1 Flowering Furiously: Contemporary Black Poetry and Poetics

Authors: Anastacia-Reneé, Ariana Benson, Leona Sevick, James Smethurst

Target Group: Intro undergraduate poetry course

NOTE: These are modular units that can be rearranged, reordered, and adjusted as the instructor sees fit.

Unit Title: Writing the “I”—Self, Identity, Legacy

Unit Objective

Students will learn different strategies poets employ to write about themselves: their lives, memories, experiences, and histories. Students will also understand various ways to write selfhood beyond the reliance on the pronoun “I.”

Day One: Writing the “I”—exploring personhood, the internal, life experiences, family histories; what makes you uniquely you

  • Read these two poems:
    • “self-portrait with no flag” by Safia Elhillo (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 36-37) “I” poem
    • “Fish Fry” by Remica Bingham-Risher (Furious Flower 2019, p. 28)
  • Discuss: How do the poets resist overreliance on the “I” while still writing about the self. Consider the variations/similarities in form.
  • Complete the following reading exercise: Look for the pronouns in “self-portrait” and “Fish Fry”
  • Consider and discuss the following questions:
    • How are they used differently?
    • Is there any change throughout the poem (from one stanza to the next, from the beginning of the poem to the end)?
    • What is the writer trying to accomplish?
    • Notice the active “I” vs. the observing “I”

Day Two: Writing the “Identity”—exploring belonging to groups (racial, ethnic, gendered, generational, etc.), cultures

  • Read these two poems:
    • “For the Dead Homie” by Danez Smith (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 130-132)
      • in comparison to “Fish Fry”—identity
    • “My Resistance is Black” by DéLana R. A. Dameron (Furious Flower 2019, p. 187)
  • Discuss: form—what is this? Is this a poem? What do you make of the big spaces in the poem?
    • It’s an “I” and “you” poem
  • Writing Prompt

Day Three: Writing the “Legacy”—exploring poetic/personal lineages, global histories/events, ancestors; i.e. which stories have made yours possible?

  • Read these two poems:
    • “Sure, You Can Ask Me about Hip-Hop” by Alan W. King (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 244-245)
    • “The Root” by Derrick Weston Brown (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 87-89)
  • Discuss
  • Writing exercise: Have students turn what they’ve written from the above prompts into a haibun

Day Four/Conclusion: How can all the kinds of written “I” work together in one poem?

  • Read these two poems:
    • “Let My Anger Be the Celebration We Were Never Supposed to Have” by Natasha Oladokun (Furious Flower 2019, p. 118)
      • legacy; do with recordings of Hughes, Brooks, Baraka…
    • “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” by avery r. young (Furious Flower 2019, p. 143)
      • writes about I, identity, and legacy—all three! Can also talk about form
  • Revision exercise: Have students “flip” their haibun—rewrite the poem beginning with the last sentence, then the second-to-last sentence, and so on… until the entire poem is flipped
    • try it with the haiku as well!

Visuals:

Unit Title: Writing History

Unit Objective

To educate students on the legacy, importance, purpose, and craft elements of the “history poem” (in all its forms and variations) in the context of contemporary Black poetry.

Day One: Fundamental Elements of the Black “history poem” (not to be confused with the “Black History poem”)

  • Read these works:
    • “Middle Passage” by Robert Hayden
      • To be read before class and in class at beginning
    • Essay: “Consciousness, Myth, and Transcendence: Symbolic Action in Three Poems on the Slave Trade” by Jon Woodson (Furious Flowering 1999, pp. 154-168)
      • To be read before class: pp. 154-160; see discussion for specific teaching concepts related to this essay
    • “The Apple Trees in Sussex” by Samuel Allen (Furious Flower 2004, pp. 14-15)
      • To be read in class
  • Lecture: The Black “History” Poem—consciousness, myth, and transcendence
  • Reading exercise: In three groups, have students re-read the Allen poem and have each group identify three examples of one fundamental element of the Black History Poem
    • Either consciousness, myth, or transcendence—see below for more
  • Consider and discuss the following questions:
    • How is consciousness working in the Allen poem?
    • How is myth working in the Allen poem?
    • How is transcendence working in the Allen poem?

