Roots (Still) Take Hold

I revisited this poem last year with an art adventure with Simon, and now with Sarah and others thinking of launching a Rhizomatic Learning for 2024, I went back, and did another version. Why? The poem captures for me a moment in Rhizo14 that anchors me in that learning time, and makes me wonder at what we can do now, ten years later.

Peace (Digging Deep),
Kevin

PS — hat nod to Dave Cormier’s long tail in helping many of us to learn in open spaces … or is it his long tale?

Radio Poem

Radio Poem

This morning’s Daily Create was to listen to the radio, and grab some lyrics, and then make a poem. I used an online radio streaming site, bounced around, and grabbed some words.

Peace (and sound),
Kevin

A Closer Look At 20 Years Of Invented Words

Words of 2024

I shared out the other day that my sixth graders were donating new words to an ongoing Crazy Collaborative Dictionary Project. The project – which began in 2005 and continues to this day — contains more than 1250 words, with new ones added each year by students. It is part of a unit on the Origin of Words.

The 20-year mark must mean something, right?

So I started to think about how to share some of the work out in a more visual way. Thus, a few charts.

First, the new home for the dictionary is here at a Google Site. It’s had many homes over the years, starting on paper, and then in Wikis, then blogs, and now Sites. We also have a folder of audio files, of students reading their words and definitions.

Dictionary TimelineI was curious about which letters had the most words so I did the counting. “S” by a longshot! “V”? Not so much. But every letter has at least some words.

Crazy Collaborative Dictionary Project 2005-2024 - 1Then, I got curious about the longest word ever submitted, and the shortest. Some years, some students try really hard to make the longest word imaginable, and then have fun trying to pronounce it for our audio files.

Overall, the project has provided a curiosity for my students and families, but also, a showcase for how language changes, and how words are created to fill a niche in strange ways (and how much this is happening more so in the age of social media, where the viral nature of things impact our language).

Peace (and Words),
Kevin

Gathering Poems: Write Across America (Baltimore)

I have shared some of these poems during the days I wrote them, but I wanted to gather them together. These are all inspired by the National Writing Project’s Write Across America: Baltimore marathon. I mostly ignored the official prompts and instead, focused on the artist and their work.

Peace (and poems and place),
Kevin

Jazz Music and MLK Jr.: A Found Poem

MLK Jazz Poem

My wife and I were at a music club last night, listening to two very fun jazz bands. One of the band leaders noted that in 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the Berlin Jazz Festival with a short speech connecting Jazz music to Civil Rights, and the power of the arts and expression. The band leader read a few lines of the speech and I was intrigued, so I found the speech this morning.

Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down. – MLK Jr.

I used a section of the speech for a found poem with a blackout poem platform, for this Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Peace (and poems),
Kevin

Audio Response: Signal2Noise2Synth

My friend, Terry, wrote a poem (and then fed it into ChatGPT for analysis, which disappointed him, to little surprise) and I was taken by his poetry (as is usually the case), finding myself centered on one particular line.

don’t touch that dial if the signal is wild

So I took that and used it to inspire a short piece of music, and a collection of AI art (I used the line as the prompt.)

Peace (is all signal),
Kevin

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