Poetry Slam

I am concluding a week-long unit on poetry with my freshmen and sophomores. Among the more thought-provoking prompts I gave them came on the heels of a lesson which looked at the works of several prominent African-American poets. I asked them to praise or criticize one aspect of African-American culture. Here is what a few of them came up with.

Actin’ Black
What is actin’ black?
Is it chicks wearing too tight clothes?
Or dudes wearing pants with too much slack?
What do you call actin’ black?

Is it a certain way of the walk,
Or maybe the way black folks talk?
How are are we so diverse from other races,
Is it just the look of our dark-skinned faces?

Hip white folks love to imitate,
Our unique sense of style.
But they say we’re not prestigious enough,
To live a white lifestyle.

They characterize us
As ignorant, illiterate, and emotionally held back,
They want us to envy them
But they’re the ones actin’ black! -Kelsey Haggard, 10th

Haters, Haters, Everywhere
Haters, haters, everywhere
On the land and in the air.
Haters, haters, everywhere
Some are here and some are there.
Haters, haters, everywhereBe a hater if you dare. -Curissa Prince, 10th

Rough Times
We’ve been beaten, we’ve been hung,
We’ve been slung to the ground,
But life has come around for us as black in many towns,
We’ve been talked about, stepped on, and not thought of in their minds.

But it’s our time to shine.

We have become the people they tried to keep us from being.
Lawyers, doctors, teachers are the jobs we’re achieving.
We’ve been down a bumpy road,
The story is still being told,But I think blacks have obtained a greater gold.
-Quentin McKnight, 10th

Lights
White people do this, black people do that.
When white people’s lights go off, they panic
When blacks’ lights go off, they plan it.

In the old days people picked cotton for a buck,
But now we win the lotto just by pure luck.
In the old days they kept their food in an ice box,But now black people have their own stocks. -Kivante Hunter, 9th

Untitled
Love of my culture is everything I know,
Black is beautiful from my head to my toe.
Love of my culture, so nice and sweet
My culture is everything kind to meet.
I wouldn’t trade my culture for the world
Because I’m a
Tall
Black
Sexy Cute kind of girl. -Brittany Mackin, 9th

The Blackness of a Person
The blackness of a person describes their dignity and strength,
The blackness of a person describes the love of God within.
The blackness of a person tells a person so much about their history,
The blackness of a person tells the world about their pain and misery. -Jaleesa Thomas, 10th

A raisin in the sun
That is what black in the summer is to me
Plump and juicy, round and sweet
Healthy as a beet.

Though pigments may differ
And hair may not be straight
More valuable than a mink fur, body of a figure eight.

Rhythm so on tempo
Dancing so on beat
Swaying hips from side to side
Sweating in the heat.

Everything about black
Stands out like the number one
Especially in the summer time,
Like a raisin in the sun. -Jasmine Steverson, 10th