Cooperative Collection Development -- CCD: Additional Resources
About this collection
This is a collection of poetry begging to be read aloud and performed. It is a collection of fun to read, free style, spit & performed poetry. There are some guides to help you become a spoken word poet.
The collection spans the grades and is for reading aloud, performing, and most importantly, for inspiring all the spoken word poets among us.
How to use this collection
This Spoken Word & Poetry collection lives on SORA, a national ebook and audiobook platform that combines the collections of NYC Department of Education, like this one, with the collections of your local library branches. You can load up different library collection and access them from one app!
LOG IN with your NYCDOE email username/password. If you are a teacher, you know them already, but if you are a student, you can find them here w/ your OSIS #.
Highlighted titles
The Breakbeat Poets Vol 4 by ISBN: 9781642591293Publication Date: 2020-04-07The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext celebrates the embodied narratives of Latinidad. Poets speak from an array of nationalities, genders, sexualities, races, and writing styles, staking a claim to our cultural and civic space. Like Hip-Hop, we honor what was, what is, and what's next.
Light for the World to See by ISBN: 9780358539414Publication Date: 2020-11-17A powerful and provocative poem that cuts to the heart of the entrenched racism and oppression in America and eloquently explores ongoing events. A book in the tradition of James Baldwin's "A Report from Occupied Territory," Light for the World to See is a rap session on race. A lyrical response to the struggles of Black lives in our world . . . to America's crisis of conscience . . . to the centuries of loss, endless resilience, and unstoppable hope. Includes an introduction by the author and a bold, graphically designed interior.
Bum Rush the Page by ISBN: 9780609808405Publication Date: 2001-10-23Bum Rush the Page is a groundbreaking collection, capturing the best new work from the poets who have brought fresh energy, life, and relevance to American poetry. “Here is a democratic orchestration of voices and visions, poets of all ages, ethnicities, and geographic locations coming together to create a dialogue and to jam–not slam. This is our mouth on paper, our hearts on our sleeves, our refusal to shut up and swallow our silence. These poems are tough, honest, astute, perceptive, lyrical, blunt, sad, funny, heartbreaking, and true. They shout, they curse, they whisper, and sing. But most of all, they tell it like it is.” –Tony Medina, from the Introduction
Take the Mic by ISBN: 9781402218996Publication Date: 2009-04-07Have you ever enjoyed a slam or two and thought, "I could do this," but felt apprehensive staring at that empty mic - or worse, you climbed up on stage and struggled? Let Marc Kelly Smith, the founder of Slam Poetry, teach you everything you need to be a confident performer, from writing a powerful poem, to stage techniques, to going on tour (if that's where your muse leads you). You'll also find a brief history of slam, the rules and regulations that govern official slam competitions, and a list of PSI (Poetry Slam, Inc.) Certified Slams, so no matter where you are, you always have a place to Take the Mic!
Boom! Bellow! Bleat! by ISBN: 9781620915202Publication Date: 2019-03-12This playful collection of poems--peppered with an astounding variety of animal sounds--is meant to be read aloud together. These poems for two or more voices explore the myriad sounds animals make--from a frog's jug-o-rum to a fish's boom! to an elephant's bark. Laced with humor, the poems are a delight to read aloud and cover all major classes of animals- mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, even a crustacean! Readers will learn how to estimate the temperature by counting a cricket's chirps and see how creatures make sounds at specific pitches and frequencies, so that they can be heard despite other noise around them.
Research questions
Why is poetry written to be spoken, to be spit?
What effect does a live performance of spoken word poetry have on the audience?
How can I become a spoken word poet?
Curator/Librarian
Sara Lissa Paulson is the librarian at City-As-School High School. She is one of the creative writing and songwriting teachers at her school and founder/editor of the CAS literary zine "No Earth without Art," published 2015-2020, and has been hosting open mics and reading poetry aloud for decades in school libraries.
If you have any suggestions for this collection, please send them to lissa@cityas.org.
The best collections are collective. Words flow electric.
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