Poetry, Peace, Young People, & a 12-Hour Day of Love (with thanks to @AcevedoWrites)

I knew Monday, when I traveled to NYC to meet up with friends from Japan, that I wanted to - I NEEDED TO - include The Poet X, a novel written by Elizabeth Acevedo, in the Writing Our Lives poetry workshop scheduled with 8th grade youth this week - middle school students working in partnership with an undergraduate course on the teaching of writing.

I've conducted dozens and dozens of writing workshops for middle and high school youth in the past and I always look forward to the next best thing - another voice to the magic of working with young people as they raise their voice, tap their passions, and explore the beauty (and mystery) of poetry.

On the Metro, heading to the Apple, I finally found the time to read Acevedo's poetic novel and, from the cover, I first expected more of a romance novel than what she actually delivered. The Poet X is so much more than a love story about a young woman's teenage relationship. It is more the tale of her love of language that is tightly wrapped in 357 pages of beautifully crafted verse.  It is stellar writing and tells the story of Xiomara Batista, her respect for a mother with strict rules, her dedication to a twin brother (who has his own struggle), and how words can be a salvation to help her process her complicated world. Poetry becomes Xiomara's religion and readers are brought to the church of her mind. It isn't the piousness of Xiomara's mom that triumphs, but faith faith - HOPE - for the power of words crafted in notebooks.

In short, The Poet X is beautiful.

When I was contacted by a math teacher and her ELA partner about bringing 8th graders my way, I first asked for the vocabulary they were teaching in math. They told me they were studying factors and I used this to tell the kids, "Today, we are going to solve for 'X'. Yet, in Crandall's universe, X=Language, and the more words we play with, the better the poetry we'll create."

Ideas (X) + Arguments (X) + Passion (X)
    Time (X) + Practice (X) + Play (X)

 = what middle school youth should be able to do.

X, of course, is language (and the words they use). If they can build their ideas, arguments and passion with language, and divide that by how much time, practice and play they have with language, then they will find poetic success. That is a poet's way.

We used models of poetry from Acevedo's The Poet X (and the kids lined up asking, "Mr., Can you get me a copy of that book?), as well as Jason Reynold's Long Way Down, Kwame Alexander's The Crossover, and Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess's Solo. In summary, they provided at least 6 styles of poems kids might write, and then I threw in a few others from my own teaching days.

The rest of the workshop was about building language: using rhyme, alliteration, synonyms, the senses, voice, and playfulness.

BOOM. Then they wrote!

Later that night, I was thrilled to take part in Fairfield University's Annual Poetry For Peace celebration where K-8 awardees were honored (and chosen) from thousands of entries. It is National Poetry Month and Fairfield University and the Connecticut Writing Project-Fairfield kicked it off with style. At each grade level, young people submitted their best prose to explain what Peace meant to them. The older they got, the more complex the poetry and emotions became. My colleague Carol Ann Davis, with the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Boquet and incredible colleagues from the College of Arts and Sciences made the award ceremony possible. It was absolutely awe-inspiring.

Peace, to me, is simply expressing one's self poetically, rhythmically, symbolically, and hypnotically. My day started with Elizabeth Acevedo's brilliance (so glad to know her writing now) and ended with the excellence of Connecticut young people sharing their worlds through words.

Ubuntu! I couldn't be a happier man.