Poetry and Pantomime

We spent a lot of time talking about history this week. We discussed big concepts such as civil disobedience, equality, freedom, nonviolence, peace, and love. We marveled at the words and songs from the inauguration.

In Reader's Theater Club on Thursday, we combined techniques from reader's theater and pantomime to make the images from Elizabeth Alexander's Inaugural Poem come alive for us. Many who know me know that I love poetry, and I love using poetry with children.

"Praise Song for the Day" carries many concrete images about our history and about where we may be going. Some of the lines from the poem were easy to put to movement such as:

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

Other sections were more difficult such as:

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

We all put our creative minds to the task together. Full of energy and full of passion, the students moved poetically to match the words of Alexander's poem with their hands, facial expressions, and bodies.