Poetry as Pedagogy: Jazz and Poetry: Avant-Gardes of Resistance

Join us for an immersive experience exploring the power of poetry to connect us with history and ourselves. 

Geared towards educators and open to all, participants in this workshop will learn ways to teach poetry as a way of relating to the history of the Civil Rights Movement in New York. We will also explore connections between the artistic traditions of jazz and poetry, intimately related in NYC activist history. Participants will have an opportunity to craft their own short poems and will come away with tools for poetry pedagogy to use in the classroom. 

This workshop will focus on the importance of jazz traditions for New York poetry and politics, exploring the interrelation between resistance music and poetry. We will engage with the protest songs of Billie Holiday as we read New York School poet Frank O’Hara’s poem dedicated to her memory, “The Day Lady Died” (1959). We will then turn to the work of Amiri Baraka, founder of the Black Arts Movement, focusing both on his writing about Harlem, in his poem “Return of the Native” (1969), and his collaborations with jazz musicians on the page and in performance. Throughout his life, Baraka worked tirelessly to create alternative artistic networks to those of dominant, white-centered culture. His vision of the avant-garde as a revolutionary project remains an important and enduring one.

Potential Curriculum Connections: 

• The Role of Art in the Civil Rights Movement
• Heritage of the Harlem Renaissance
• Black Arts Movement
• ELA writing, close-reading, and analysis skills

All are welcome! While this workshop series is geared toward educators of grades 6-12, it is open to all - educators and non-educators. Attendance at all three workshops is not required. Everyone is welcome to participate in any individual workshop. 

2.5 CTLE hours for eligible participants. CTLE forms will be available at the workshop.

About the Featured Poets:

Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) was a lifelong activist and poet whose work focused on Black liberation. Born in Newark, NJ, he spent much of his life in New York, living both on the Lower East Side and in Harlem. He was instrumental in founding the Black Arts Movement and was poet laureate of New Jersey. Baraka’s books include Blues People: Negro Music in White America (1963), plays such as The Dutchman (1964), and S.O.S.: Poems 1961-2013 (2014). 

Frank O’Hara (1926-1966) lived in New York City as his chosen home and is known for creating an artistic sensibility of relating to the city associated with the New York School of poetry. Through his engagement with the worlds of NYC, he generated vivid poems of personal and political dimensions. His poetry collections include Lunch Poems (1964) and Meditations in an Emergency (1957).

About the Facilitator:

Sylvia Gorelick (she/they) is a poet, translator, and PhD candidate at NYU. Sylvia has been an active participant in New York poetry worlds for over 15 years. Her research focuses on revolutionary feminisms in a transnational context and includes a focus on poetry of the city.