Slam Poetry

[Mary Ann Harlan]

This is a promotion of a sort. And in the spirit of the students who invited me to listen, and record, I am going to lay myself a little bare in explaining why all of this mattered.
I am burned out. I spend my days not sure whether to cry or rage. I am frustrated with entitled students who either a) don't want to learn or b) don't want to think. I know it seems like the same thing but in this era of testing they can consume information without thinking, and feel as if they are learning. I am frustrated beating my head against the same brick wall of staff members that I have for the last 8 years. They will not consider changing, no matter what the suggestion made by who, the thinking goes "we are a good school, we are doing it right, why should we consider doing anything different." I am ready to throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to technology so irritated am I by what I cannot do for no established reason, and by the mere fact that the systems in place DO NOT WORK! I am limited in my opportunities. I need a new challenge, something to bring the passion back to what it is I do - because once, once I LOVED this job. And really I still do - but I am burned out right now.
So I have a deal with my spouse - he does not ask me how my day went, and I will not tell him. 2 weeks ago I came home totally hyped up. I had what was one of the best student and teacher experiences that I had in say, 5 years. I was invited (well, really I invited myself) to sit in on a "modified" poetry slam, a reading for AAI (our school within a school Arts Institute.) I recorded the poems and promised to post them online - which I have done in a wiki which is a work in progress. I was blown away by their performances, the interest in the room, and the commitment that the students made to this assignment. Today I recorded another set of performances that I will post to the wiki over Winter break.
Meanwhile they have continued to impress me. On their own several students attended a local slam. They have viewed the wiki, and discussed whether to post their names, should it be promoted, if posting the text of their poetry will change the nature of the reading, and stunningly they asked how to protect their intellectual property. We agreed on a Creative Commons license. They are excited about their poetry, and their performances were funny, challenging, personal, sad, uplifting, and really just fun.
I invite people to come listen...... but this is not PG stuff, it is not "school approriate" necessarily (not hosted on our school website for that reason). They were dealing with controversial issues, and like any good library there is something to offend everyone so we aren't really promoting this - but I do have their permission to invite you.
And I thank them for being honest, for allowing me to have a little faith in our students, to open a door for true collaboration with their teachers, to helping me introduce something a little new and different to teachers, to embracing technology - that does work (no tech guy). And I thank them for reminding me that I love words, the rhythm of a spoken poem, the bareness of teens speaking their thoughts without the umms and uhhs, and likes. My favorite by the way is Love/Hate.

And soon I will be posting another promotion - about the arts institute's new book - which they self published through Lulu - which is also a very cool project.

[guybrarian]

Wow- how very fun. I'm going to enjoy looking at your WIKI. We do monthly poetry slams in my library and I too find them very impactful. Thanks for writing!