educator

during my years of educating, i have taught both standard and personally crafted curricula, including introductory poetry/spoken word workshops, summer-length courses about one’s community in relation to their written artistry, and individual workshops expanding on specific writing skills. if you are interested in having one of these courses/workshops taught at your organization/school, please choose from the following and check my contact page for instructions on reaching out to me:

1. Liberation Poetry and Publishing (High School, 5-weeks of 1-2 hour lessons a day): This 5-week course is designed to use poetry (and/or music writing) as an art form that pushes us towards liberation. Liberation is the freedom to express yourself without anything blocking you, and poetry is about using imagination to explore what it means to live as people and express how we feel in interesting ways; so, in this class, exploring and expressing is exactly what we will do. Writers will be introduced to poets (including music writers) of color that all speak about ways they are seeking to free their minds, bodies, and spirits. Writers will also explore the literary arts and landscape the state they are in (previously Durham/Raleigh, North Carolina, but is transferrable to other states/cities/towns), visiting many hotspots that have shaped artists of the past and present as well as meet guest speakers who are writers, music artists, and publishers in the surrounding area. Lastly, students will collectively create a literary journal co-curated by myself and their peers in order to see their works in their final forms, performing one or more of these pieces at a final class slam. Here’s a more in-depth rationale. 
2. Slam Poetry 101 (6th Grade – College, 2-3 hours): This is an introductory course designed to introduce curious, beginner, and/or intermediate  writers to the art of slam/performance poetry. By the end of this workshops, writers will be able to define poetry and slam poetry, identify the key parts of a poem, analyze a group of performed poems, and create their own piece followed by a personal workshop with me and a class presentation. 
3. Spoken Word Poetry: Amanda Gorman and Beyond (6th Grade – 8th Grade ELA, 1-2 hours): Using Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” and its historical significance in the world of poetry and Black pride as context, this workshop is designed to introduce younger writers (i.e. middle school) to the art form  of spoken word (used interchangeably with “slam poetry”) and its success in creating change. By the end of this workshop, students will be able to define spoken word, group and/or individually analyze a poem through a three-part model for poetry, and create their own “ekphrastic poem” (a poem based on a piece of art/image). 
4. The Power In Brevity: “morning haiku” by Sonia Sanchez (11th Grade – College English, 1-2 hours): This workshop is designed to offer intermediate and advanced writers an opportunity to, through the works of Sonia Sanchez in her book “morning haiku,” analyze and begin to hone/continue honing the skill of brevity. Many writers–myself included–struggle to state their persuasive and/or artistic claim in few words. By the end of this workshop, writers will have been offered the opportunity to explore Sonia Sanchez and her work in the context of the American Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements, use short-form poetry (like haiku) to convey a powerful message and tell gripping stories, and discover forms and natural ways of writing that are shorter, yet evocative and strange in nature. 
5. Hip-Hop as Cultural & Historical Literature: Creating Literature for the People (1-2 hours, 9th grade – College English): This workshop is designed to introduce the history, craft and culture of hip-hop to writers and readers who are interested in the genre and/or culture. By the end of this workshop, students will have had the opportunity to define hip-hop and explore its culture, analyze popular lyrics from songs within the genre as a way of understanding the culture, engage in small group and whole-class conversation about hip-hop as literature, and craft their own verse to express themselves in this art form.