BLACK OUT POETRY AND CARVED NOVELS

Texts emerge from other texts.

We have already considered how we use mentor texts or model texts to help us think about how to express our own ideas.  (see previous post—Mentor Texts: Learning to Writing from What We Read.)

We can borrow ideas or topics to bring to our own writing as in my poem,What I Read First.

Or we can borrow a complete structure, as in my poem, Thirteen Ways of Looking at Leaving School.

It may be one line that inspires us. I have seen lots of writing prompts that encourage us to start with one line --from either someone else’s or our own poem--   to create an entirely new poem or other form.

Blackout Poetry is unique way of creating poetry from  existing text.

I was first introduced to this addicting process by M.K. Asante  when he visited our CAWP Summer Writing Institute in 2010.

Using a newspaper or other existing text and a magic marker, you deliberately select individual words and eliminate others. 

The remaining words emerge as a new and original text.  

You destroy, deconstruct and eliminate writing to construct, find, and create new writing.

Poet and cartoonist, Austin Kleon discovered this process during a time of  personal frustration with his failed attempts at writing short stories.  He describes his process in the preface to his book, Newspaper Blackout . 

Kleon gives instructions for creating your own blackout poetry in this video:

A similarly unique process is used by Jonathan Safran Foer to create the novel, Tree of Codes.

He carved out a text –literally cutting out chunks of the pages of an existing novel, The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz—to create his entirely new novel, Treeof Codes--   and created also  a multi-layered, complex reading experience. 

Click here to find out more about Jonathan Safran Foer and also view three related videos---one recording people’s reaction upon first seeing the book,  a second in which the author explains his intent and process, and  a third that shows the actual mechanical process of creating the books.

Black out, carve up, cut up, deconstruct, destroy, eliminate.

Maintain, retain, construct, find, create.

New texts emerge.

Below is my own black out poem, created from this blog post.

Texts emerge from other texts.

We have already considered how we can use mentor texts or model texts to help us think about how to express our own ideas.  (see previous post—Mentor Texts-)

We can borrow ideas or topics to bring to our own writing as in my poem, First Reader .

Or we can borrow a complete structure, as in my poem, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Poem 

It may be one line that inspires us. I have seen lots of writing prompts that encourage us to start with one line from another poem (either someone else’s or our own) as a first line for our writing  to create an entirely new poem or other form.

Blackout Poetry is unique way creating poetry from existing text.

I was first introduced to this addicting process by M.K. Asante  when he visited our CAWP Summer Writing Institute in 2010.

Using a newspaper or other existing text and a magic marker, you deliberately select words individual words and eliminate others. The remaining words emerge as a new and original text.   

You destroy, deconstruct and eliminate writing to construct, find, and create new writing.

Poet and cartoonist, Austin Kleon discovered this process during a time of personal frustration with  his failed attempts  with writing short stories.  He describes this process in the preface to his book, Newspaper Blackout .  More information about the book and process can be found on this blog.—HERE

Kleon gives instructions for creating your own blackout poetry in this video:

 A similarly unique process is used by Jonathan Safran Foer to create the novel, Tree of Codes

He carved out a text –literally cutting out chunks of an existing novel, The Street of Crocodiles—to create his entirely new novel, Tree of Codes , and a multi-layered, complex reading experience. 

Click here to find out more about the  Jonathan Safran Foer and also view three related videos---one recording people’s reaction upon first seeing the book, one in which the author explains his intent and process, and one that shows the actual mechanical process of creating the books.

 Black out, carve up, cut up, deconstruct, destroy, eliminate.

Maintain, retain, construct, find, create.

New texts emerge.

Below is my own black out poem, created from the blog post above.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibility

Select a section of the newspaper or  another existing texts.  

Using a magic marker, eliminate words, allowing a new text to emerge.

How did you decide which words to eliminate? Did you notice any patterns in the words selected? in your process?

How is the new text related to the original text? 

Did you create something you want to share?  Visit the companion site to the book, Newspaper Blackout and share your work:  http://newspaperblackout.com/

BUILDING STORIES

We have all driven by a house in which the lights are on,  the curtains open, and a blur of activity  visible from the street as we walk or drive by in our cars.  

        

We wonder who lives in this house. 

What are they doing right now? 

Who used to live in this house? 

Where are those people now and what are they doing?

Are they alive or dead? 

We also may wonder about the buildings we pass as we walk through downtown, or a particular section of our city.  