Day Two: Writing Recorded/Public History

  • Read these two poems:
    • “Bellocq’s Ophelia” by Natasha Trethewey (Furious Flower 2004, pp. 252-253), media accompaniment
    • “American Religion” by Lynne Procope (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 120-121)
  • Discuss:
    • How do each of these poems utilize recorded and/or public histories (archival materials, current events, allusions to literary history, etc.) and to what effect?
    • What myths do each of these poems revise/undercut?
    • What is the argument of each poem—is it moral, emotional? What evidence does the poet use to support their argument?
  • Writing prompt

Day Three: Writing Personal History

  • Opening discussion—continuation from previous day’s writing prompt:
    • Have students share what they wrote and wrote about; brainstorm as a group how students can apply the elements of consciousness, myth, and transcendence to help write a “history poem.”
  • Read these two poems:
    • “Early Death Syndrome” by Nandi Comer (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 95-97)
    • “Aeration” by Taylor Johnson (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 109)
  • Discuss:
    • How do each of these poems engage personal history?
    • How do these poems employ metaphor to discuss public and recorded histories?
    • How do these poems allude to public histories, and how does the public inform the personal?
  • Assignment: Have students write a history poem based on the previous day’s writing prompt, using the foundational elements of consciousness, myth, and transcendence.

Day Four: Conclusion Session (freestyle any combo of poems/discussion/assignments/activities)

  • Opening activity—continuation from previous day’s assignment: Reading Salon
    • Have students volunteer to share their poems aloud, then have listening students give positive feedback about how the fundamental elements of a history poem appear in each student’s poem.
  • Read these two poems:
  • Watch together and discuss: Video of Natasha Trethewey Reading at Georgia Perimeter College
    • Activity: Have students re-read their poems backwards for line integrity, as Trethewey describes at 26:35 in the above video

Details for Lecture

Taking from Woodson’s essay, use the following excerpts to help students define and understand three fundamental elements of the Black “history poem”

Origin

Woodson developed this framework by analyzing Robert Hayden’s “Middle Passage”—he writes, “The most salient breakthrough that Hayden accomplished was the realization that whereas the ‘mythic histories,’ ‘the poems including history’ of Eliot, Pound, Crane, and Williams, fell outside of the concerns of most Americans, ‘mythical histories’ written for African Americans would necessarily find a captivated audience” (p. 155). Summary: Hayden knew that there is a need for African Americans to have our own written histories recorded and that poetry is a medium through which to achieve this. It allows us to tell our own stories.

Method and Purpose

“Hayden’s method is to present historical detail as though historical events compose a body of evidence that incriminated the slave traders, and, by extension, Western Christian Culture… the narratological consciousness that orders and presents the scenes soon becomes evident. What the poem musters as history must now be recognized as argument” (p. 156). Summary: The history poem uses story to make an argument: it can work to undo certain historical narratives and/or it can reveal certain unexplored histories.

Three Fundamental Elements of the History Poem

Consciousness:

  • “The poem establishes a group/individual dialectic” (p. 158)—the poem is aware of prevailing ideas and/or opinions about a history/historical event and writes from either an individual or group perspective about this history
  • “The poem avoids the direct engagement of moral problems by shifting the ground of its argument to the symbolic mode of agency” (p. 157)—the poem does not make direct statements about morality; instead, it allows its speakers, story images to act as symbols, and makes its argument through these symbols.
  • Summary: a history poem is conscious of the history that inspired it, and takes a unique perspective without telling readers directly what it thinks.

Myth:

  • “From Pound, Hayden derived the use of documents and the use of a ‘historic character who can be used as illustration of intelligent constructivity’” (p. 155)—the poem uses documented history as the foundation for its own myth.
  • “’Middle Passage’ has a deceptively simple structure: the poem consists of three sections, each of which tells a brief story” (p. 155)—the poem follows some kind of narrative structure to tell a story.
  • “Hayden invokes a European text to indicate the moral failings of European culture… to allow European texts to voice a realization of European immorality undercuts… [a] dialectical articulation of history” (p. 159)—the poem undercuts and/or rewrites existing history.
  • Summary: a history poem uses old myth (history) and storytelling structure to create a new myth, written from a different perspective.

