Thursday, January 24, 2019

Jabber Walking: Scribble, Color, Talk, and Write Poetry on the Go with Poet Laureate, Felipe Herrera!


Book Suggestion and Activity Guide
Title: Jabber Walking - Written and illustrated by Juan Felipe Herrera - Hardcover |  144 Pages - Candlewick Press, 2018
Grades 5 to 12 –  Particular potential for visual, kinesthetic, auditory and *“musical” readers



As a college undergrad I was fully taken by Walt Whitman’s image of the poet on the open road inviting others to join him. This Brooklyn 19th century son burst into the poetry world with a full blown persona that invited readers or listeners to travel the road and observe the poetry inherent in everyday life. United States Poet Laureate (2015 to 2017), Juan Felipe Herrera has taken to that road often to write, scribble, talk and color/mark up his poetry on paper bags, newspapers, and any diy material that can take scribbles. 

These ideas unfold in the video Juan Felipe Herrera’s winding path to poetry”  https://youtu.be/iykpWev3NLY.  The film of course makes. what was for the 19th century audience of Whitman only a powerful text voice, become  Youtube accessible and authentic to a new audience.

As a teacher who also wants to pass forward a lifelong love of poetry as a genre, the cover of this book with its paint splatter  and its identification of author Herrera as poet laureate grabs attention.  This book is Herrera’s personal pitch at to  sharehis craft with a young audience .  Even more compelling is the poet’s immediate identification with Carroll’s the Jabberwocky and Herrera’s private use of “Jabberwock” to signify poet and “burble” to mean “poem.”   The book trailer nicely includes dynamism of Herrera’s vision of poetry https://youtu.be/lhushpbR8kg.  It deftly illustrates,  with its sole focus on the poet’s scribbles and hand drawn/marker made art,  that these images and scribbles are part and parcel of poetry as he defines it.

 Unlike other works by renowned poets targeted at young readers, this one approaches poetry writing in a visually compelling with, employing a very active, type face punctuated by scribble  art (Herrera’s exact style of writing- a mix of scribbles and doodles on various  available media) punctuated by his asides, suggesting to the reader to “rush” through certain chapters.  Thus poet Herrera introduces his, accessible to all readers who doodle and adore graphic narratives guide, with chapter titles in brackets with kidding asides. One great example is how, amusingly, the Jabberwalking narrator is references rapidly walking his dog Lotus on the way to a scheduled Library of  Congress event. 

What I liked best about this was that the poet uses this format, which ironically is true to his style of writing and performance art, to inspire  young readers with an array of traditional poetry craft insights and references to recognized poets.  Among those he includes are: Walt Whitman, Frieda Kahlo, Robert Bly, Eva Aguirre, and Ko Un.  

He also provides the young reader with an insider understanding of how he crafts a poem from his scribbles ( he uses newspapers to write on and suggests the paper bags Kahlo used) and provides the reader with a step by step, easily tacked process of going from scribble to identifying poetry words,  to “shape” ing the words  into “fun groups” to the final “new shape” sprinkling in “other words.”   Young readers can immerse themselves in the method to yield their own ‘burbles.’   

Herrera focuses on family and cultural affirmation as an integral part of a being a fast moving Jabberwalk poet .  He encourages readers to look at photos of their family members and include family stories plus native homeland musical culture and historic details in their poems.  He also recounts and  emphasizes the teachers who believed he had a good voice, could direct a play, and how developing film rolls of 35 millimeter film black and white stills inspired his artistic process.

How teachers can use this work:

Students can mimic the suggestions of the poet, author of this book by “jabberwalking”; running and writing poetry, for instance; creating while involved in any number of his suggested, highly inviting, yet very unorthodox writing related activities. They can mark up newspapers with markers and create poems as he does.  They can narrate as they enact separate book chapters while being recorded, thus producing digital, uploadable audio recordings and videos as records of their jabberwalking activity and as fresh jabberwalk products.

The Library of Congress in Washington, DC provides teachers and students with a priceless video “Jabberwalking with Juan Felipe Herrera “ https://youtu.be/ZW8xlyrSG2c of the poet leading a group of students, not only through the galleries of the library with colored pages, markers, crayons and pens and boards to create poems, but also deliberately taking them through tunnels and interiors of the building.  This view of Herrera interacting with actual students captures how infectiously joyous and accessible his brand of poetry and observation fitness walking can be; something that can be done at any school or student center.  Student poems – “burbles” –are read aloud as part of this video.

Students can compare this book with other recognized author’s craft tips including Walter Dean Myers Just Write (2012), Gail Carson Levine Writing Magic (2014) and Stephen King’s On Writing (2000).  In response, they can prepare a podcast discussion on which of these writers’ methods and ideas about how to write better inspire young readers.  Students can select chapters and dialogue with the racing poet as he narrates to write a co-authored Herrera young reader reaction dialog about the writing of poetry.  Since the typeface and scribble art of the book are so much a part of its intensive close conversational relationship with the reader who is to race along, students can be challenged to craft their own mixed typeface and graphics story for a target reader using this style.

Of course, students can also use Scratch or other animation-related resources to craft their own presentations, mirroring the animations in Herrera’s book trailers. They can also react to the book review of this work https://latinosinkidlit.com/2018/06/14/book-review-jabberwalking-by-juan-felipe-herrera/

This site, ostensibly for Latino kids, will take comments from those other than Latino backgrounds or from Latinos. 

Herrera asks his reader to understand that: “Writing saved my life. . . . (he) Wrote so much, sang so much , that one day I began to write as I was walking. . . . To walk and to speak for the lives of others.”  

Herrera’s  invitation to readers to join him is a compelling one. Watch out for all those jabberwalkers ahead!! Enjoy their burbles (poems)!! Support them in writing  their walks (jabberwalking), exercising their scribbling, burbling , singing and talking poetry muscles.





Dr. Rose Reissman is the founder of the Writing Institute, now replicated in 200 schools including PS 205 in The Bronx, New York City.  She is a featured author in New York State Union Teachers Educators Voice 2016 and was filmed discussing ESL student leadership literary strategies developed at Ditmas IS 62, a Brooklyn public intermediate school. Ditmas IS 62 is under the leadership of Marielena Santiago Principal and Michelle Buitrago AP. The Writing Institute Team are: Michael Downes, Angelo Carideo,  and Amanda Xavier. 

Contact: roshchaya@gmail.com




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