Amidst the swirling storm clouds and driving rain, this one got right to the heart of our creative spirits. Then again, that's very much Stephanie's specialty. Add in the brilliant poem by local 8th grader Nina Howard, and receiving this post was simply an honor... Nina, please keep Grit posted on your writing adventures. We can't wait to hear where they take you.
Is it irony or divine comedy that “back to school” always coincides with hurricanes brewing? Just as the kids get squished back into blessed routine, the tropics churn up their unruly unpredictability.
Actually, I long for more of a parallel. For school to be more hurricane-like, for the atmospheric conditions of public education to be ripe for the tossing and turning of minds, for downpours of creativity, for lightening strikes and high winds of rampant curiosity, for shaking things up. I’d prefer never to hear the term “curriculum standards” again. But despite the stifling pressures of our modern educational bureaucracy—that perfect storm of smaller budget, bigger classes, high-stakes standardized tests and the woefully inadequate benchmarks of “Adequate Yearly Progress”—there IS good stuff happening in our kids’ classrooms, and out of classrooms too, especially when it comes to inspiring young literary imaginations in Charleston.
Though he’d be quick to share the credit with multitudes of other teachers, one curly-headed nice guy stands out, in my book, as the literary arts champion for Charleston’s young writers and readers. That would be Jonathan Sanchez, owner of Blue Bicycle Books, founder and director of the Write of Summer writing camp, and brilliant instigator of YALLFest (the country’s premier Young Adult literary festival, coming up on November 10—more on that in upcoming posts).
This year marked the 10th anniversary of Write of Summer, an event in which kids in grades 3-12 forgo fun trips to the swimming pool and beach to sit around and… write. And have a blast doing it. My girls loved it back in the good ol’ days when they were young enough to go, and every parent I know whose kid has been a camper raves as well. Jonathan is the Huck Finn of pen and paper—he turns writing into a wild adventure. Turns the daunting prospect of creating a poem into fun and games. He gives kids permission, and pointers, to play with words, and the result is verse and prose that is fresh, loose, bold and heartening. Childlike, in the purest, best sense of the word.
Want proof? Here’s an example of what Moultrie Middle School 8th grader Nina Howard (a 3-summer alumna of Sanchez’s camp) turned out at Write of Summer camp this year, using one of Sanchez’s prompts.
Write a Poem Poem
Write a poem that clicks in your brain
Like a train’s wheels on a track
Let it be braided into bracelets
That you buy
At touristy shops
And let it be braided
Into hair
Write a poem that paints itself
On walls
That people will sign their names on
Write a poem that likes to drink
Mott’s apple juice
On Thursdays
Let it drink all its drinks
With curly straws
And write a poem that likes to eat trail mix
With purple cranberries
And
Walnuts
Write a poem that holds the door for strangers
And waves at people passing by
Especially at grandmas, and nuns
And your old catholic school teacher Sister Adelheid
And if it sees Maria Von Trapp, let it wave at her too
Let it grow peonies in its garden
And let it weed it
Every
Other
Day
Write a poem that steals ideas
From copyrighted things
If it wants to
And let it steal words said by
Winston Churchill
And lima beans
Let your poem
Boycott
Styrofoam lunch trays
It doesn’t have to start a revolution
But at least let it take a stand
Write a poem that smells like
Cinnamon raisin bread
Fresh out of the oven
When all
The other poems
Smell like plastic
Write a poem that buys
Spatulas
From the second floor of department stores
So that it can flip pancakes
For its daughter
Grace
And if your poems a girl
Have it marry someone with the last name Kelly
So its daughter’s name
Can be Grace Kelly
That might make her
Popular in school
Write a poem that doesn’t care
If the other poems laugh when it quotes Fat Albert
“He who throws mud only looses
Ground”
Write a poem
That chops onions to hide its crying
Write a poem
That just likes to
Write
Whatever it wants
Or just
Sits
And
Listens
~~ by Nina Howard