Transcendence:

  • “Hayden comments that his poem contains different voices—the voice of the poet that ‘at times…seems to merge with voices from the past, voices not intended to be clearly identified’ as well as voices of the traders, of the hymn-singers, and ‘perhaps even of the dead’” (p. 155)—the poem’s speaker is a hybrid of the poet and the voices of history—thus, it transcends time and space.
  • “…wrestle with issues of power and forgiveness and betrayal and reconciliation” (p. 158)—the poem is concerned with larger issues and emotions, beyond those of the inspiring myth—it transcends history itself.
  • “Hayden’s employment of myth… [forces] him to shift historical factuality into mythmaking” (p. 159, emphasis added)—the poem makes story of history.
  • Summary: a history poem uses past and present voices and grander ideas about humanity to retell history through the lens of emotion and truth.

Importance/Conclusion

“…his subject is not artworks but lives: it is the lives of the past that he wishes to commemorate, the living of the present that he wants to inspire, and the lives of the future that he wants to ensure… it treats issues of morality, history, and cultural identity in a balanced way, while also managing to construct a myth that resonates authentically” (p. 167, emphasis added).

The Black history poem is a tool for giving voice to unvoiced pasts, for educating present readers about those obscured histories and inspiring reflection on past mistakes/moral failings and/or joys and achievements.

Unit Title: Writing Black Power: Black Arts to the present (60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, present) 

Unit Objectives

To learn and discuss the formal and thematic legacies of political and cultural movement in Black poetry from the Black Arts era to Black Lives Matter.

Part One

Introductory Reading:

Read the essay “Communities and Social Movement in Black Poetry” by John H. Bracey (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 5-20)

  • Read these two poems:
    • “I Wish You Black Sons” by Glenis Redmond (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 122-124)
    • “Preface to a Twenty-Volume Regicide Note” by Joshua B. Bennett (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 24-26)
  • Discuss: What is the relation between individual and group identities?
  • Reading exercise: List moments where different generations are expressed in the poem.
  • Consider and discuss the response to the above activity.
  • Media: Sonia Sanchez reading “Just Don’t Never Give Up on Love”

Part Two

  • Read these two poems:
    • “A Reckoning: Assata in 1980” by DaMaris B. Hill (Furious Flower 2019, p. 198)
    • “My Resistance Is Black” by DéLana R.A. Dameron (Furious Flower 2019, p. 187)
  • Discuss: What is the relation between individual and group liberation?
  • Writing prompt: Write a version of one of the poems in which the verb tenses are changed. How does that change the meaning/feel of the poem?
  • Consider and discuss the response to the above activity.
  • Media: Askia Touré and Amiri Baraka conversation

Part Three

  • Read these two poems:
    • “Symphony of Soul” by Candace G. Wiley (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 268-269)
    • “Boxing Arethas” by Curtis L. Crisler (Furious Flower 2019, p. 34)
  • Discuss: How are past, present, and future represented? How are they linked or separated?
  • Assignment: Find moments/places in one of the poems in which identity/identities are sounded.
  • Consider and discuss the response to the above activity.
  • Media: Jayne Cortez reading “I See Chana Pozo”

Part Four

Conclusion Session (freestyle any combo of poems/discussion/assignments/activities)

Watch and discuss “I Am” by Amiri Baraka

Unit Title: Forms Received and Not

Unit Objective

Introduce students to the received and manipulated forms used by Black poets

Day One

  • Read these two texts: students read Shockley’s essay before class; have multiple students Betts’ poem out loud in class
    • Excerpt from Evie Shockley’s essay “Race, Experiments, and the Black Avant-Garde” (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 74-79)
    • “When I think of Tamir Rice While Driving” by Reginald Dwayne Betts (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 157-159)
  • Discuss:
    • Shockley’s observations on received forms and Black poets’ responses to them.
    • Betts’ use of tercets as a form; how does the tercet form serve the poem?
  • Reading exercise:
    • Shockley suggests in her essay that Black resistance can take shape in the use of and departure from received forms. Think about Betts’ poem in relation to Shockley’s observations and write briefly about how the structure of the poem is in conversation with the theme of resistance.
    • Turn and talk with a partner.
    • Be prepared to share out with the class.

