Welcome to an Artist’s Hope

Story time guys:

For the better part of a year (possibly longer), I’ve started doing a poetry and art form known as Blackout Poetry. What this is involves taking text from a book, newspaper, or other source and selecting works to turn it into a poem. The other way to look at this is that I’m taking away the words that I don’t want to make a poem. Traditionally, you remove or “blackout” the words you don’t want and that’s it. However, some people take it to a higher level and add in designs and inked art to the poem.

Here is your first example of blackout poetry

I first came across this where I get a lot of my art ideas: Pinterest.

And I’ve been posting my blackout poems on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

My personal rule of thumb with this particular poetry and art form, is to only use text that is in the public domain or that I have permission from the author (which are mostly my friends). The two books I’m currently working in are Frankenstein (which is harder than I expected for multiple reasons) and Phantom of the Opera. I might add to this collection at some point, but these are the two books I’m working in right now.

Plus these books help me write some darker poems

I find doing these poems both challenging and relaxing. I have so many words I can work with and sometimes I can’t form the sentences or ideas that I want to. It can be frustrating when I want to use the word “was” and there isn’t a “was” to be found on the page. However there is something very cathartic in taking a Sharpie or felt pen and drawing all over a page.

If you are interested in trying blackout poetry, just make sure it’s in a book you won’t be upset drawing in.

I get a lot of these books for free or doubles if I enjoy the book

Now, here’s the reason I’m sharing this information and story with you guys today.

One of my friends has been following me on social media and has a daughter who is teaching in inner city schools. He shared my blackout poems with his daughter who in turn shared the idea with her class for their poetry unit. She took different pages from one of the books her students had to read, photo copied them, and explained the idea of blackout poetry for the unit.

The students loved it.

My friend shared a few pictures of the poems with me (sorry won’t show them since I don’t know the students) and the work was amazing. They were personal, raw, haunting, somber, and beautiful. Most of the students loved the ability to make their own transformation work that represented them.

I honestly hope that the students keep creating.

And I helped inspire someone to introduce this creative idea to these students. I feel humbled and happy that I was able to do that. As a small time artist and writer, I often feel that my work doesn’t matter. I write and create art to entertain my friends and to help me deal with my emotions. I like to hope that others are inspired by me.

And now that I know they are, it feels wonderful.

I can also work on my romance writing and self expression.

Maybe in the future, one of these students will publish a book of poems. Maybe one day, one of these students will become a famous artist or writer or both.

I’ll probably never know if I inspire someone like this, but part of me genuinely hopes that I do.

I wanted to share this story with you today because I think there are times when we don’t feel like our lives mean anything or that we haven’t done anything spectacular. Knowing that my blackout poetry was used to inspired students to express themselves in a new way has reminded me that, even in the small corner of the universe I wander through, I can still make a difference.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Until next week.