Monday, September 26, 2011

Why Poetry Matters

I'm now teaching Gertrude Stein in my Contemporary American Poetry course at UH. Today was the first day of listening to her poetry and investigating her methodology. After reading her essay "Poetry and Grammar" together, my students are really beginning to see how poetry is evolving at the beginning of the 20th C.

As I was clicking through various youtube videos in search of something aural of Stein's, I came across this video, which I want to share with you.

This is an amazing video of two high school students doing a recitation of Gertrude Stein's "Patriarchal Poetry." After the students are done reciting the poem, listen to their take on this challenge and how Stein has made them think about language.

1 comment:

Yeti said...

stumbled onto this blog and video while I was looking for a way to help my H.S. kids open up to Gertrude Stein. Wow. Thanks for posting it! Very moving to watch the kids speak and to hear how much the poem meant to them.