We have all taken those tours when visiting a new place--out of town, state or country—in which the tour guide explains the history of a building, including construction information, tidbits about former owners or inhabitants, the social impact of the structure on the city, and whatever else  he thinks might catch our interest about the edifice.

Those given facts and pieces of lore may lead us to imagine the facts not told, the information not given. 

We imagine a story and a history for that place. We build stories.

ADULT ONLY WINDOW SHOPPING

Chris Ware’s remarkable graphic novel, Building Stories, allows us to do all of the above. He builds his novel by using a  “modular architecture” structure ( a software term that Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media borrows from the construction/architecture world, meaning the building of independent parts that can be put together in a variety of ways).  

This loose structure allows us to take long, leisurely peeks through the windows, and into the lives of the inhabitants of one apartment building, though several perspectives. 

Even the house itself participates in telling stories about the inhabitants.

Fourteen separate, books, posters, and other pieces make up this unique novel and allow us to construct the story in a variety of ways, depending on the sequence in which we read the “modules.” Shown to the right are just some of the component parts.

This uniquely designed novel allows us to enjoy that instinctive, looking-in-the-window behavior, from the comfort of our own homes.

One caution— Building Stories by Chris Ware (like a number of graphic novels) is, indeed, graphic, and not intended for children.

However, if you wanted to share the structure of the book as a model for writing, you could show the entire box, and then share judiciously selected parts of components.)

CHILD FRIENDLY WINDOW SHOPPING

While the book described above is not appropriate for children, there is a beautiful book, also entitled, Building Stories, by Isabel Hill, which allows children to  engage in  this same wondering  and imagining about the lives being lived and the work going on in specific buildings.

Black and white photographs highlighting unique features on each building are accompanied by brief rhyming verses.  Back matter includes facts and locations of each building.

What do you wonder as you walk by a house?

What stories do you create about the people inside?

Today’s Deeper Writing Possibility

What do you wonder as you walk by or drive by houses, or other buildings?

Write a fictional story about the inhabitants of a house in which you do not know the people.

Write a fictional or true narrative about the inhabitants of home in which you do know the inhabitants—it could be your own or a nearby home.

What is different about the process used to create these two pieces?

As you consider what commands your interest and attention, what do you learn about yourself?

I, TOO, AM AMERICA

There are seven days remaining in African American History Month.

During this month lots of good programs take place.  Special speakers are invited to be part of programs at churches (including my own), schools, and community centers.

Children are learning about their own heritage or the heritage of the child sitting in the desk next to them. Television and radio stations run Black History Moments, announcing interesting facts and dates. Art galleries run special exhibits. University cafeterias serve soul food dinners.  

Also during this month the media excavates every black film ever made, good bad or indifferent.

There are pros and cons to designating any amount of time to specially and specifically honor or celebrate anything. We can make the same pro and con arguments, for Valentine’s Day, for Mother’s Day, for Father’s Day and so on.  

It is not enough to limit our awareness, acknowledgement, exposure, interest, or teaching and learning to just one day, one week, one month.  

We should be integrating everybody’s  role in history everyday.  Just as we should be honoring our mothers or fathers or beloveds everyday.

In a class for Teacher Leadership in Digital Writing that I am taking with Troy Hicks and several teachers from the Columbus Area Writing Project, we had a similar discussion about  the recent Digital Learning Day. Again, digital learning should go on everyday.

AfricanAmerican History Month grew out of Negro History Week, initiated by Carter G. Woodson and first celebrated in 1925, the first week of February. African American experiences, roles and contributions were totally ignored in most classrooms at that time. In 1976, as we celebrated our country's bicentennial, this week became a month-long celebration.

While we can argue the benefits or limits to this month—it remains an opportunity and reminder to focus on people and events, still not always included in today’s classrooms.

One way to begin conversations that incorporate an African American focus or perspective in the classroom and community dialogues is through literature.  

There are many wonderful literature books, picture books, and history books and other information books about and by African American writers.

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) each year sponsors The African American Read-In across the nation, giving us an opportunity and reminder  to explore this body of literature.  

NCTE provides several excellent reading lists suggesting texts that may be read in schools, churches, libraries, community centers, book clubs and so forth, for all levels. Click here to learn more about this event.

Over this past year, I have discovered several wonderful books that are perfect for sharing this month—and all year long.

I TOO, AM AMERICA by Langston Hughes and Brian Collier

Brian Collier has beautifully illustrated Hughes's classic poem in his signature collage style.

Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America by  Andrea Pinkney Brian Pinkney

This beautifully crafted and illustrated book journeys through centuries, linking ten Black men and their personal and comprehensive stories, showing us the depth and breadth of Black manhood in America, from Benjamin Banneker to Barack Obama.

The 100 Best African American Poems collected and edited by Nikki Giovanni

Giovanni admits the difficulty of her task and indicates right on the cover  that she has "cheated", choosing more than the title's 100 poems, including both classic and contemporary favorites, both familiar and, perhaps new-to-you selections, to create a treasury of Black poetry.

Heart  and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson
Nelson has created a valuable and beautiful resource.  Beginning with the Declaration of Independence, the history of America and African Americans is told uniquely, in the voice of "Everywoman", whose ancestors came to this country in slave ships, but lives to cast her vote for our first African American president.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibility

We celebrate African American History Month each  February.

What are some ways that do you think this month is best celebrated? 

List the advantages and disadvantages of having African American History Month.

What are the implications of not having this celebration? Who would be impacted and how?
What are the benefits of continuing this celebration?  Who would benefit and how?

Write a persuasive piece explaining your position on whether we should continue to have this special celebration.

PRIMA DONNA DINERS AND READERS

We all know one or two prima donna diners. When you go to dinner with them, you are guaranteed a display of discriminating taste and high manners.

This is too… not enough… I didn’t realize it would be… I am not yet ready for that course … could I have it with this instead?...her portion looks bigger than mine … could you warm this up?….cool this off? … leave that out? …

You know those diners.  They are also quick to invoke authoritative support for their usually unreasonable, and sometimes, silly requests. 

When I was at the other restaurant… the last location… that other country, they…

Prima donna diners.

I love to eat --and I love to eat out-- but the prima donna diners can quickly diminish a pleasant dining atmosphere

Prima donna or picky readers, on the other hand, create an excitement, a contagious anticipation, and an ongoing,grand conversation around books.

I am a  self-proclaimed prima donna reader. I don’t read what I call grocery store books--- I was disappointed by page 10 with the one exception I made recently.  I was rewriting sentence in my head, revising page by page.  I read on because everyone insisted it was so good…… I kept waiting for the part that made everyone say that --- it never came. Needless to say I have not read Book 2 and 3. This experience confirmed for me why I don’t read grocery story books.

I compare this experience to reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell-- written with a structure like those Russian matryoshka dolls or nestingdolls—that have successively smaller dolls nestled inside.  

The delicious delight of discovering the connection between each new movement of the book and the pleasure in rejoining the characters for the second part of their story made this a distinctly pleasing reading adventure.  The language—the rhythms, all make me continue to rave to friends and fellow picky readers about this selection.

I also recently finished NW: A Novel by Zadie  Smith.  Her language drew me in from page 1.  And again the structure fostered connecting the dots, as you entered earlier chapters of each character’s history, and filled in the blanks of their evolutions.

 I loved these books, these jigsaw stories.

I wasn’t even sure in some parts what was happening, but the power of the language and the container kept me reading, backtracking, puzzling to put the pieces together and ----delighting me throughout the process.

And I am eagerly asking What else did these authors write?

I have always been fascinated with the variety of possible ways to tell a story. I love books that are made up of letters, and poems and postcards and journals and newspaper articles and other forms, all 'mosaiced' together to tell a story.  Even as a child, this is what appealed to me.

Laying in a drawer, there is my one attempt to write this kind of story.  My attempt is sappy and contrived--perhaps, I need to pull it back out and rework it with newer possibilities. Perhaps it could be successfully revised.

My fifth graders,and all those students I have ever read books with or to, also quickly became picky readers,  asking questions, expressing preferences, requesting specifics, just like the prima dona diners.

Who is this by?  What else did she write?   I don’t read fantasy. I read historic fiction. I am interested in…. Can you help me find… Have you read? ... You would like..

The one big difference is that this behavior moves them forward in their understanding of reading and does not humiliate or embarrass waiters or make for awkward moments for other diners (or readers) at the table.

Instead, I was proud of their exercise of choice.  Their discriminating tastes based on information gathered from much reading, their recognition of quality writing, relevant topics, humorous, creative and experimental writing ---and their desire to try to imitate such.

They read widely, becoming book reviewers and literary critics,  They borrowed  and lent books,  They sat shoulder to shoulder, head to head, poring over new books, rereading  favorites, waiting for the next must-read book to enter the classroom and their lives.

What questions do you ask as you approach new books? 

