(upbeat music)
-: Hello, there.
My name is Shelby
and I am a poetry teaching artist.
And I'm really excited to be with you today
to do just a little bit of writing.
And a little known fact,
writing is actually a form of magic.
Because anything can happen in a poem
and you have the power to make anything happen in a poem.
So we're gonna sit down to write together
and the only thing that you're gonna need
for this lesson today is something to write with,
maybe a pencil,
you know, maybe a pen,
whatever you prefer, colored marker,
do what you feel, do what feels good.
And something to write on, some paper,
a notebook, anything like that.
All right, so we are gonna get warmed up
and what I wanna tell you
is that our theme today
is hello, my name is.
So we're gonna be writing about our names,
which maybe you guessed.
So all you need is your paper, and your pen, and your name.
And the first thing that I want you to do is
to do a warmup, just write your name on your paper,
on the left hand side, I'll show you how.
But you're gonna write it going down the side of the page,
because we're gonna do an acrostic.
Like this.
Shelby, that's me, I already told you that.
So to get warmed up, I just want you,
for each letter of your name,
I want you to think of a word,
it could be any kind of word
that somehow describes you or something that you like.
And so that way, you're gonna have an acrostic poem
that goes to your name.
All right, so go ahead and get started.
(calming music)
So some of the words that I came up with,
and I would love if you went and shared
some of the words that you came up with
with anybody in your house.
Sparkly, 'cause I just feel sparkly,
even if you can't see it, it's true for me.
For the H, I did hilarious.
Excited for the E,
lovely, bold, and yes!
So, I would love to know what your words are.
And now that you're warmed up,
we are going to get a little inspiration
from a poet named Hiwot Adilow,
who has a poem about her name
that I think is really powerful,
so let's take a look at this clip.
I'm hoping that you're feeling inspired,
you're seeing what you can make possible with a poem.
In her poem, Hiwot called her name a boat,
a plane, she imagined that her name was a vessel
that could carry her to a place she had never been before.
And that's the kind of magic that a poem can do
and that's the kind of magic that you get to do right now,
here on the page.
So we're gonna do a free write.
And don't worry, I'm gonna give you prompts
so you're not just gonna be looking at a blank page.
What I'm gonna ask you to do is,
with your paper and pen,
I'm gonna give you a line
and I just want you to write
the first thing that comes to your mind
when I say that line.
And I really, the only rule is,
well, I guess there's two rules,
keep writing and don't judge yourself.
Seriously.
If you judge yourself,
it's just gonna stop you
from getting to the magical place that you need to get to
and you don't have to share this with anybody,
so just write what comes to your mind.
I'm not gonna judge you,
I mean, I'm with you,
but I'm also like, a video version of myself,
so I'm definitely not gonna judge you.
And even if I was with you in real life,
I wouldn't judge you
because I admire you for just sitting down to write.
Seriously, no joke.
All right, so the first line that I want you to write to is,
my name is the color of.
What is your name the color of?
You could just say red or blue
or you could get really specific.
So just take a minute and write that one.
What color is your name?
Okay, now I want you to keep writing,
and yeah, I'm writing with you.
The next line is,
my name sounds like.
What does your name sound like?
Try to be really specific.
And I know this can sound kinda funny or weird
but just whatever comes to your mind.
Does it sound like the dog next door barking?
Does it sound like wind chimes?
Does it sound like a bird in the morning?
What does it sound like?
Go!
Okay, let's keep writing.
Next line.
My name tastes like.
Yeah, that's totally weird, right?
You can't eat a name.
But what if you could?
What would it taste like?
An orange?
A really perfect piece of toast?
What does your name taste like?
Okay, let's keep going.
My name smells like.
Does it smell like a warm,
you know, warm bread that's baking
that just came out of the oven?
Does it smell like snow?
What does your name smell like?
As you keep writing,
I want you to finish this sentence.
I was named for.
So you can finish that with,
if you know who you were named for, you can write that.
Or if you don't know, or if you just wanna make it up,
you can do that.
You can say I was named for the moon.
I was named for every grandmother that has come before.
Whatever you wanna write,
whatever comes to your brain is the right thing to write.
Go for it.
I was named for.
All right, let's keep going.
If my name was an animal,
it would be, dot dot dot.
What's your name as an animal?
You got this, go for it!
If my name was a plant, it would be.
What kind of plant would your name be?
It could be a tree, it could be a flower,
any kind of plant.
And maybe you don't know the plant's name
but you could just say that tree
that I pass on my way to school,
whatever it is.
What plant would your name be?
Okay, now we're gonna do our last line.
If I renamed myself,
if you could rename yourself, what would your name be?
And again, this could be, you know, a real name,
or it could be, if I renamed myself,
I would be named the tallest sunflower.
Or whatever comes to your brain.
Go for it and just finish this free write
with this last line.
If I renamed myself.
Okay, you did it.
You just completed a literal act of magic
because you made things happen on the page
and you transformed your name
into a whole pile of amazing things.
So I really encourage you,
if you want to, no pressure,
but you could share this with someone in your house,
or you could call a friend or a family member
and share it with them.
I really wish I could hear it, I'm really curious
what you ended up coming up with.
But I'll just share a couple of my weirdest ones with you.
My name is the color of the inside of a watermelon seed.
My name sounds like my mother laughing.
My name is a gazelle and also a fire-breathing dragon.
My name, if I got to rename myself
would be something said through a mouthful of strawberries.
So those are some of the lines that I came up with.
Thank you all so much for sitting down
to just write with me today.
Again, my name is Shelby, Sparkly Shelby.
And I feel huge gratitude to you for sitting down,
writing, doing this weird kind of magic called metaphor.
When you change something into something else.
It's a really big deal that you tried that today,
that you are persistent,
that you kept writing even if you felt stuck.
So thank you so much, magic maker, wherever you are.
And have a great day.
(upbeat music)