Category: Session Follow-Up Posts

Writers,

Good work tackling the sestina today. Many students have found this work fun when viewed as a word challenge and there are many inspiring sestinas out there. I’ll list follow-up links here and the Discussion Board link at the end of this post:

Understanding the Sestina Form:

• The How to Write a Sestina Sestina shown in today’s session
• Description of the Sestina on our OpenLab site
• Examples of sestinas on our OpenLab site, including two by Raych Jackson who we saw perform today in class
• Two sestina examples from last semester students in this class
• Remember: the sestina is 39 lines long. There are six stanzas of six lines each ending with a “telethon” and then a three line “envoi.”

The discussion board is here: Session 6: Writing the Sestina

For the discussion board, you only have to write the first two six line stanzas.

If you have questions: jsears@citytech.cuny.edu 

Writers,
As we discussed in class, spoken word is a lot about community and connection and I hope you felt both as we listened to and  spoken words today.There is no discussion board as you spoke your ideas out loud to your peers. However, as we are beginning a discussion of the poetic form called the sestina in class on Tuesday, please read two or three of these sestinas before we meet on Tuesday:

• A sestina about waiting for the subway in New York
• A sestina by a nine-year-old
• Sestina for a black girl who does not know how to braid hair by Raych Jackson

Links to the spoken word poems discussed in today’s class are here:

• Ariana Brown: Dear White Girls in My Spanish Class
• Staceyann Chin: If Only Out of Vanity
• Mohamed Hassan-(un)LEARNING MY NAME
• Sarah Kay: If I Should Have Daughter
• Willie Perdomo Video: How Beautiful We Really Are

Write on everyone!

Writers,

Please remember to post the poems you wrote in today’s class on our discussion board HERE: Session 4: Breaking the Line. Use the instructions provided in class to create short free verse with line breaks. Remember that free verse is about sound, rhythm, and the feeling of improv. Have fun! We turned two sentences into poems in class. You can write more if you want but stay on the topic provided in class.

We reviewed work by:

• Perdomo, Willie. How Beautiful We Really Are (video)
• Olivarez, José.  Getting Ready to Tell My Dad ‘I Love You,’ It Rains.
• Williams, William Carlos. This Is Just to Say

We also discussed line breaks, free verse, and similes.

Write on and remember to post!

Writers,
Thanks for writing and reading your words in today’s class. Before I see you on Thursday, please (1.) post on our  discussion board (instructions below) and (2.) read two poems.

Homework

 1. Post your free write on the Discussion Board: Writer’s Notebook Entry 1. The instructions (which were also given in class): respond to one of the Writer’s Notebook Prompts on the prompts for Journaling on our OpenLab site. You can post what you wrote in class or write a new response.

1. • The discussion board: Discussion Board: Writer’s Notebook Entry 1
   • The two sheets with journaling prompts to choose from are HERE and HERE (from class) Respond to only one prompt.
   • Respond to the person who posted before you.

2. Read the following in preparation for our class on poetry on Thursday:

• • • Billy Collins Introduction to Poetry
    • Soldier, Layli Long. Obligations 2
    • This poem is optional: Amanda Gorman  The Hill We Climb (video and text)

• That’s it for homework. Below are links to resources used in today’s discussion. These are not assignments, just links for further reading:
• Jalal al-Din Rumi, “Don’t Go Back to Sleep”
• What is a Writer’s Notebook? Three Sources
• Baldwin, James. Paris Review Interview: No. 78
• Butler, Octavia. “Furor Scribendi”
• Didion, Joan. “On Keeping a  Notebook”

Write on! Email with questions: jsears@citytech.cuny.edu

It was wonderful meeting everyone today in person! 

Please post your free write on our discussion board before our next class. The link to the discussion board is here: Who are You, Writer? You can edit your writing before you post if you wish, or just post. Remember, you have to be logged into the OpenLab to post.

Resources used in today’s discussion:

• Ta-Nehisi Coates’ video On Creative Breakthroughs
• Joan Didion’s essay about “shimmering memories”: “Why I Write”
• Alyssa Lukats story about the determined 8 year old writer featured in today’s New York Times: “An 8-Year-Old Wrote a Book and Hid it on the Library Shelf. It’s a Hit.”

Remember, finding the creative spark means: we take risks and learn to keep trying to “grow new muscles” and realize potential we didn’t know we had (Ta-Nehisi Coates); trusting and recording those memories that “shimmer” in our memory and writing to find out what we want to say (Joan Didion); we often have creative impulses as children–creativity is “natural” but we get in our own way by deciding the creative impulse is impractical or has no future for us (Lukats).

Write on! Email if you have questions: jsears@citytech.cuny.edu