What expectations do you have as you enter the book store to select your next good read? 

What is your highest praise of a book?

What makes you gush over a book to everyone one you know?

What kind of reader are you?

 Today’s Deeper Writing Possibility

 What kind of reader are you?  What are your specific reading  preferences?

What genres and structures intrigue you?  Can you imitate those structures?

Can you write a poem or structured like the layered Russian matryoshka dolls like Cloud Atlas?

Can you write a story made entirely of letters like The Color Purple?

What other forms could be used, combined, invented to tell your story?

What I Read First

Click to read related post,  FIRST READERS

by Robin W. Holland

            

With thanks to Billy Collins

What I read first is

a blur of blonde curly hair

on Alice’s head and her brother

Jerry pointing at Dad
who was always mowing the lawn

in Sunday-go-to-Church clothes

at the Mom who smiled

in her heels

and crisp blouse. 

That was at school

where I didn’t get the new books--

Dick and Jane.

I didn’t know

my books were outdated.

I didn’t know

racism was why my

used-to-be-white-

now- predominantly black school

had not gotten the books.

All I knew was that I loved reading and

these were the books we were given. 

I did know that no one looked

like me in the books

No one had long dark braids

and heavy saddle shoes

or a gap in her protruding teeth.

No one looked like my dad

with his smooth olive skin and mustache,

slide rule and tape measure ever-ready.

No one look like my mom

in sandals and shorts

and no apron.

And my friends were not

In the books

In the re-released versions of the originals

sold as novelties

There is an African American family.

They were not

in the neighborhood

when I first read.

These children who were

In the books were always going

 and coming

 and jumping

 and looking.

This is what I read first

 at school

At home

there were shelves

of Golden Books

and magazines--

Humpty Dumpty and

Children’s Digest,

poetry and nursery rhymes.

And other books with  people 
who looked

like me

and did important things

and were what I could

become

or so I was told

at home

in what I read first.

FIRST READERS

How and when did you learn to read?

What did you read first?

Learning to read is one of those pivotal moments—your world is forever changed once you have unlocked the mystery of the seemingly random marks on the page.  New worlds, new understandings, new possibilities open to you.

You are able to engage with others and the world around you in new, dynamic ways---reading about people and places, the past, stories, natural and supernatural phenomena--- and ideas and ideas and ideas…

I don’t remember learning to read. 

I know couldn’t read when I started kindergarten.  When I was little, kindergarten was half-a-day and involved learning to get along with others, naps, toys, and  “readiness skills” (whatever those were.)  I remember playing in the housekeeping corner, dressed in fancy clothes and high-heels, pretending to cook, using the play phone.  I also remember regularly getting in trouble for talking too much (Still an issue.)

 I loved kindergarten, but I don’t remember reading there.

I think I must have learned early in first grade. We brought our chairs up to the front of the room and sat in a circle around the teacher in reading groups. We read Alice and Jerry books. I loved those books.  In browsing the internet, I discovered many folks remembered and loved those books.  Click here to read blogger and author Chuck Rothman's memories of Alice and Jerry.

Only later, as a grown-up, did I learn that there were lots of reasons for me not to love Alice and Jerry. Only later did I learn that my white counterparts were reading the newer Dick and Jane books. 

I also remember hours spent at my grandma’s house poring over the books in her glass covered book case.  One reader from the “olden days”  fascinated me. This volume, The Sunbonnet Babies, was published in 1902 and awarded to my mother  according to the inscription, by  E. J. Tannenbaum on February 1, 1934 “for excellent work in 1A.” This was the book from which my mother learned to read. This was what she read first.

 Although I don’t remember my own life-changing moment of learning to read, I did have the privilege of watching my stepson’s grand moment.  I wish I had had ready access to a video camera on my phone like we do now.

It was one evening after dinner.  The dinner dishes had been cleared  and he was sitting at the dining room table leafing through one of the many primers I had given him and his brother. (I had been on a reading textbook selection committee.)

He first pointed out the. I learned this word in school.  Then he noticed see— They had also learned that word, as well.  Of course, I was one he knew.  The last word, dog, was new. He was simply identifying words he knew.

Then in an instant it happened. 

There was a dog in the picture.  Almost to himself he said  That word starts with d. Then he made the sound for d.  Is this word dog!?

You could almost see the light bulb above his head. He was bursting---Does this say ‘I see the dog’!?  Once it was affirmed, he read the rest of the page and then ran through the house making everyone listen a dozen times more.

