Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Poetry Friday: A Significant Week!

When Mary Lee put out the call for Poetry Friday hosts, I knew that I had dabbled and showed up and reaped where others had sown for far too long. So I gathered my courage, picked what looked like an unremarkable week in August, and signed up to host Poetry Friday for the first time. 

Little did I realize at the time that this week had SIGNIFICANCE! 

It's the anniversary week of the passing of the 19th amendment. There's so much to learn and so many opportunities available. I still haven't watched the American Experience: The Vote (a two part PBS special I recorded).  I saved the special section from Sunday's New York Times, "How American Women Won the Right to Vote," and I'm slowly reading the articles. While writing this post, I discovered 14 Ways to Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment. While written for residents of Washington, several links lead to online opportunities.

It's the week of the Democratic National Convention, a convention unlike any we've ever seen before. And I've been lucky to watch the proceedings and commentary of the first three nights and am looking forward to the final night's events on Thursday evening.

It's the anniversary week of my first post for Poetry Friday. Mind you, I'd been a lurker and commenter for a long time, but it was during this week (six years ago) that I finally took the plunge and began my journey as a some-of-the-time participant in Poetry Friday. And guess who left a comment on that first post? None other than Lee Bennett Hopkins! It still makes my heart happy to read his words on that post.

Here are my poetry offerings for this week: 

Evie Shockely's "women's voting rights at one hundred (but who's counting?)" was co-commissioned by the Academy of American Poets and the New York Philharmonic as part of the Project 19 initiative (with new poems by nineteen contemporary women poets). Shockely's poem reminds us that amid celebrations of the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, we should remember the ongoing struggle of black women to claim their voting rights.

Say Her Name arrived in the brown bag that I picked up curbside recently at my local branch of the library. Zetta Elliott is a new-to-me author and I'm not sure how I learned about this book. The back cover of the book has this endorsement: "Award-winning author Zetta Elliott engages poets from the past two centuries to create a chorus of voices celebrating the creativity, resilience, and courage of Black women and girls. ...these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists championing the Black Lives Matter cause." As I read this book, I discovered that I have much to learn. After my first reading of the book, I found the notes at the end which helped provide much needed context for many of the poems and led to another reading of the book, flipping from poem to notes in the back for the additional information.

 

Here's a link to Camp TV (fast forward to 47:05 to find the exact spot) where you can listen to Zetta Elliott read her new picture book (published July 2020), "A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart."

I look forward to reading your blog posts and seeing what you'll share this week. 


 

 

 

22 comments:

  1. Significant, indeed! I'm glad this week fell into your capable hands, Ramona - Thanks for the link to the Evie Shockely poem and for the other links to explore. (I still have that PBS special recorded but as-yet unwatched as well - Ha! Hope to remedy that soon.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robyn! You and Ramona and I will have to have a distant watch party of our recordings of The Vote!

      Delete
  2. How cool that LBH commented on your first PF hosting! This is a significant time, for sure. Thanks for being our able and gracious host!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Many congratulations on your celebratory post of such auspicious occasions. I love that you are celebrating! I will join you. This week I jumped from making small scale crafts to a larger piece of art. I can find lots of ways that it could be better and the things I'll do next time to make it better. But, I do love dabbling in the visual arts. Thanks so much for hosting the round up this week. I'm off to click on all your links!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a treat to have your post celebrating the 19th amendment in the midsts of the Democratic National Convention! Thanks for this rich, and chock full of resources post, and for hosting!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ramona ~ Happy Blogging Anniversary (yay!), and thank you so much for hosting...it's not a small commitment, especially in this significant week! I, too, recorded the PBS special on The Vote and haven't watched it yet--maybe you and Robyn and I can have a distant watch party! And we'll all wear suffragette white. I'm off to do more politics and poetry--a delish combination!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Such a lot happening in what you hoped would be an uneventful week, Ramona. Even from far away Australia I am very much aware of the tumult and the shouting coming from America right now and in amongst that you have occasion to mark some significant anniversaries. Thank you for being brave and thank you for hosting.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, Ramona, it is such a 'significant' week, so much to celebrate from our past & this very present! How wonderful that you have that comment from Lee to cherish! I think I've rarely watched this much tv but the convention was so exciting! Thanks for sharing all those links. I need to get that book, Say Her Name & loved "A Place Inside of Me"! Thanks for hosting!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ramona, this was a significant week indeed for you. Thank you for hosting PF and giving us a peek into your week via the interesting links. I loved the reading of A Place Inside of Me. I hope you feel proud that you mustered your brave face to be a hostess with the mostess!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It takes a certain amount of courage to host this group. Glad I finally stepped up to the plate.

      Delete
  9. Ramona, I'm so happy you are part of this community! Thank you for hosting today and bringing your own special brand of Ramona-ness to our lives. Joy! xo

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for hosting and featuring the 100th anniversary celebration too! (My link was inadvertently posted incorrectly, so I redid-- I apologize for the confusion and duplication!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The same thing happened to me, Sylvia--Ramona was able to delete the erroneous link, thank goodness. Ah, covid-brain!

      Delete
  11. Hi Ramona, not sure what happened to my comment from last night, but I wanted to thank you for hosting - and congratulate you on such a stupendously incredible week! (And so cool that Lee left you a message on your first post!)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks so much for hosting and for all the fabulous links. You picked a momentous week and lived up to the challenge. I really enjoyed listening to Zetta Elliot read her poem and will check out some of the other links later. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for hosting--I finally signed up to host later--in the fall. I figured it was about time for me, too. And I really enjoyed both poems, although I learned some new and painful things from Evie's poem. But what better way to learn than with the power of poetry!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you for hosting this week, Ramona. I remember how nervous I was about hosting for the first time. You've done an incredible job! These resources are terrific, and I can't wait to get a copy of Say Her Name!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you, Romona. I appreciate knowing about the upcoming events this week and for sharing Shockely's poem about women's voting rights. What a wonderful piece! Great post.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Significant on so many counts, Ramona! And the perfect poem and book to share...thank you!

    ReplyDelete