Blackout Poetry Event Held In Library For Teens
By Angel Sabater|
One Student made a blackout poem based on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). According to librarian, Rae Downen it’s “The best one out of all poems created by previous students.”
On Tuesday, April 28, students came to join librarian, Rae Downen for blackout poetry and to make many creative poems.
“Blackout poetry is a method of poetry that you create with words that are previously written,” librarian, Rae Downen said. “And you blackout the words you don’t want, leaving the words that you do want and hope that you come up with something that is poetry like.”
Austin Kleon, a famous poet and cartoonist, popularized blackout poetry; many people are now making their own blackout poems. He written Steal Like an Artist (2012), Show Your Work (2014), and currently makes newspaper blackout poems; like 99 Percent Robbery (May 5, 2015), No Angel (August 29, 2014), and Low Overhead, Revisited (July 4, 2014).
“Poetry is very interesting and it’s really fun and a lot of emotion in poetry,” senior, Melyssa Garcia said. “What I like about blackout poetry is that you can create something entirely new by using your own imagination.”
It’s all about creativity; People can make their own blackout poems with either book or newspaper, using pens, markers, permanent markers, or pencil to black out the words they don’t want.
“Poetry can be direct about what it’s saying and at other times there is a deeper meaning like reading between the lines,” sophomore Diana Romero said. “you have to break your head open to know what it’s saying . With Blackout poetry it’s cool, it’s almost like poetry, but you make your own poetry out of words from a book or newspaper and just be more creative about it, and that’s why I like blackout poetry.”