New Poems, Old Poems, and a Clip from 101 Years Ago
Sculpture and wall piece from the north end of Saginaw St., downtown Pontiac.
Yesterday's Print shares old newspaper clippings that parallel current events. This one comes from Oakland Tribute, 101 years ago. It goes out to everyone in education today who, like me, has found themselves trying to do well in a situation they don't exactly feel like they signed up for.
A poem by Wendell Berry about staying at home:
One poem I could not love any more if I tried is jessica Care moore's "We Want Our Bodies Back." I first heard her perform it at a small event some friends put together at the now defunct Lyrics on Vinyl in Pontiac. The poem is now the title of her new collection published last month by Harper Collins. As promo for the book, her poem "Mixed" recently appeared in Electric Lit. I love these lines that come about halfway through the poem.
I’ve worn these scars ’cross my face
My entire life and when you asked how i got
Them, I said
“An angel touched me.”
Available in Urban Education this week is an academic article on the aging of hip-hop educators. I co-authored it with Dr. Jason Rawls bka J Rawls, the hip-hop artists/producer. I'm getting more and more ambivalent about the "empirical study" as a genre of writing. But one thing we were able to accomplish within the genre constraints was making a quick argument about the lineage of work outside the field of education and outside academe. It's a point that isn't made enough in education scholarship on hip-hop. Here is how we tried to make it without getting too far off track:
Critical analysis of hip-hop began in the early 1980s in popular outlets like the Village Voice through the writing of music and culture journalists. As hip-hop culture expanded throughout and beyond New York City, so did the writing, analysis, and venues for publication. By the late 1980s, major media corporations supported magazines that focused primarily on hip-hop music and culture, such as The Source, Word Up!, and others.
Moving much slower than popular magazines, early scholarship on hip-hop culture followed in the 1990s. This work first appeared in what could be considered Black cultural studies and popular culture fields and then later expanded into more long-standing fields such as communications, music criticism, and education.
Status Board
Reading: Still making my way through Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer -- for the moment, my Netflix alternative while spending so much time in the house during Stay Home season.
Writing: Lots of little stuff, including a course description for next year. It'll be my first time teaching this course. I'm hype.
This readings course engages students in experiencing, discussing, and thinking critically about adolescent and young adult literature and the teaching of this genre. We will read narrative, graphic, and poetic works within this genre. Hip-hop, time travel, zombies, and magical murals will be in the mix as young protagonists fight white supremacy, cross borders, and remake the world into a shape that has room for them. Films and current television series will also make appearances in this courses, as will some readings on adolescents and the teaching of this genre in schools. This course asks you to think not only as a student but also as an educator and ally to young people. Reading load: Approximately 1 book/week.
Listening: Greg Foat's The Dreaming Jewels jazz album from 2019 on the always strong Athens of the North label. I can write to this album, chill to this album, garden to this album, and so on.