Day Two

  • Read these two poems (have students read the poems before class and read the poems out loud in class):
  • Discuss (think, pair, share):
    • What is the effect of the haibun on the reader? What purposes does this particular form serve?
    • What effect does the crown of sonnets have on the reader? How does repetition function in this poem? How are each of the sonnets related to one another outside the shared line?
  • Homework Assignment

Day Three

  • Read these two poems:
    • “American Counting Rhyme” by Duriel E. Harris (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 102-106)
      • Poem as song
    •  “Activism is hot just ask Jason Momoa” by Khadijah Queen (Furious Flower 2019, p. 61)
  • Discuss:
    • How can we describe these works as poems?
    • Is Harris’s poem both a song and a poem?
    • Is a prose poem different from short or flash fiction? How does this form support Queen’s poetic subject?
  • Writing prompt

Day Four: Conclusion Session

  • Students share out their reflections or reimagined poetic forms from the previous three days.
    • Give students a brief peer survey (electronic) to fill out for each reader/participant:
      • Did the reflection/reimagined poetic form urge you to think more deeply about the material? How?
      • Was the presentation thoughtful and engaging? How so?
      • What recommendations for amplification or development would you suggest?
  • Open for discussion and feedback.

Media resources

Glossary of poetic terms and forms

Unit Title: Gender

Unit Objective

Engage students in exploration and reflection on the use of gender in Black poetry.

Day One

  • Read these two poems:
    • “Gender Reveal” Amanda Johnston (Furious Flower 2019, p. 51)
    • “Of Being Sick and Tired” Ama Codjoe (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 235-236)
  • Discuss: What is your definition of gender, or how do you define gender expression? Think about the role of gender and gender expression in the poems.
  • Reading exercise: Read each poem.
  • Consider and discuss the following questions:
    • How does the speaker in each poem convey womanhood?
    • How does the tone in “Gender Reveal” differ from the tone in “Of Being Sick and Tired?”

Day Two

  • Read these two poems:
    • “Mother” Reginald Dwayne Betts (Furious Flower 2019, p. 27)
    • “I Wish You Black Sons” Glenis Redmond (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 122-124)
  • Discuss
  • Writing prompt:
    • Reimagine and rewrite one section of one of the poems with “father” instead of “mother”
    • Reimagine and rewrite one section of the other poem free of gender
  • Consider and discuss the following questions:
    • What systemic or traditional attributes are ascribed to “women?”
    • What systemic or traditional attributes are ascribed to “men?”
    • What happens when you erase gender from the poems?

Day Three

  • Read these two poems:
    • “Tapping at Mama’s Knees” by Cynthia Manick (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 253-254)
    • “Girl with the golden contacts at the Walmart” by Opal Moore (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 114-116)
  • Discuss:
    • How do the writer’s specific images shape Manick’s poem?
    • What is the role of relationships between women in each poem?
    • How does each poem tackle memory and listing as part of the format?
    • How does the format of the poem on the page support the vivid imagery of the poems?
  • Assignment: Write a poem about a mother or sister that uses concrete images to evoke the five senses in exploring family and gender. Consider how to use the white space on the page to reinforce meaning.

Day Four: Conclusion Session Share Out and Introduction to Workshop

  • Assignment/activity: Divide students into small groups. Students will choose one original poem to share with the class and read that poem to the small group first to receive constructive peer feedback.

Feedback formula:

  • Positive or affirming statement.
  • One question about the poem.
  • Ask the poet if they have any questions or desire specific feedback.
  • Give requested feedback.
  • One constructive note or suggestion.
  • Second positive or affirming statement.

Media resources/Visuals

Unit Title: Writing Queerness

Unit Objective

Compare, interrogate, discuss and annotate poems to explore voice, point of view, and multiple layers of writing queerness as it relates to form, memoir, vivid imagery, championing justice, grief, and relationships.

