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A Partnership of Poetry and Politics: Carole Boston Weatherford’s Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement

4/13/2021

 

BY JENNIFER M. GRAFF & JOYCE BALCOS BUTLER, ON BEHALF OF THE BIOGRAPHY CLEARINGHOUSE

Book cover: Voice of Freedom
Our current celebration of poetry as a powerful cultural artifact and the national dialogue about voting rights generated by the introduction of 300+ legislative voting-restriction and 800+ voting-expansion bills in 47 states have inspired a rereading of the evocative, award-winning picturebook biography, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. Written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Ekua Holmes, and published by Candlewick Press in 2015, Voice of Freedom offers a vivid portrait of the life and legacy of civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer. Her famous statement, “All my life I’ve been sick and tired. Now I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired” (p.18) serves as a testimonial to the psychological and physiological effects of the injustices and violence inflicted upon Hamer and other Black community members in Mississippi. Additionally, Hamer’s statement signifies her tenacity, conviction, and unwavering fight for voting rights, congressional representation, and other critical components of racial equality until her death in 1977. 

"All my life I've been sick and tired. Now I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired." 

-Fannie Lou Hamer

Throughout Voice of Freedom, Weatherford’s poetry illustrates how Hamer’s stirring speeches, matter-of-fact testimonials, and her penchant for singing spirituals served as rallying cries for freedom and justice. Her roles as leader, mobilizer, organizer, political candidate, and advocate for social, financial and educational programming for Black communities further contributed to her identification as the “spirit of the civil rights movement.”  Holmes’ vibrant, textured collages, often “based on or inspired by photographs” (Weatherford, 2015, unpaged back matter), enhance the verbal juxtapositions of humanity and horror, and pay homage to Hamer’s resilience, compassion, and commitment to justice.
Using the Investigate, Explore, and Create Model of the Biography Clearinghouse, we offer teaching ideas focused on the art and science of conveying “emotional weight” and “factual burdens” (interview transcript, p.9) in biographies written in verse. Generating a sense of intimacy punctuated by emotional overtones of hardship and resilience, using first person point of view, pairing and alternating verse and prosaic text, and helping cultivate reader empathy are discussed.
Picture
CURRENT BOOK ENTRY
  • Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Harmer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement​
CONNECTED BOOK ENTRIES
  • She Persisted: Claudette Colvin
  • What Do You Do With A Voice Like That?
In our desire to honor and reflect Weatherford’s commitment to “mine the past for family stories, fading traditions, and forgotten struggles” (transcript, p.11), we provide a variety of multimedia resources for critical explorations of the past and present regarding:
  • youth-driven organizations for positive change
  • access to education for empowerment and transformation
  • voter suppression via literacy tests, poll taxes, and legislative acts  
  • the significance of song in civil rights movements
Voter registration application, 1955-1965
Mississippi Voter Registration Application, 1955-1965 (National Museum of American History)

Below we feature one of two time-gradated teaching recommendations included in the Create section of the Voice of Freedom book entry.

Youth As Agents of Change in Local Communities

Weatherford begins Voice of Freedom with Hamer’s own words: “The truest thing that we have in this country at this time is little children . . . . If they think you’ve made a mistake, kids speak out.” Pairing Hamer’s advocacy detailed in Voice of Freedom with contemporary youth activists, guide students in their exploration of how they can (or continue to) be agents of change in their communities.  
If you have 1-2 hours...
If you have 1-2 days...
If you have 1-2 weeks...
Using Voice of Freedom, discuss with students how Fannie Lou Hamer was a voice of change for voting rights and Black female political representation during the Civil Rights Movement.

Introduce Amanda Gorman, the First Youth Poet Laureate of the United States, to students. 

As a class, watch Gorman’s reading of her 2021 presidential inauguration poem, "The Hill We Climb." Ask students what message they think Gorman is conveying through her poem. Use the full-text version of "The Hill We Climb Text" for students’ exploration of Gorman’s words. Discuss how Gorman uses her voice to effect change on issues such as civil rights and feminism.

Begin an Agents of Change T- chart, using the headings, “Activist” and “Cause.” Ask students what issues Amanda Gorman might be advocating for in “The Hill We Climb.” Ask them about other causes they know about to include on the chart.
Revisit the concept of "agents of change," using the previously completed T-Chart. 

Watch one or both of the following videos featuring youth activists focused on environmental issues: 
  • Genesis Butler Shares Her Vision for Saving Our Planet 
  •  Mari Copeny: A Water Crisis Activist.

Continue to add to the existing T-Chart or create a new chart. Engage in discussions about the choices Genesis and Mari are making, how these affect their communities, and why this classifies them as agents of change. 

Below are other young activists that you can include in your inquiry:
  • Autumn Peltier: Water Warrior
  •  Sophie Cruz: Keeping Families Together
  •  Melati and Isabel Wijsen: Bye Bye Plastic Bags

See the book entry for additional possibilities.
Discuss the importance of youth activism in tandem with Secondlineblog.org. 

Have students identify local youth activists or organizations in their area whom they see as a voice of change. Consider using Global Citizen for inspiration.   

