For this assignment, choose a poet and one of his or her poems, which have some relation to activism for social justice, peace, and human rights. Research this person and give a five-ten minute presentation on his or her life, contributions, and connection to the broader themes of the course, as well as, an analysis of the poem you’ve chosen. Be creative. Dress up as your character if you’d like. Play a song. Draw a picture. Give a powerpoint. Have fun. If you want to simply speak to the class, hand in a 2-page write-up of your presentation. Regardless, you’ll be graded on your effort and the content of your poem’s analysis. 

Regarding the good eats: it’s up to us! Whoever is NOT presenting for that day, brings in food. Let’s go to New Mexico: chips, salsa, guacamole, tapas, empanadas, and did someone say sangria? 

Some Suggested Poets:

Tupac Shakur                  Langston Hughes               Claude McKay

Countee Cullen               Walt Whitman                     Emily Dickinson

Meena Alexander            Audre Lorde                        Gwendolyn Brooks

Maya Angelou                  Elizabeth Bishop               Sylvia Plath

Marianne Moore             Gertrude Stein                    Amiri Baraka

Hettie Jones                     Lucille Clifton                      Kay Boyle

Nancy Cunard                  Reinaldo Arenas                Nikki Giovanni

Paul Lawrence                  Sonia SanchezPhyllis Wheatley

June Jordan

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Allen Ginsberg

Adrienne Rich

Wallace Stevens

William Carlos Williams

Ezra Pound

e.e. Cummings

Philip Levine

Marianne Moore

Rita Dove

Claudia Rankine

Eileen Myles

Kathy Acker

Denise Levertov

Louise Gluck

Yusef Komunyakaa

Amy Lowell

Robert Lowell