April is National Poetry Month! I’m celebrating National Poetry Month in my classroom with a Poem of the Day. Each day I’m sharing the poems my students and I read, along with prompts, resources, and reflection.
Today is the first installation of Spoken Word Wednesday for Poem of the Day with Masaki Takahashi’s “Butcher My Name.” Students and I watched two versions of the poem being performed. The first one was in a local TV studio and the second was live at a poetry performance at the Poetry Room in Lansing, MI.
On the Google Doc that students were given, they could respond to one of the following prompts:
- What do you think of the poem? Why?
- Which version did you prefer? Why?
- Should Spoken Word Wednesday be a thing? Why or why not?
I was recently introduced to Masaki Takahashi’s work through a youth writing workshop that took place at the same time as the Michigan Council of Teachers of English Think Spring Conference in Flint, MI. Takahashi was the workshop clinician who worked with around 10 students throughout the day on poetry. He then led them in a performance at the end of the workshop and conference for attendees and families. It was remarkable to see the students and Takahashi perform.
Takahashi is currently Lansing’s Poet Laureate. According to the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) website is “promoting poetry as an art form, expanding access to the literary arts, connecting the community to poetry, and showing poetry as a literary voice.”
Before watching both performances of “Butcher My Name”, I shared with my students that Takahashi graduated from the same high school that they are attending. I said that he walked the same halls, sat in the same rooms, and may have even had the same teachers (not me though).