How do authors and artists celebrate and affirm their identities as they intersect with their environment?
While students need mentor texts that illustrate resistance in the face of injustice, they also need texts that celebrate; even in the field of environmental literature, which often by its nature is written in response to degradation or injustice, students must see examples of renaissance, celebration, and rebirth in writing. Christensen, in Teaching for Joy and Justice, affirms this need for celebration of culture and life through reading and writing. “Part of my job as a teacher is to awaken students to the joy and love that they may take for granted,” writes Christensen. “I use poetry and narrative prompts that help them ‘see’ daily gifts, to celebrate their homes and heritages. (20)” In teaching environmental literature, it can be easy to fall victim to the notion that environmental works must inherently tell stories of injustice; perhaps due to the aforementioned limiting of environmental learning to the sciences, students are often unprepared to discuss the concept of “the environment” in any way beyond discussing the crisis of climate change. However, as Christensen writes, there exists joy and love in all cultures, and therefore in all environments.
Celebrating Our Environments: Where is “Here?” (Rationale)
Teachers must use poetry and narrative literature to help students examine the joy in their own environments as well as in unfamiliar environments. Poet Jamaal May speaks to this joy, too often overlooked, in his poem dedicated to Detroit titled “There are Birds Here.” In the poem, May celebrates the beauty of the birds he sees while recognizing the outsiders to his city who are determined to see the birds as some sort of melodramatic metaphor for ruination and poverty. Clint Smith, in his response poem “There Is a Lake Here,” dedicated to his hometown of New Orleans, celebrates the “lake with outstretched arms. And no, not the type of arms raised in surrender… And no, this water is not that which comes from a storm or that which turns a city into a tessellation of broken windows and spray paint. (21)” Both May and Smith, in their narrative poetry, celebrate the unconditional beauty of their environments, using powerful imagery to celebrate the natural environment that is often overlooked not because of any flaw, but because of outside ignorance and stereotyping.
Celebrating Our Environments: Where is “Here?” (Lesson)
After reading and discussing the poems of both May and Smith, students will engage in creative writing that celebrates their own environments.
As an opener, students will rotate in small groups to brainstorm on chart paper in a “silent graffiti” warm-up.At each station, and without discussion, they will jot down responses to one of the following prompts:
- What do people overlook or not see clearly in New Haven?
- What misconceptions do people have about New Haven?
- What are the most joyful things about living in New Haven?
- What are the most beautiful things you see in New Haven?
- What do you love about New Haven?
When all student groups have addressed all five prompts, they will be given some silent time to journal about any responses-- whether their own or those of their classmates-- that especially resonated with them. At some point in their journal, they should identify one image, object, or idea that they wish to assert is present in their city, similar to the assertion that May makes: “There are birds here.”
Next, students will begin their poetry workshop, in which they will write about their city (or another place they identify as home) in the style of May and Smith. Their poem can take on whatever tone, voice, or assertion that the student feels is most appropriate for their vision of their city, but it should focus on some aspect of their city that is not typically recognized, celebrated, or appreciated.
Students will be given time to engage in a full writer’s workshop to polish their writing and get feedback from their peers and teachers. When all members of the class are finished with their pieces, the poetry should be collected and anthologized (similarly to how the poetry of May and Smith are often anthologized together) in a literary magazine or collection to be distributed amongst students and across the community.
