The students of TYWLS: The Young Women’s Leadership School of Jamaica, Queens have been working on short stories and poems centered around the idea of expectations: what the world expects of them, their community, family, friends, and what they expect of themselves. Each student has employed a variety of literary techniques to make their individual pieces unique, whether it is using anaphora, metaphor, sensory details, voice, or another literary device.
After spending time to craft their individual pieces, the students explored what it means to collaborate on a community poem and incorporate all the voices in the room. They took lines from their individual poems and put them together to form one large community work. Here are a few excerpts from the rough drafts formed in both classes:
“Like a Girl”
Community Poem – Period 7Act like a girl
Make the right decisionsthe clock ticks
Learn to cook
Learn to cleanbonfire of my rage
flame of my heartDon’t be like your lazy cousins
Don’t listen to trashy musicFollow all the rules
an entire life wastedCook juicy chicken dinners for the family
no fried, buttered, un-healthy thingyoung, chubby girl bound to
be successful, make a change for the betterAct like a girl
Pay attention to size and shapebody crumbles, feeling drained
Clean your room
Make your bedwork so hard to keep silent
Act like a girl
Be proper
Respect others
Don’t stand outLook around at
the darkened, hollow room of the
world’s expectations
what we’re ‘supposed’ to be
society’s white nametag glaring
“Untitled”
Community Poem – Period 8Look pretty,
make education your
#1 prioritysociety has us on strings
Look at your sisters
be like your sistersthey don’t know that your tongue tastes
like expired milk
they don’t want to know that the colors
behind your eyes
are the way you feel
black and blueLook
you can feel their judgment
burn into your skinI should feel comfortable
in my own skin
