====== Documentary Poetry ====== Documentary poetry captures specific examples in history and illustrates these events in words, images, sound, video, and other media. Poets often take a first person perspective of a person at the event or may act as observer and use a third person voice. The poems record grief, lives, and honor voices of those who can no longer speaka nd often could not speak when alive. ===== Qualities of Documentary Poetry ===== * Creative process connected withand inspired by primary sources * Poet’s intention is to represent tone/voice in primary sources authentically * Creative works integrate primary sources, sometimes responding to documents unseen by the reader, other times arrangingexcerpts from primary sourcesto create something new, or integrating source excerptswith original poetry * Purpose is to bear witness/raise awareness/incite social change, reflecting the role of poet as engaged citizen, journalist, historian, witness, and advocate source: [[http://www.poetryriver.org/uploads/2/5/5/4/25542640/str14_docpoetry.pdf|http://www.poetryriver.org/uploads/2/5/5/4/25542640/str14_docpoetry.pdf]] ===== Mentor Texts ===== Barrett Browning, Elizabeth. “[[http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172981|The Cry of the Children.]]” 1844. Found online here: Dawes, Kwame. “[[http://www.livehopelove.com/|Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica]].” [[http://pulitzercenter.org/features/voices-haiti|Voices of Haiti Project]] Jess, Tyehimba. “[[http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TedxNashvlle-Tyehimba-Jess-Sync|Syncopated Sonnets: TED Talk.]]” Reznikoff, Charles. [[https://media.sas.upenn.edu/Pennsound/authors/Reznikoff/Holocaust_1975/Reznikoff-Charles_14_Children-3_Holocaust_NYC_12-21-75.mp3|“Children 3”]]. Rukeyser, Muriel. [[http://murielrukeyser.emuenglish.org/writing/the-book-of-the-dead/|The Book of the Dead]]. 1938. Found online here: Trethewey, Natasha. [[https://vimeo.com/6362681|“Believer.” Congregation]]. source: Heidi Renée Aijala ===== Reading Documentary Poetry ===== [[https://atthewellcrw3.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/knowledge-natasha-trethewey/|Knowledge]] by Natasha Tretheway (CW: Nude cadaver) Much of Tretheway's work derives from images. Whether from pictures, documents, or memories these poems draw on snapshots of history. When you read the [[https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b11833798#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0|history of the image]] Tretheway used (CW:suicide, body image) the poem becomes more real. * Teaching Ideas * Have students look for elements of gender, power, and tone? * Interrogate how Tretheway treats beauty. How does this treatment affect structure? word choice? * ===== Writing Documentary Poetry ===== [[http://www.poetryriver.org/uploads/2/5/5/4/25542640/str14_docupoetry_slides_pr.pdf|Side Show]] * Choose an historical event OR * Choose an historical photo or different source * Research the Event * Brainstorm words, phrases or feelings from the source * You can make a graphic organizer like a tchart and one side write what you want to describe and on the left write a stanza. * Optionally incorporate direct quotes ===== Student Examples ======