There is some intense poetry writing happening this month in Eastern North Carolina. Select groups of students are participating in the Teach for America Poet Warriors project.
Poet Warriors was launched by a Teach for America corps member in Mississippi in 2012. This year 2,500 students in 20 regions nationwide are participating. Here in North Carolina, the project is centered in Charlotte and Eastern NC. Students are exploring poetry, writing with freedom while learning specific techniques. They are studying poets like Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Carl Sandburg and Zora Howard.
http://youtu.be/8v-ChtTiv80
Here are two poems written by students in Eastern North Carolina.
Walking Into Trouble
by Khalya Evans
My new friend and I were always joking,
Nothing seemed to leave him jolting,
But then one day we walked to the park,
Just to joke and not to play,
As many killings happened here,
This was not a safe park,
My mom told me “Don’t go! Don’t go!”,
But I ignored all her warnings,
And still went,
All because my cool new friend.
When we arrived there was a large group of bullies,
Which my friend planned to annoy,
We just kept walking,
Strain in every step,
My heart slammed against my chest,
BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,
Soon I was standing in front of one,
Looking up from different sizes,
My friend insulted all the bullies,
I knew I should have listened to my mom,
And turned around when I had the chance,
Because soon I had a cherry red bloody nose,
And my friend,
A black eye.
Stuck Between Colors
by Ken’Yonna Taylor
you say this is your time
theirs a fine line
between your time and my time
this is our time
you see me as black
and you think i see you as white
but i only see you as a person
that i no longer want to fight
we live in a world
where there used to be colored
but now its black and white
listening to the stories
it all seemed like a big fright
unlike some people who ran away
i will stay
i will fight fight for my rights
to be black in this crazy world
youre stuck between color lines
some people think im color blind
but im not
i just don judge people
by what color they are
i only accept people for who they are
