As a reminder, the Revolutionary Poets Society focuses on global opportunities to respond to the demands of the moment through poetry, music and art. We focus on the development of vocabulary and a set of critical, literacy, and performance approaches to help enable engagement with slam poems and spoken-word poems on aesthetic terms.
The current syllabus for this class is available here. I’m using this website to serve as my learning management system and share all materials. I hope you’ll join us over the coming weeks as we think, discuss, and write.
We’ll use the hashtag #RevolutionaryPoets to organize all materials across social media (mostly Twitter). I’ll encourage my students to share materials and follow along on the discussion there. Please join us.
In our first make, we started with where I begin. Now…let’s get to the second make! 🙂
Consider
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. — Marcus Garvey
Culture can have multiple definitions and layers.
Culture can include the following contexts: national, ethnic, familial, academic, vocational, avocational, religious, communal.
Read Where I’m From, a poem by George Ella Lyon. You can watch a dramatic reading of this below.
As you read Lyon’s words, consider your own culture and where you’ve been. How are these people, values, practices, and places a part of you?
As you consider culture, be aware of the larger role of labels and perspectives sometimes embedded in societal narratives.
Your response
Write a poem that expresses your culture, or where you’re from.
You might also choose to share an image (or mixture of images) of your culture. Write about how your culture and perhaps your interpretation of culture itself.
Remember that no one knows you like you know yourself. You are the expert on you. Trust your perspectives.
Connect
As you consider what you’d like to share, take a look at these videos inspired by the Lyon poem.
Mentions