ADD YOUR VOICE, BETHEL PARK
JOIN THE CELEBRATION TODAY ! DETAILS BELOW
BETHEL PARK HIGH SCHOOL TO HOST AFRICAN-AMERICAN READ-IN EVENT
The Bethel Park High School English Language Arts department and S. T. A. N. D. welcome you to be part a local ongoing online event as part of the National Council of Teachers of English country-wide program "African American Read-In" during February 2021. This online adaptation of our in-person event, we are dubbing a "Read-Out."
The event is an online poetry recitation and readers' theater program celebrating literary selections for Black History Month. You are welcome to join anytime this month by clicking on the links below and adding a recitation or performance to our page on Flipgrid. Get started today!
Anyone in the BPHS community--students, faculty, administrators, and parents--may add a video recitation to the Flipgrid gallery. Suggested pieces are listed in the links below, and include, poems, excerpts from speeches, spoken-word performance, and more from African-American authors.
You may already have a text in mind. If not, please check out our text library below.
After some practice, when you ready, head over to the Flipgrid page and record your recitation/performance.
Please join this year's celebration of African American literature and music, including such authors as Angelou, Wilson, Baldwin, King, and Hughes, plus original works by students as well.
JAMES BALDWIN
TELL YOUR FRIENDS -- easy link for this site is tinyurl.com/bpread-in
LANGSTON HUGHES POETRY
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
"Sympathy" (The inspiration for Angelou's memoir title I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings")
TY GRAY-EL
Jacqueline Woodson (top) and Ty Gray-El (bottom) --->
ALICE WALKER
DUDLEY RANDALL
JERICHO BROWN
"Duplex: A Poem Is a Gesture Toward Home"
"N'em"
CLINT SMITH
"FaceTime"
TA-NEHISI COATES
excerpt from Between the World and Me
Jericho Brown (top) Clint Smith (middle), Ta-Nehisi Coates --->
MORE POWERFUL POEMS
"Praise Song for the Day" by Elizabeth Alexander
"Heartbeats" by Melvin Dixon
"Canary" by Rita Dove
"A Brief History of Hostility" by Jamaal May
"Miz Rosa Rides the Bus" by Angela Jackson
<--- Rita Dove (top) and Elizabeth Alexander (bottom)
JAMAICA KINCAID
"Girl"
Hello, my name is --------. And today I am presenting (title) by (author).
[Optional: You might say why you chose this text, how you chose it, why you like it, a summative statement ("this is a poem about" or "this is a poem written in response to ....") or something else you'd like your audience to know or you'd ask your listeners to notice as you read.
Pause.
Recite with feeling, pacing, and expression.
More from the NCTE on the national program
PREVIOUS YEAR'S INFO: CLICK HERE
Sponsored by S.T.A.N.D. [Students Together Against Negativity and Discrimination] and the English Language Arts Department of Bethel Park High School in association with the National Council of Teachers of English. The African American Read In is a national project established by the Black Caucus of the NCTE in 1990.