18 Comments
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Jamal Robinson's avatar

Rachel + Camille – This was beautiful! 😭👏🏽

Hearing you both voice it over was an awesome addition.

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Rachel Leeke Alexis's avatar

Thank you Jamal! So glad THEE poet laureate reached out. The process taught me something new.

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Camille's avatar

Thank you!

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Janet Asante Sullivan's avatar

Beautiful and grounding. Thank you

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Rachel Leeke Alexis's avatar

You’re so welcome, it was fun to draft these up.

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Camille's avatar

you're welcome!

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Lita Kurth's avatar

Thank you for this new form and the beautiful poem! Something to share with my students

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Camille's avatar

you're welcome! I look forward to hearing how your students receive it.

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Bethany Nicole's avatar

This is sooooo good.

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Rachel Leeke Alexis's avatar

Thank you, I loved Camille's inflections. Her words sparkled.

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Bethany Nicole's avatar

The reading gave me chills. This entire piece is both prompt and offering. Yall slayed.

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Lita Kurth's avatar

We followed instructions and all were read aloud. They got into it! Here's mine (followed by a chain of them from my talented student who used the form to create a narrative!) :

You own

the job. It

doesn't own you, girl.

Here is my student Karen's"

Walmart

took over

Lunardi’s market

We were

too cheap for

its really good food

So, from

2000 (two thousand)

to 2013 (twenty-thirteen)

We prayed

for a new

Trader Joe’s market

But no

It’s Walmart

Now and forever

Walmart

the serpent

tempting me with cheap

dairy

dheap crackers

cheap vitamin C

I have

turned my back

on old principles

All for

bananas

sixty cents a pound

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Rachel Leeke Alexis's avatar

This is such a creative way to study Dekaaz and have students build off one another. Did you ask them to follow up your prompt and then order their individual ones into a story? Im so curious about how this unfolded ☺️

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Recueil Newsletter's avatar

Beautiful - it made me feel so calm and still for a moment ✨

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Rachel Leeke Alexis's avatar

It was grounding to recite, thanks for listening Recueil.

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Lita Kurth's avatar

I'll certainly let you know

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Phil's avatar

Strong impact in such a delicate manner. I appreciate this. The words resonate loudly.

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Rachel Leeke Alexis's avatar

The brevity is everything! Camille really put me on to something new.

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