We have all heard the term “self-love.” But have we ever explored what it really means? Or used a poetic structure to commit it to paper? This session offers an opportunity for both! Students will engage in a guided discussion on what self-love means and why it is important. Then, they will complete a writing exercise focused on using couplets to create self-motivation poems. It’s self-care meets rhyme meets SEL fusion! This artist is only available on Fridays, so chat with them about availability after booking.
TEACHING ARTIST SESSION
The Rhythm of Self-Love (5-12)
Alex PoeticSoul Johnson
Alex “PoeticSoul” Johnson is the founder and leader of the spoken word organization Lyrically Inclined, and she can be seen performing with them monthly in Lafayette, Louisiana. As a teaching artist, PoeticSoul works to expose children in rural areas to literary arts. She organizes the Community Stage of The Festival of Words in Grand Coteau, Louisiana and is a committee member for the Word Crawl fundraiser at the Annual Festival of Words. Alex, who earned a B.S. in Business Administration – Marketing from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, has also worked as a teaching artist in the Lafayette Parish Juvenile Detention Home. There, she empowered incarcerated youth to create a spoken word poem, “Eyes of the Sun.” “Eyes of the Sun” was later turned into two murals thanks to the sponsorship of the 24-Hour Citizen Project. PoeticSoul has performed her poetry at numerous venues including the Nuyorican Café, Acadiana Center for the Arts, and Cité des Arts; for organizations like Englewood’s You Got Served, 100,00 Poets for Change, Unlikely Stories; and the Blood Jet Poetry Series. She presented at the 2016 Split this Rock Poetry festival in Washington, DC and was featured as a 2017 Tedx presenter. PoeticSoul was the recipient of the ABC Fund’s 2018 ICON Rising Star Award and the Acadiana Profile 2019 Trailblazer Award. Her poetry has been featured in The Southern View Magazine. Her first poetry book, Poisonous Thoughts, can be found on Amazon. Her album Scattered Thoughts can be found on iTunes, Google Play Store, Spotify, and Amazon.