Day One

  • Read these two poems:
    • “90 Poems I Didn’t Write For You” by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 38-41)
    • “Praise Poem For My Leo Self” by JP Howard (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 49-50)
  • Discuss: List Poem as a poetic device*
  • Writing Prompt: Make a list of five of your favorite things. For two of the items on your list, explain at length what makes them your “favorite” in 2-3 short sentences.
  • Writing Assignment
  • Reading exercise:
    • Read the above poems
    • Consider and discuss the following questions:
      • What is the role of conversation and dialog in the poems?
      • In what ways are the poets using the first-person point of view in poems?
      • How does format on the page support or shape the poem’s subject matter?
      • How do pop culture and media impact or support the poems?

*List Poem: A list poem is a deliberately organized poem containing a list of images or adjectives that build up to describe the poem’s subject matter through an inventory of things.

Day Two

  • Read these two poems before class:
    • “Loni, with a martini and sapphire balls,” by Arisa White (Furious Flower 2019, p. 310)
    • “Discipline” by Phillip B. Williams (Furious Flower 2019, p. 311)
  • Watch Phillip B. Williams reading “Discipline”
  • Discuss: Prose Poetry* vs. Short Poems
  • Writing prompt: Think of an “event” or “moment” where you felt your life changed, shifted or felt different. List the details of that moment. Be as descriptive as you can.
  • Writing assignment: The haibun**
    • Consider and discuss the following questions:
      • What do we know about Loni in White’s poem?
      • What isn’t said explicitly in both White’s and Williams’ poem?
      • How does format on the page support or shape the poem’s subject matter?

*Prose Poem: A prose poem is a poem written in several sentences and blocked text.

**Haibun Poem: A haibun is a hybrid form of poetry from Japan which appears in format as a popsicle and is composed of combined poetry and haiku. The anatomy of a haibun poem is a block of nonfiction and ends with a haiku or a tanka. The haibun often begins with the event, action, or jolt and is less concerned with the lead up to the event, action, jolt or a-ha moment.

Day Three

  • Read these poems:
    • “When the Therapist Asks You to Recount, You Have To Say It” by Aricka Foreman (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 100-101)
    • “Conditions for a Southern Gothic” by Rickey Laurentiis, (Furious Flower 2019, p. 56)
    • “Initiation” by Kamilah Aisha Moon, (Furious Flower 2019, p. 59)
  • Discuss: The role of grief as a main character or driving force.
  • Writing Prompt: Write your definition of grief as if you were explaining it to a very young child.
  • Assignment: Epistolary poems*
  • Consider and discuss the following questions:
    • How do both Moon and Foreman tackle grief?
    • How does Laurentiis’s use of format and inserting a list in “Conditions for a Southern Gothic” add complexity to the poem?

*Epistolary Poem: An epistolary poem, also called a verse letter or letter poem, is a poem in the form of an epistle or letter. The epistolary poem does not consist of any particular format or rhyme other than beginning with a salutation to the intended “receiver” of the letter.

Day Four: Share Out and Introduction to Workshop

  • Assignment/activity: Divide students into small groups. Students will choose one poem to share with the class and read that poem to the small group first to receive constructive peer feedback.

Feedback formula:

  • Positive or affirming statement.
  • One question about the poem.
  • Ask the poet if they have any questions or desire specific feedback.
  • Give requested feedback.
  • One constructive note or suggestion.
  • Second positive or affirming statement.

Media resources/Visuals

Unit Title: Writing Place

Unit Objective

Through this unit, students will engage with the idea of writing space—exploring poems that explore nature, the concept of home, locality/regionality, and more—and will learn rhetorical strategies (figurative language, imagery, structure, etc.) that Black poets employ to write about place. Students will also understand “place” is determined not only by its present condition and/or inhabitants but also by the histories and pasts that lived within it, especially those that relate to racial and ecological concerns.

