POETRY PAINTS

TRANSCENDENTALISTS

Transcendentalists Era poems were offered by a cohort of The Peoples Church of Flint and literary

consultant to the Poetry Pod Project, Darolyn Brown. David Thoreau concerns loom large today. Poetry is a historical document. Evident are the parallel threads of social problems, and joys that persist to this day.

POETRY PODSHIP LANDS IN 1820 | NEW ENGLAND TRANSCENDENTALISTS

PRESENTED BY FLINT’S FIRST POET LAUREATE SEMAJ BROWN AND PEOPLES CHURCH OF FLINT

Transcendentalists saw divine experience inherent in the everyday, rather than believing in a distant heaven. Transcendentalists saw physical and spiritual phenomena as part of dynamic processes rather than discrete entities.

Transcendentalists were abolitionists, and believed in equal rights for women and were concerned with the environment.

Darolyn Brown | Literary Consultant

Semaj Brown | Flint’s Inaugural Poet Laureate Linda Angus | Peoples Church of Flint

TAKE THE P3 PODSHIP TO 1820S NEW ENGLAND

Tom Travis | Peoples Church of Flint John Elwee | Peoples Church of Flint

POETRY PAINTS

P3 PO DS HIP LA N DS O N FREEM A N ELEM EN TA RY

ENTERING THE WORLD OF “PO ETRY PAINTS” EKPHRASTIC WRITING

“Poetry Paints: Ekphrastic Writing,” Brown’s collaboration with Flint’s Mott-Warsh Collection (Stephanie James, Director, Curator, & Collection Educator) and the students of Freeman Elementary, under the direction of Principal Anna Johnson, with technical support from Librarian Rebecca Robertson made its debut at 1:30 p.m. EST via Zoom, May 18th .

Ekphrastic writing is commentary on a work or works of visual art. The fifth and sixth grade students, guided by Brown, created collaborative poems based on pieces in the private collection of fine art created by artists of the African diaspora and those who reflect on such. One poem drew special inspiration from Patron Saint of Middle Passengers by Mark Steven Greenfield. James and the Collection’s Gallery Assistant Janice McCoy were instrumental in this phase of P3, as were community partners Zeta Foundation-Flint, in alliance with chapter Zeta Beta Zeta of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. The Zetas presented the young creatives, now known as The Freeman Poets, with gifts, including writing implements, books from Brown’s Poet Laureate Library, Mott-Warshrelated materials, and a certificate of completion, reflecting their literary achievement.

An electronic summary of “Poetry Paints: Ekphrastic Writing,” which will include lessons, worksheets, an image of the artwork created by Greenfield from which the students worked, and the collaborative poems created during this project, is currently being compiled by Brown. She hopes to share it with other educators at the Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) when she speaks at its 100th Anniversary luncheon as its keynote on October 14, 2022. A new volume of Brown’s poetry is slated for publication by Wayne State University Press in 2023.