Have students create interview questions for the local youth activist or organization they selected. Students can conduct, record, and interview individuals through Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, or other digital platforms.

Using their interview recordings as a resource, ask students to create a multimodal presentation on the group or individual. Using Voice of Freedom, “The Hill We Climb,” or the other texts included in these ideas as mentor texts, encourage students to describe the group or individual’s advocacy work in their presentations and include why this makes them agents of change.

See the book entry for additional activities.
To see more classroom possibilities and helpful resources connected to Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, visit the Book Entry at The Biography Clearinghouse. Additionally, we’d love to hear how the interview and these ideas inspired you. Email us at thebiographyclearinghouse@gmail.com with your connections, creations, and questions.
Jennifer M. Graff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia where her scholarship focuses on diverse children’s literature and early childhood literacy practices. She is a former committee member of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction K-8, and has served in multiple leadership roles throughout her 15+ year CLA membership.  

Joyce Balcos Butler is a fifth-grade teacher in Winder, Georgia, where she focuses on implementing social justice learning through content areas. She is a National Writing Project Teacher Consultant, a Red Clay Writing Fellow at the University of Georgia, and a member of CLA.

From the 2020 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts Using Poetic Picturebooks as Mentor Texts

10/27/2020

 

BY ELIZABETH M. BEMISS

Each year, the Notable Children’s Books in Language Arts Committee (NCBLA) reads and discusses works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written for K-8 readers. Committee members, seven dedicated children’s literature enthusiasts, with experience ranging from elementary school teaching, to school librarians, and finally, university faculty with expertise in children’s and young adult literature, consider the requisite qualities for narrowing down the winners to a list of 30 titles.  

In this post, I will feature two poetic picture books included in the 2020 Notables list, Lion of the Sky: Haiku for All Seasons (2019), and Room on Our Rock (2019). ​

Lion of the Sky: Haiku for All Seasons 
Written by Laura Purdie Salas  
Illustrated by Mercé López
Millbrook, 2019, unpaged, ISBN 978-1-5124-9809-7


In this unique collection of poetry, Laura Purdie Salas intrigues readers with “riddle-ku” poems. The 24 three-line poems, centered around the four seasons, are narrated by something nonhuman, making it a mask poem for readers to guess each narrator. Coupled with Mercé López’s  stunning rendered acrylic illustrations that capture the nature of each object being described, the poetic words and artwork render objects associated with the seasons: 

A kite flying in spring 

“I am a wind bird,
sky skipper, diamond dipper,
DANCING on your string” 

Dandelions of summer 

“my fluffy seeds DRIFT
tiny puffs lift in the breeze
and land...who knows where?” 

Falling snow in the winter
 
“I’m cold confetti
falling from a crystal sky,
blanketing the town”  
Book cover: Lion of the Sky
Book cover: Room on Our Rock
Room on Our Rock 
Written by Kate and Jol Temple
Illustrated by Terri Rose Baynton
Kane Miller, 2019, unpaged, ISBN 978-1-61067-902-2

This clever book presents readers with a story that reads forward and backward, revealing narratives about sharing and compassion. Upon the first reading, a trio of seals announce “There’s no room on our rock” to a seal and pup approaching their rock from the sea. As the seals shoo away the approaching pair, readers are told “No room on this rock? Can it be true? Read back to front for another point of view.” Readers then find a seal and pup escaping dangerous seas who are welcomed by the seals: “You’re welcome here / You’ll never hear us say / Shoo! Go away!” Gray and blue watercolor illustrations of a landscape in the sea compliment this story sure to warm hearts and encourage compassion among readers. 

Teaching Tips for Using the Books as Mentor Texts

Utilized as mentor texts, these poetic picture books provide readers with delightful opportunities to craft their own written responses inspired from the texts.

The whimsical collection of “riddle-ku” poems in Lion of the Sky invites readers to enjoy a play on language and is an inspiring way to help young writers craft unique poetry of their own. Students can create their own “riddle-ku” poems and invite peers and family members to guess the answer to their “riddle-kus.” To scaffold young writers, teachers can draw from this brainstorming resource from Millbrook Press where students can craft a “Zoo-ku,” or a “riddle-ku” about an animal. Additionally, students can publish their “riddle-ku” on a Padlet Page created by the author, Laura Purdie Salas. Another way students can craft their poems is through Read Write Think’s Interactive Haiku Generator, which guides students through brainstorming, drafting, and publishing, where individual background images can be added to the published “riddle-ku.”  

The poetic forward and backward reading of Room on Our Rock can foster rich conversations between readers about the varying messages from the book when read forward versus backward as well as discussions surrounding point of view. Teachers can guide students to reflect on the kind of tone and voice needed to read the book forward and how it changed to read the book backward. Teachers could also have students think about how the artwork on each page was used to create the tone of the book from two perspectives. After engaging in deep conversation around the book, students can partner up to write a review of the book and then share their reviews via free audio or video sharing applications. Students can post links to the reviews on a class page such as note.ly or Padlet.



Elizabeth M. Bemiss, an Assistant Professor at the University of West Florida, teaches courses in children’s and young adult literature and literacy methods. Elizabeth is a member of the 2019-2021 Notables Committee.

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