All posts in Ola Faleti

Writing From Joy

For our 4th FORA session, we talked about writing from a place of joy. To me, there’s no better example than the wonderful Ross Gay. We read “Sorrow Is Not My Name” together, digging […]

Celebration and Slam!

Alas, two weeks ago we closed out a stellar term of poetry with Bronzeville Classical’s 3rd and 4th grade students! On our final day, we didn’t write poems; instead we watched slam performances from […]

The Ars Poetica

Greetings, Bronzeville Classical Friends! In our nine weeks together, Bronzeville Classical students have written so many different kinds of poems broaching all different kids of topics. I don’t really believe in poetry “experts” (the […]

Blackout Poetry

For our 8th week at Bronzeville Classical, we dove into the fun world of blackout (also known as erasure) poems. We took a look at many examples, including from the acclaimed “Steal This Book” […]

Our People and Where We Find Them

Somehow, we’re already at the halfway point of our short and sweet May residency with FORA. Two questions that anchored our third session were 1) where do we find “our people” and 2) is […]

An Ode A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

Who doesn’t love some good gossip? In our second week at FORA, we discussed odes and tried writing our own. We looked at Safia Elhillo’s “Ode to Gossips” and explored the poem’s vivid language […]

Exploring Our Writing Impulses

This month at Refugee FORA, we’ve got a short and sweet five-week mini residency. Our first day was last week! During our first session, students discussed their experiences with poetry (very mixed – some […]

See It, Write It

For our 7th week, Bronzeville students learned about ekphrastic poetry, or poems inspired by an image. We examined Van Gogh’s Starry Night before reading the Anne Sexton poem of the same name. Then students […]

How to Eat

Nothing is more evergreen than food. But the question is, can you eat a poem? Eve Merriam seems to think so. In this sixth week of programming we discussed “How to Eat A Poem” […]

Where I’m From

How quickly the time passes, as this is already the halfway point of the year’s Bronzeville residency! Last week, students considered origins and the ways we define where we’re from. And there’s no better […]

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I’M FROM THE CITY LIGHTS / STREAMING OUT IN THE NIGHT / AND HUGE SKYSCRAPERS / TOWERING OVER THE LAKE – MELISSA E., 7TH GRADE POET