Today's Thoughtful Thursday celebrates summer, with the help of four wonderful Black poets. We begin with classic summer musings from Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906) and Claude McCay (1889-1948). Dunbar, one of the first African American poets to gain national recognition, wrote poems in both standard English and in what was called "Negro dialect". While his dialect poetry is generally [...]
This has been a rough week for social justice lovers. Today's Thoughtful Thursday offers a few thoughtful poems to help you get through, beginning with a classic poem from Langston Hughes in honor of Independence Day. Enjoy. Let America Be America Again Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be [...]
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a statement encouraging parents to ban direct screen time (television, movies, and any portable screen device) for children under two years of age. The Academy explained, “This updated policy statement provides further evidence that media — both foreground and background — have potentially negative effects and no known positive effects for children [...]
Hello GCP'ers! Yes, it has been a while, and while it is not actually Thursday, (let's call it "Thursday Plus") here is a lovely Thoughtful Thursday poem for you all, "Blessing the Boats" by the renowned African American poet Lucille Clifton (1936-2010). Born in Depew, New York in 1936, Clifton's first book of poetry was published in 1969. She [...]
If your child tells you he wants to be a famous rapper, tell him he should be paying lots of attention in English class. In a recent interview with David Letterman, Jay-Z credited his sixth grade English teacher with fueling his love of language: "Her name was Ms. Lowden, and I just loved the class so much. Like reading [...]
Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you must know that the "Black Panther" movie is opening on February 16th, just a few days away. This is the EAGERLY anticipated film, based upon a very popular Marvel comic book character, which stars Chadwick Boseman, Academy award winner Lupita Nyong'o and Michael Jordan, and is directed by Ryan Coogler [...]
In honor of Valentine's Day next week, today's Thoughtful Thursday features love poetry from an array of poets. We begin with a couple of love poems from Langston Hughes, whom poet Elizabeth Alexander rightly calls “'our' poet laureate, our'Shakespeare in Harlem.'" Then on a poem from Nikki Giovanni, one of the world's best known African American poets, who speaks [...]
Today begins Black History Month! Actually, we like to think of every month as Black History Month here at GCP, as we want our children to learn about their history all year long. Today is also Langston Hughes' birthday, so on this Thoughtful Thursday we honor him by featuring a few of this great poet's works. We begin with [...]
For today's Thoughtful Thursday we celebrate the lives of three men who passed away this week: artist Jack Whitten, pastor and civil rights leader Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, and musician Hugh Masekela. Great men with noble spirits all. Jack Whitten, born in 1939, was a pioneering abstract artist. Born in Bessemer, Alabama, he attended Tuskegee Institute and Southern University [...]
How much time do your children spend on their smartphones? How is it affecting their attention spans, their interaction with friends and family, their mental health? Two large Apple shareholders--an activist hedge fund and the California State Teachers Retirement System-- have written a letter to Apple asking it to focus on this important issue by developing software that would [...]