schein). at the moment, i'm all tucked into my electric blanket.

every morning, i get up before seven when it's still dark and wind my way through "amish country" to a town an hour away in Ripley, NY. i pass horse and buggie signs. i pass signs with symbols for cows and grapes. david says we're in wine country and i follow the chataqua wine trail for most of my drive. the most startling view is chataqua lake shimmering and icy, surrounded by torquoise and white old houses.

ripley is a hushed, rusty town with empty store fronts displaying "for rent" signs. several victorian style farm houses stand stiff and abandoned along the winding roads. on the main street, there's a seedy bar on the corner with grainy siding and around the corner from the school, a famous place called "meeders" where a woman bakes 15 different kinds of pie everyday. i had strawberry rhubarb and fresh apple. yum. i hear lots of people fill up this restaurant for fish fries on the weekends, men in plaid and ladies in sweatsuits boasting penn and fredonia state emblems. my guide, matt, tells me that all of the farms have died, leaving people in search of work in erie factories.

america's farming past seems ghostlike in a way. collapsed barns as shy objects standing still on the horizon. i have no idea what it means to grow up in a farming culture and then see it fall apart because of a shift in consumer trends and mass corporate farming schemes. i try to imagine my students' lives in a world where wrestling, hunting, curing one's own beef jerky, and yes, shopping frequently at wal-mart, are all part of the scene.

so, here i am with ripley fifth graders. j, a tall, lanky kid with dirt beneath his long finger nails, tells me he wants to be a poet, wants to get his feelings out, has to take ridilin but feels like when he writes poetry, a silence comes over him and he can write. he tells me he wants to trade his sister in for me. today he rushed over and handed me a whole notebook of poetry he'd written the night before. they were all about heros who saved people from drowning in lakes.

a tells me she wants me to be her mom because her real mom hates her. but she has a "teenager" friend named christine in the next town over who has a baby and christine is a good friend to her. i had to secretly pass along angelica's suicidal poem to her teacher, because i'm worried, and i'm only a guest, and i can tell she's been neglected. she's desperate for secrets. she's desperate for love.

veronica writes these wild playful language poems that make me laugh. later she tells me she has a major crush on steven, a boy with a crew cut and a little mole on his cheek. she boasts that she has a rich dad who knows hugh hefner. really? i ask her teacher later, who shakes her head. no -- veronica has a dad in her life, but he's not rich. she has lots of stories.

alice tells me she can relate to acute angles because they're small like her, and hardly noticeable.

in the afternoon, we turned off all the lights and learned to bend beams of light.

then we wrote about it -- about bending beams of light.

i'm having a marvelous time here, listening to what's going on inside. watching what's happening outside. trying to notice, to feel.

tomorrow i'm going to ask 6th graders about the personalities of numbers. is 7 a man or a woman? bob and i have had intriguing debates about this, i can't wait to hear what they think. i think i've had debates about this with several of you. tell me, is 3 a girl or a boy, bossy or scared? i love thinking about this.

it's amazing to remember all the layers of living we do, to remember that everywhere at any given moment, in any given town, there are whole universes spinning in the minds of every person, every child, whole worlds of thought and structure and wonder.

i love you all, spinning.

see you (some of you) saturday when i fly back to chicago and leave my slicked out silver rental car behind.