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AAPI Women Voices: Identity & Activism in Poetry

Unit Slides

AAPI Women Voices: Identity & Activism in Poetry

LESSON 1

Unit Introduction

Central Idea

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What Is Poetry Anticipation Guide

• Please fill out the “What Is Poetry Anticipation Guide” in your worksheet.
• Let’s review when everyone has completed the form.

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Agree or Disagree

• Poetry is something I’m familiar with.
• Poetry is fun.
• Poetry is hard to understand.
• Poetry is difficult to write.
• Poetry is written by women
• Poetry is written by Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans.

What Is Poetry Anticipation Guide

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Basic Structure of a Poem

Prose Structure: Poetry Structure:

Sentence Line

Paragraph Stanza

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• AAPI is short for Asian American and Pacific Islander.
• We will explore how poems are used to depict various subjects.
• Poets often explore different issues, topics, and ways of thinking.

AAPI Women Voices: Identity & Activism in Poetry

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Janice Mirikitani

• Born, raised in California
• She is a community organizer
• She and her family were incarcerated in Rohwer, Arkansas, concentration camp with the mass internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

Image from Untold Stories Through Poetry

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Janice Mirikitani

• Co-founder and President of the Glide Foundation
• Glide empowers San Francisco’s poor and marginalized communities to make meaningful changes in their lives to break the cycle of poverty and dependence.

Image from Untold Stories Through Poetry

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“Bad Women” by Janice Mirikitani

Central Idea of a poem

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Let us watch the video “Bad Women, a poem by Janice Mirikitani”

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Observe in the “Bad Women” video:

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• How Mirikitani emphasizes her words
• How she introduces her topic
• How she concludes her poem

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Reflection on “Bad Women”

• Do you agree with Janice’s take on being a bad woman?
• Did you enjoy her poem?
• What pieces did you like or dislike?
• Where does her inspiration come from?

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Poets often surprise us about topics

• Write what others would be surprised to learn about you.

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Expectations of this Class

• We will exploring 1 or 2 poems each day in class.
• Study poems as homework.
• Learn how to write poems.
• At the end of this unit, you will write your own poem.
• Keep all your classwork , homework, & worksheets. They will be helpful in writing your own poem. Bring all your worksheets to class.
• The “AAPI Women Voices: Untold Stories Through Poetry” story contains all the poems for lecture, classwork, and homework. Bring it to class everyday.

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Classwork

• Highlight your favorite lines.
• Star lines that make you think differently about the title Bad Women.
• Think about the last line, the concluding line,

• What does it mean?
• Is that the central idea of the poem?
• Mark the lines which support the concluding line.

“Bad women can burn.”

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Class Discussion

• What is the central idea of the poem?
• What is Janice Mirikitani conveying in her concluding line?
• Keep in mind you will need a central idea and a concluding line for your own poem.

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1. Read Janice Mirikitani’s biography in the “AAPI Women Voice” story.

2. Read Shirley Geok-Lin Lim’s biography.

3. Read “Learning to love America” by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim.

4. How does Shirley Geok-Lin Lim support her central idea?

• Write your interpretation of the seven lines in the poem.
• Write how you feel about the concluding line.

Homework

Image from Untold Stories Through Poetry

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1. Read Lehua M. Taitano’s biography.
2. Read “One Kind of Hunger” by Lehua Taitano.
3. Turn to Homework 2 in your Central Idea �Worksheet.

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Background information about the poem:

• The poem is Lehua Taitano’s response /�re-telling of “The Origin of Stories.”
• “The Origin of Stories” is a Seneca oral �story about the creation of story itself �and its importance in passing on cultural tradition.

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Homework 2

Image from Untold Stories Through Poetry

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• “One Kind of Hunger” is a furthering of the ideology of indigenous cultural preservation practices.
• It tells the tale of an orphan boy who goes out hunting and discovers a stone that tells stories. The boy learns quickly that the emotional nourishment he receives from the stone’s stories is even more important than the physical nourishment he receives from the birds he hunts.

4. Find at least 3 lines in the poem that support the central idea of the poem.

5. Write how the central idea relates to your own experiences.

Homework 2

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Curriculum Developer:

Megan Roberto

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Curriculum Contributors:

Prabhneek Heer, Kristy Phan

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