INSPIRATION AFRICA!
Project 1
Kemnal Technology College
Poems/literacy
Many discussions around power took place over the project which were used to loosen up the pupils and inform the poetry - these included political power, the power of love, patriarchal power and the disadvantages/advantages of being a man or a woman.
A pupil wrote:
Womens' rights
Stand up
Shout out
Treat as equal
whilst another thought that women got away with things, had more rights and had a power in pregnancy that men didn't have.
Different forms of poetry were explored and developed - rhythmic, non-rhythmic, haiku, acrostic. Each pupil was also asked to write a line beginning with 'Give me the power to...'. At the beginning of the project these were mostly all based around Western notions of power but were rewritten on the last day to include many personal hopes, wishes and desires around:
These lines were all very moving and reflected real wishes that might have been taken to the nkisi power figure.
HAIKU
A specific form of poetry that uses words sparingly to create an emotion. A haiku poem is one of images, where the images represent an object or action that creates an emotion.
shining, blazing, powerful
giver of life
controlling the universe
magnificent
Nkisi power figure by KTC pupil
ACROSTIC
A poem, or rhymed puzzle, in which the first, or first and last, letters of lines, spell a word or words.
Never looks away
Kindling the fire in his eyes
I try to stare him out
Staring, staring
I loose
On the last day, the pupils wrote out their personal memory and 'Give me the power to ...' poems. The personal memories were not read out to the group but folded and placed inside their screen printed individual bags to be pinned to the power banner/book and thereby activating it at the closing ceremony.
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