Kwame Alexander: The Way of Haiku: From Pathos to Play (Part 6 of 9)

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, and New York Times Bestselling author of 35 books, including his Newbery medal-winning middle grade novel, The Crossover. If you are a poet, writer, artist of any kind, supporter of the arts, activist, or just interested in haiku, listen to this episode! Kwame Alexander tells the story of the first time he heard a black poet , Sonya Sanchez, read haiku and realizing that the form could be politically conscious. Kwame reads Sonya’s haiku about black school children marching down the street in protest against South African apartheid; and another about the murders of young black men such as Trayvon Martin and George Floyd. Kwame talks about teaching high school, middle, and elementary school kids how to write and publish their own books of haiku, and to do it in one day! “If you actually feel it, then the writing doesn’t have to be hard,” says one of Kwame’s elementary school haiku students. Taking this young poet’s lead, Kwame reminds us that writing is about feeling into your own life and living in a way that is actually worth writing about. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Dogen: The Way of Haiku: From Pathos to Play 2022