Katherine Parrish

I began my first class of this semester, as I almost always do, with an exploration of Lillian Allen’s poem, “dis word.”

dis word

dis word breeds my rhythm
dis word carries my freedom
dis word is my hand:
my weapon

I supplied my students with a biography of Lillian Allen early on in our encounter. I had become painfully aware, last semester, how I had fallen back on new critical presentations of texts. “Just the text, ma’am.”

And I also shared a video of Allen talking about dub poetry, and asked them, as part of a homework exercise, to transcribe two sentences/complete thoughts of hers from the video that they found interesting (and to fake interest if they had none!)

But while, in years past, I hadn’t gone much beyond this for background, and a brief description of “dub poetry,” and had had exciting and generative discussions of this small, powerful poem, this time the kids seemed very lost.

And I don’t know if it’s because the class is scheduled during first period, when their adolescent brains are not yet awake, or if it’s the result of the cumulative effect of their pandemic education. If they have the ideas in their heads but are not used to sharing them, or if they really have never heard of Reggae…

I suspect it’s a combination of all of these conditions, and others I have yet to suss. But it led me to look for lesson plans on dub poetry, cause I thought that an immersive approach might be fruitful, powerful, and fun! And I always look to see what’s out there first- why reinvent?

How many lesson plans did I find about dub poetry?
Exactly none.