Merging Loves Today: Teaching, Diva, Bridgeport Youth, Service-Learning @fairfieldu, #Ubuntu

Today marks the last day ED 329 will work one-on-one with young people at Barnum K-8 in Bridgeport. It is a Philosophy of Education course and all semester, the students have been thinking about their personal philosophies of school while working in....well....a school.

Administrators, teachers, and I kicked around multiple ideas to culminate the partnership, but settled on a presentation/workshop from me. I asked if I could bring my friend and they said, "Sure."

So, today, the Diva & The Frog do Barnum with undergraduate philosophers at Fairfield. We are doing our spoken word poetry jam locally, in the ways we've done it nationally. It should be a great day and I look forward to partnering with the Barnum kids.

Here's the Magic Box poem draft that resulted for the workshop:

A Poem for Barnum, 2016

Bridgeport is a philosophy,

         the finding of harmony and serenity

                  in Salsa and cilantro,

the simple complexity within complex simplicity

of the fried dough that sets us free

         (look for a trophy of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups).

         Yup.

Barnum is friendship,

a billion binoculars focused on the diversity

of a group hug -  

         the bodacious joke that makes children go bananas

         and the brilliance of hands holding hands

                   before we go bonkers in laughter.

We are the hot flames of the universe

who come together for knowledge.

We are the wisdom of our elders sharing stories,

         the teachers, & their glory,

         who caress us with library books

         & mentor classroom skies in chalk.

burning intellect in our minds as if we’re apple pie, coffee,

         and the discovery from an all you can eat buffet.

We are youth tutored in multiplied screams

who read through laughter & screaming,

Yeah, we want to know, to grow,

the noise in the cafeteria (it’s a middle school show)

& gossip in hallways (did you hear about so & so, yo!)

the subtraction from talking,

         rapping through teaching,

         & wrapping of everything we’re supposed to know.

Whoa!

We go forward, challenging the opportunities that divide us;

become the poetry of Fairfield in the linguistic art

         of Super Duper Weenies and Stepford wives.

We are the rhythm and the magic

         caught in traffic

         that offers soul music to make linguistic art.

We are Barnum, and from this point on we start….

…this is the beginning.