Category: Strategies for Teachers & Writers

Here’s Why Anger is the Ultimate Glow Up. Oh, and #StrikeForBlackLives

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
One of my favorite podcasts is Another Round, featuring a writer for Buzzfeed, Tracy Clayton and a writer for the Stephen Colbert Show, Heben Nigatu. The show features guests of color talking about a wide range of subjects, but with a keen eye on culture. One part drunken conversation and one par...

How to Grieve and Dream at the Same Time

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
This week’s vlog follows me through a day of workshop with the inimitable Bhanu Kapil.  Bhanu Kapil is a conceptual poet who recently worked for 15 years at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Sponsored by the Pulitzer Arts Center, this day long experience for metro area poets was na...

Why Don’t We Crave to See the Families of the Murdered Policemen in Dallas Forgive Micah Johnson?

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
As the country continues to grapple with the racialized gun violence of the past weeks, several issues of comparison can be explored and discussed.   This is a thought experiment. I have taken an article titled, “Families of Charleston Shooting Victims: “We Forgive You” written by Inae Oh ...

From the South Bronx to Southeast Europe

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Today was the final day of the international debate education association (IDEA) program in Macedonia. The two tracks– visual art (graffiti)/comics and hip-hop/poetry – were responsible for presenting their final projects. Prior to DJ Goce’s arrival, I had taken the students through a series of...

Good Beats and Good Eats

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Today we went “crate digging.”  The students in me and Dj Goce’s group all piled into taxis and went to the town center. There was an open air market where used books and used vinyl was being sold. This process has been really pleasurable and improvisational. The students then went on pick sampl...

The Global Reach of Blackness

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Today I presented about Fannie Lou Hamer. This is a presentation I’ve done many times now, but because of the audience it was quite different. Because the audience was European and specifically people from the Balkan Peninsula, I stopped much more frequently to explain terms. I spent time on “sha...

A Special FATHER’S DAY episode of the FEMININE PRONOUN Series (#19)

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
This is a “very special episode” of the FEMININE PRONOUN Series. Father’s Day is coming up and I am the daughter of a Poet. Eugene B. Redmond is a foundational Black Arts Movement poet, professor emeritus, cultural griot, and author of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro American Poetry. I may be bia...

What Do Black Childhood, Charter Schools, and Tamir Rice Have in Common?

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Hint: Harriet Ball was her name, and she passed away in 2011. A veteran teacher from Texas, Ball was observed in the early 90s by two novice teachers, two young white men who were impressed by the way she infused the curriculum with rhythm and mnemonics that engaged the children thoroughly; much...

The FEMININE PRONOUN Series #3 Do Catholics Do it Better?

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Do Catholic Universities host poets better?  Well, they do very well, thank you:)  In this episode I read at Lewis University near Chicago, and share my “unlit bomb” philosophy.  It’s #blackgirlmagic and some #blackboysorcery on full display!