The stories and poems listed below have been taken from class sets and single copies of books which I have. They will serve as the unit’s core reading; many will be used to develop writing activities. A folder of the stories will be kept on file at the Teachers’ Institute Office.
Baez, Joan. “My Father” Baez presents a physical, social, and moral portrait of her father. The clustering of memories is a technique students may wish to use in their writing.
Brooks, Gwendolyn. “We Real Cool. The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel”. Poem.
Brown, Claude. “Every Man’s Got to Pick His Time.” Danny has kicked his drug habit, this time for good. A cluster of nightmarish memories leads him to choose his time to stop running.
______. From
Manchild in the Promised Land
.*
Chisholm, Shirley. “Back to Brooklyn”. Chisholm reminisces about being kept on a tight rein by her parents, who wanted her to grow up to be something. The opening section is a good example of place memories.
Collins, Judy. “My Father”.*
Cosby, Bill. “Ninth Street Bridge.” Cosby humorously relates a childhood encounter with fear, danger, and escape.
Douglass, Frederick. “Learning to Read”.*
Giovanni, Nikki. “Nikki Rosa”. Poem.
Gregory, Dick. “The Day I Learned Shame”.*
______. “We Ain’t Poor, Just Broke.” Gregory reminisces about the greatness of his mother, a woman who kept working, scrambling, and smiling because it hurt too much to cry.
Hansberry, Lorraine. From “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black”. Hansberry’s journal entries deal with her desire to write out the “stuff” of her life, with truth, with her family, with the influence of place on people.
Hunt, Evelyn Tooley. “Taught Me Purple.” Poem.
Inouye, Senator Daniel K. “One Sunday in December.” Inouye places himself—and all Japanese-Americans in Hawaii—in a historical context. He recounts the bombing of Pearl Harbor and its aftermath, its effect on his life.
Levenson, Sam. “Everything But Money” Levenson presents a humorous account of growing up poor. Memory clusters around children’s escapades and parents’ idiosyncrasies.
O’Hara, Frank. “A True Account of Talking to the Sun.” Poem.
Rutsala, Vern. “Looking in the Album.” Poem.
Sanchez, Roberto and Oscar Lewis. “The Time I Ran Away.” Sanchez describes the first time he ran away from home, prompted by a need for adventure and freedom from his family. After barely subsisting for three months, he returns home to be welcomed rather than punished, as he’d expected.
Stuart, Jesse. “As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap.” In a work of autobiographical fiction, Stuart’s narrator allows himself to be talked into doing something he knows is wrong in order to exact revenge. His second thoughts come too late.
Updike, John. “Ex-Basketball Player.” Poem.
Walker, Alice. “To Hell With Dying.” Walker presents a loving picture of Mr. Sweet, an elderly neighbor she later realizes was her first love. A humorous recounting of a “revival” from one of Mr. Sweet’s many encounters with dying segues into the recognition of loss, aging, and love.
Wallace, Robert. “Moving.” Poem.
Wright, Richard. “Betsy.” Hunger drives Wright to try to sell his dog; pride and prejudice prevent him from doing so. The dog’s death prompts harsh words from Wright’s mother, words with which he cannot agree.
X, Malcolm and Alex Haley. “Homeboy.” Malcolm’s impressions of bigger-city life are mixed in with the education he receives from a new friend, Freddie. The teacher’s guiding principle is that everything in the world is a hustle, so act accordingly.
*Items are discussed in the text of the unit.