Student Voices from Brooklyn
By CHRIS ROSS
Chris Ross is a middle school English teacher in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. He recently published a collection of student poems, Where I Live. This collection highlights their imagination, thoughts, and feelings to the societal issues impacting them and the world around them. He found Brooklyn Book Bodega, loved our mission, and asked us to share his students’ writing. We know that one of the keys to becoming thoughtful writers is reading extensively. Reading and writing are deeply interconnected. Read on to discover more about the students, their poetry collection, and how it aligns with our core values.
Students from Brooklyn Science and Engineering Academy, located along Tilden Avenue in East Flatbush published a poetry collection entitled Where I Live. It contains over seventy poems that can be described by the poets themselves as, “Concerning, Dynamic and Fabulous.” The book shares Brooklyn Book Bodega’s mission by highlighting the importance of community and realizing our place within it. Many of the voices within this book originate from outside of the United States, which is one of the real gifts this little book has to offer - and that is how these issues are not only perceived but also lived and experienced by these new voices emerging from East Flatbush.
At Brooklyn Book Bodega, it is believed that books in the home foster a life-long love for reading, and the opinions these young poets share should serve as a reminder of how the two are so closely linked. “You can’t escape reading,” a sixth grader states. “If you have a positive relationship with reading you will have a positive relationship with life.” And this seventh grader has this piece of advice for new parents. “Reading with your kids can strengthen their relationship and make the kid feel much more loved. And parents need to read to their child with passion and to read it heartfully.”
The poems in this collection offer an honesty and directness that all readers should appreciate as these children describe the world they inhabit. There is comfort to be found in passages such as, "I smell my mom's cooking. I smell the perfume at a party. I taste fried chicken, juices, soda and oxtail." And, “I see leaves falling with little pink flowers. I hear wind blowing from left and right. I smell freshly brewed coffee and warm donuts.” And yet trouble simmers throughout this book, as one sixth grader writes, “I hear the police car at 3:30 a.m. I hear the opening of doors.”
A core value that Brooklyn Book Bodega holds is the need for children to see themselves reflected in the books that they read. For the children of New York, Where I Live is such a book. “Some books explain how you feel,” one seventh grader says. “And this is one of those books!” Another child explains, “Where I Live is important because the poems are based on reality and show the different perspectives from us kids about our neighborhood and the world we live in.” Indeed. If the purpose of poetry is to pin down abstractions such as identity and loss, then consider this poem on Migrants. “I wonder if they ever feel truly welcomed. I wonder if they ever feel like my country is truly their home . . . I wonder if that’s how the immigrants feel. I wonder if they feel like me, a lost person in a maze. Or if the only friend they have is God or a television.”
Literacy connects us to others both within and outside of our comfort zones. Where I Live, rooted in the New York experience, is an important book sharing the lived experience of Brooklyn children.
Chris Ross is a middle school English teacher in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.
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