 He had unlocked the secret and made meaning of the text and images-- and story.  And from that point, he understood what this mysterious new activity was about.

Learning to read forever transforms our world.

There are many beautiful picture books that  tell poignant “first reading” experiences. Here are several of my favorites.

Amber on the Mountain by Tony Johnston

 Life on Amber’s mountain is lonely until Anna shows up, bringing friendship and the secret to reading. A new world opens up for Amber.

The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting

 On Wednesday nights, Anna teaches her Grandma to read—a surprise for Dad’s birthday.

More Than Anything Else by Marie Bradby

 This biographical slice of Booker T. Washington’s life depicts his thirst to learn to read in an era when most African Americans were not given the opportunity.

How and when did you learn to read?

What did you read first?

Today’s Deeper Reading Possibility

Click to read Billy Collins’s well-known poem, First Reader, and my poem written in response about what I read first.

How and when did you learn to read? What do you remember about that moment or process?

What books did you read early in your reading experience?

Thinking back about those books, how did they affect your life and your thinking about reading?

Write your “First Reader” story.

You may want to write a personal narrative or try a poem.  You may even want to write a letter to the person who taught you how to read.

BECAUSE OF THAT BOOK

Books change us.

We have all read that one book that made us forever look at the world through different lenses, those two books that would not have been the same, nor would we, had we not read them back to back, those three books that we tell everyone they must read, the four books that sit on our night table waiting to be read-- because someone we know says those books changed them…

Book change us.

Vampires became different the moment I began reading The Vampire Lestat.

The middle ages and the Church took on new meaning after reading The Name of the Rose and The Starbridge series illuminated my own Anglican/Episcopal Church heritage.

I will always be a bit suspicious of houses after reading House of Leaves.

Each time I begin to scatter more and more notes in more and more  places, I think about The Golden Notebook.

And I never walk by the color purple without hearing Shug Avery remind me “that is pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t to notice it.”

What books have been most influential in your life? Which books will you never forget?

Which books do you reread over and over?

The House of Paper begins this way:

One day in the spring of 1998, Bluma Lennon bought a second hand copy of Emily Dickinson’s poems in a bookshop in Soho, and as she reached the second poem on the first street corner, she was knocked down by a car.

Books change people’s destinies.

This delightful, imaginative little book then goes on to elegantly remind us of our sometimes deep and inexplicable relationships with books, and how those book tie us forever to other people.

I am in the midst of reading The End of Your Life Book Club in which the author asked his mother the most important question that can be asked of one book lover by another, “What are you reading?” 

His mother’s answer led to a book club of two, as she lived her life---and finally died----with pancreatic cancer.  The books they shared, their lives and relationships woven together and surrounding the books, make for a story, that if you are a reader, enchants you from page 1.

On Facebook, a friend once asked folks to list the 15 books that will always stick with you-- the first 15 that you can recall in 15 minutes. 

My list follows in no particular order other then the sequence in which I thought of them. … and it is longer than directed …and  I guess, at some point, I need to make several other lists----poetry, children’s books,  spiritual or religious books, nonfiction, and professional books... but for now, here is my updated general list. (As I wrote this post, I couldn’t resist adding the last seven entries to the original list, which had been completed two years ago.)

1. ^SSSay You are One of Them by Uwem Akpam
2.  The Name of the Rose by Anne Rice
3. *The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. ^NFHealing by Frances McNutt
5. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewki
6. ^SSDrown by Junot Diaz
7. Beloved Toni Morrison
8. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
9. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
10. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
11. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
12. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
13. The Way of the Pilgrim- unknown 19^th century Russian peasant (many translations)
14. *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
15. The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
16. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
17. The Starbridge Series by Susan Howatch
18. ^NFGodel, Escher, and Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
19. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
20. The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern
21. ^SSThis is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
22. *The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
23. *The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
24. ^NFThe Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
25. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

*Children’s books  ^NFNonfiction ^SSShort Stories

Next week this list may be very different.  Daily, I meet new books. The world changes. We change. 

Books change us.

Today’s Deeper Writing Possibility

What books that have changed you, influenced you, taught you, and/or helped you grow into the person you are today?

Make a list of the 10 (or 15 or 25) books that will stick you with you always.

Write  a personal narrative about one (or two or three books) that are most important to you.

How did the book(s) enter your life?

How did the book(s) affect you while you were reading?

How does the book (s) affect your life now?

Write a recommendation or book review of the book (s).