Invented Words: 2024

Words 2024
My sixth graders are just completing the final activities in a unit on Word Origins, and they are have all invented new words with definitions — including one word they will donate to the Crazy Collaborative Dictionary Project (now in its 20th year and more than 1200 words strong!). The word art contains their newly invented words. I love how weird and creative they get with it.

Hover over the words here to read them, or take a listen to the audio files, or see the entire list of words and definitions this year, soon to be added to the larger project.

Peace (and language),
Kevin

PS — The Crazy Dictionary is hosted here for now but I will be moving it yet again.

Poetry: Clay Face

Clay Face

Here’s another in a series of short poems inspired by the National Writing Project’s Baltimore stop for its Write Across America project. This poem is inspired by the clay sculpture work of Paula Whaley — learn more about her with this video.

Peace (smoothed out),
Kevin

Poetry: Inspired By Tintype

Tintype Photography

Yesterday, I shared a few poems from the latest National Writing Project Write Across America Project (focus: Baltimore artists) and today’s poem is another piece inspired by that same collection. This time, it’s about Elena Volkova, who works with tintype photography on her Anacostia Portrait project.

Peace (Sitting and Waiting),
Kevin

NWP Write Across America: Baltimore

Home - Write Across America

The National Writing Project’s Write Across America place-based adventures continues into the school year, and I continue my practice of using the resources — when the resources get shared beyond the Zoom sessions that I nearly always miss — for some morning writing. This week, the project focused on artists in Baltimore, and it is a pretty fascinating collection.

Here are three poems (so far), inspired by three Baltimore artists and their work.

The first was from the work of Kathleen Fahey, who does old cranky-style videos, which are spooled stories that someone literally cranks to move along. Pretty cool and gives a story a forward motion.

A Tale Like This

The second poem came after exploring the work of Joyce Scott, who works with beads and glass and fabrics and more.

Beads

The third was focused on visual artist Ernest Shaw Jr., whose work is inspired by West African tradition and who does a variety of styles of art, including street murals. I listened to a video profile, taking notes on his words and then remixed his words into an art-themed poem.

In The Words of Ernest Shaw

Peace (in explorations of art),
Kevin

Comic Review: Cappucinos After Lunch And Other Crimes (Itchy Feet Collection)

 

During the worst of the Pandemic, I discovered the Itchy Feet comic strip by Malachi Ray Rempen on an app called Tinyview Comics that I support with a monthly fee (because it seems like the organization does a good job of supporting its writers and artists).

Rempen’s focus for the Itchy Feet comic is on world travel, and of course, there was none to be had by most people in the world, so the comic (which Rempen has been making for at least a decade or more) often poked fun at being stuck at home with an itch to travel. The comic became a nice reprieve in an otherwise isolated world of living.

Support Malachi Ray Rempen creating Travel and language learning web comics

Cappucinos After Lunch And Other Crimes is a book collection of comics from 2018-2021. Some of the Covid-era Comics make their way into this book but mostly, Rempen does a funny job of skewering traveling to different parts of the world through the lens of food, cultural confusions, language and airport obstacles.

I laughed quite a bit at the jokes here and the visual humor, and I appreciate the gentle way that the comic handles the clash of visitors to a destination with mostly grace (unless the faux pas is too deep and needs some skewering). This collection is a fun way to think about traveling to the world. Sure, there are mishaps that might happen, and yet, the comic points out how traveling can be worth it for many reasons, including finding a common understanding other people in other places.

Peace (and Travel),
Kevin

First Seed Stirs

This morning, I started reading ‘Thunder & Lightning (Weather Past, Present, Future)’ by Lauren Redniss (what a book of art and words and ideas!) and I stopped at the early passage about the Global Seed Vault to write and record a morning poem.

Text: https://write.as/dogtrax/the-middle-door-made-of-steel-glitters-with-ice-crystals

Book: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/93798c10-23be-4265-bc78-06a725c1683a

Peace (and Dirt),
Kevin

Mickey Remix: Dance Mouse Dance

With news that the original Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie is now in the public domain, I tried a little remix — taking a scene from the video and putting it to music.

How I did it:

  • I found a high quality version of the movie
  • I used Gif-It to grab a gif-ed section of the movie
  • Created a soundtrack in my music-making platform (Soundtrap)
  • Layered the gif and music in iMovie
  • Played around with filters for the video

Peace (with some funk),
Kevin