Day One: The Relativity of Place

  • Read chapter before class:
  • Discuss chapter:
    • How does the Walden essay demonstrate the relativity of place in relation to:
      • time/era
      • race/history
      • ecology/nature
    • What is the relation between nature and the built environment?
    • Is the built environment ever outside nature? 
    • Is nature as it is experienced ever outside the built environment? 
  • In-class writing: Have students complete a short, two-part write-up:
    • Part one: explain how the Walden essay demonstrates the relativity of place in relation to either time/era, race/history, or ecology/nature.
    • Part two: consider a place you have seen change over time and how the relativity of place applies to that memory
  • Reading exercise—to do for homework: Find two poems/songs (eg. rap, music videos, etc.) by two different writers set in the same place. Compare and contrast the ways that place materializes in that work.
  • Watch in class: Dawn Lundy Martin – “Talking About New Orleans” by Jayne Cortez

Day Two: Home as Place and Concept

  • Read these two poems:
    • “self-portrait with no flag” by Safia Elhillo (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 36-37)
    • “which art? what fact?” by Nate Marshall (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 57-58)
  • Watch these videos:
  • Discuss:
    • Compare and contrast the ways Elhillo and Marshall write about their respective homes. How do they use imagery, metaphor, form, etc. to depict their homes, both as a physical space and as a site of memory?
    • Think about home as a place. Is it a place of confinement? Is it a place of community support? What is its relation to past, present, and future?
    • Think about home beyond location—who is home for you? What does home smell like, feel like, sound like?
    • What is the difference between being from a place and a place you call home?
  • Writing prompt, in-class: Write about home as a place—whether you consider your birthplace or another place your home. What is significant about this place; how has being rooted there shaped the journey of your life?
  • Share responses and discuss as group
  • Additional resource: “The Site of Memory,” essay by Toni Morrison

Day Three: Writing Region—the South in Black Poetry

  • Read before class: “Jericho Rising—How the push and pull of the South feed Louisiana native Jericho Brown’s soul-shaking, award-winning poetry”
  • Writing exercise: Write a list of 10 things the South means to you/makes you think of.
  • Read these two poems in class:
    • “Say, Divine” by DéLana R.A. Dameron (Furious Flower 2019, p. 186)
    • “Conditions for a Southern Gothic” by Rickey Laurentiis (Furious Flower 2019, p. 56)
  • Watch video:
  • Discussion: Return to your list of 10 ideas about the South and answer these questions:
    • After engaging with the poems we read, how did they compare to your concept of the South?
    • How do you think your idea of the South is influenced by time/era, race/history, and ecology/nature?
    • How do these ideas relate to the relativity of place? How has your life informed your opinion of the South?
    • What have you learned about how the South informs the poets’ (Dameron, Laurentiis, Trethewey, Brown) writing and perspective?

Day Four: Place, Nature, and the Imagined

  • Before class: take a 15-20 minute walk outdoors (doesn’t necessarily have to be “in nature”) and write about the environment you observe.
  • Read these two poems in class:
    • “Versal” by francine j. harris (Furious Flower 2019, pp. 239-240)
    • “Dew-Drier” by Dante Micheaux (Furious Flower 2019, p. 113)
  • Discuss the following questions:
    • How do harris and Micheaux use nature as a springboard towards imagination?
    • What parts of the places they wrote about do you think they really saw? Which parts do you think they imagined?
    • How do the ideas of relativity and place relate to the poems?
    • Would you consider either poem a Black “history poem” based on Woodson’s essay? Why or why not?
  • In-Class Activity: Take the writing from your outside walk and add in imaginative elements, either based on what you saw, or something entirely new altogether. Discuss how your additions have changed the “place” you originally wrote about, and how they’ve changed the piece as a whole.

License

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The Furious Flower Syllabus Project: Opening the World of Black Poetry Copyright © 2024 by Anastacia-Reneé; allia abdullah-matta; Ariana Benson; Mary Beth Cancienne; Teri Ellen Cross Davis; Shameka Cunningham; Hayes Davis; Tyree Daye; Angel C. Dye; Brian Hannon; T.J. Hendrix; DaMaris B. Hill; Meta DuEwa Jones; Shauna M. Morgan; Adrienne Danyelle Oliver; Leona Sevick; James Smethurst; Dana A. Williams; L. Lamar Wilson; Carmin Wong; Dave Wooley; and Joanne V. Gabbin (preface) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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