Week 1: Literary Arts
POETRY AND STORYTELLING
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You've probably heard of crowdsourcing with companies like Waze, Lego, or Lays potato chips, "Do Us a Flavour" campaign, but Kwame Alexander, NPR's poet in residence, just crowdsourced a poem!
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The Moth Presents Alfonso Lacayo's story, "The Bad Haircut." Lacayo studied theater in the Bronx and has been participating in The Moth since 2013.
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Check out this Slam Poem by Mike, a teenaged boy who performed in The Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival.
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Watch educator, keynote speaker and spoken word poet Christian Paige perform an original piece created for StriveTogether at the 2018 Cradle to Career Network Convening.
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Watch Jovan Mays, an Aurora Native and Smoky Hill High School Graduate, share story and poetry at TedX Mile High. Jovan is the former Poet Laureate of Aurora, a National Poetry Slam Champion, and Director of Your Writing Counts.
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YA AUTHORS
YOU SHOULD KNOW
YOU SHOULD KNOW
“You can't run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be.” -Jason Reynolds
"I look at books as being a form of activism because a lot of times they'll show us a side of the world that we may not have known about." -Angie Thomas
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I want a little black girl to pick up my book one day and see herself as the star." - Tomi Adeyemi
"You ever consider that maybe you not supposed to 'fit'? People who make history rarely do." - Nic Stone
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Image by, Sɨℓνεя Sɦɨɳe
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CLASSICS
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California Newsreel presents primary footage of interviews and readings with James Baldwin (1947 - 1987), celebrated American playwright, novelist, poet, and activist. ASk your school librarian - we have books by James Baldwin!
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Listen to Octavia Butler (1947 - 2006) discuss how she first started writing in the fantasy genre.
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"Maya Angelou had a broad career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood’s first female black director, but became most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet” (Poetry Foundation). Above, see Maya introduce and share one of her most famous and inspiring poems, “Still I Rise.”
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Langston Hughes was a poet and playwright who made great contributions to the Harlem Renaissance, a movement in 1920s America that celebrated black culture, including literature, art, music, and more.
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Check these books out at your school library!
Books by Jason Reynolds
Books by Angie Thomas
Books by Tomi Adeyemi
Books by Nic Stone
Books by Ibi Zoboi
Books by Maya Angelou
Books by Langston Hughes
Books by Tiffany D. Jackson
Have a suggestion of another author/poet/literary artist you’d like us to add, email us!
Books by Jason Reynolds
Books by Angie Thomas
Books by Tomi Adeyemi
Books by Nic Stone
Books by Ibi Zoboi
Books by Maya Angelou
Books by Langston Hughes
Books by Tiffany D. Jackson
Have a suggestion of another author/poet/literary artist you’d like us to add, email us!
“If there’s a book that you want to read,
but it hasn’t been written yet,
then you must write it.”
but it hasn’t been written yet,
then you must write it.”
-Toni Morrison (African-American novelist and professor)