Respect the Mic Competition
We are happy to announce the finalists, runner-up and winner of the Respect the Mic student competition and the runner-up and winner of the teacher competition.
We’d like to first congratulate Oak Park and River Forest High School student, Mia Rodriguez who was selected the winner of the student competition by final judge Hanif Abdurraqib, who wrote: “I loved for the way it managed to balance religious tone and imagery with sharp, witty, contemporary lyric.” Mia’s teachers are Noelle Berry and Adam Levin.
Next, we’d like to congratulate Grandview Heights High School student, Vivi Chute, the runner-up. Abdurraqib wrote this of Vivi’s poem: “It is really patient and heartbreaking and does great work to build a scene and remain still within it.” Vivi’s teacher is Joe Hecker.
The other finalists, their teachers and schools—all worthy of kudos-- are listed below.
In the teacher competition judged by Carol Jago, we would like to congratulate Jenn Boykin, a teacher at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina as winner of the lesson plan competition and John S. O’Connor of New Trier High School in the Chicagoland area, as runner-up. Jago’s comments on the two lesson plans are posted below.
Thanks to those who submitted and we hope you enjoy the Respect the Mic anthology!
Respect the Mic Teaching Competition
Outstanding teaching ideas for use with the collection Respect the Mic
Winner—Jennifer Boykin
“Guzzling Your Identity with the Ghazal”
Traditional forms may at first seem like a straightjacket for poetic expression, but they can also be useful structures that living writers employ to explore contemporary issues. In her poem “You’re at home, speak English, Mexican,” nineteen-year-old Juliana Sosa uses the ancient Arab form of a ghazal to reflect upon the various — and sometimes contradictory — spaces she navigates in her daily life. This lesson invites students to explore the spaces, places, and people they navigate, using their own identities as a starting point. It also exposes students to the power of repetition in a poetic form, the ghazal, with which they are likely to be unfamiliar.
Runner-up—John S. O’Connor
“Me, Myself, and Eyes: Persona Poems”
Employing three powerful poems from the Respect the Mic anthology: “Identity, Black” by Kyla Robateau, “& I Can Find a Home There, Too” by Dan Sullivan, and “Get Pretty” by LeKeja Dawson, this lesson asks students to reflect upon the masks we all wear. As students list the ways in which other people’s views of who they are can differ from how they would like to be seen, they begin to explore the myriad difficulties entailed in knowing another person. Is it possible for someone to know us better than we know ourselves? How well do we know ourselves, anyway? As a culminating task, students write a personal narrative describing a scene where another person’s understanding of them differed from their own.
To view the poems and lesson plans, go to the Additional Resources section of the Respect the Mic page.
We are very excited about the power of the Respect the Mic anthology and hope that schools will purchase copies of it for their students and teachers. See the Kirkus Review here.
Go here to purchase copies of Respect the Mic:
via Amazon (discount included)
If purchasing a lot of copies is not financially feasible, find links below for a small selection of the poems available for free online.
via Poetry magazine (11 total poems. Scroll down to the right corner and click on “Next in Issue”)
via Hypertext (3 total poems)
via Academy of American Poets (6 total poems)
Click here for more resources
