New month, new celebration: did you know that May is National Mental Health Awareness Month? Yep, since 1949 May has been designated Mental Health Month in the U.S. to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and to erase the stigma associated with mental health disorders. And a good thing, too, since we as a people (especially we [...]
Hope you know by now that April is National Poetry Month, and you have been celebrating poetry mightily all month with your children. Not quite? Well there are still a few days left this month to focus on poetry, and Poets.org has some suggestions as to how. They offer 30 of them to be exact, and you can find [...]
Did you know that April is Financial Literary Month? (So many themes, only 12 months, some months have to do double duty.) In 2004 the U.S. Senate designated April as Financial Literary Month in an effort to encourage Americans to establish and maintain healthy financial habits. Since it is Financial Literacy Month, today's Thoughtful Thursday features poems about money. But [...]
April is National Poetry Month! National Poetry Month was established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets to increase America's awareness and appreciation of poetry. Our first Thoughtful Thursday of National Poetry Month begins with a beautiful poem about poetry from Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982), whose career over the course of his long life included being a lawyer, Fortune [...]
On our last Thoughtful Thursday in Women's History Month we celebrate the work of three wonderful poets: the wonderfully accomplished and prolific June Jordan (1936–2002); the brilliant British poet and activist Warsan Shire (b.1988), who is most widely known as the poet whose work was featured in Beyonce's visual album Lemonade; and the young talented poet and writer Alexandra [...]
In today's Thoughtful Thursday we continue our month long tribute to women poets in honor of Women's History Month. Today we shine a spotlight on the four African-American female poets who have been appointed by the Library of Congress to serve as the U.S. Poet Laureate, our nation's chief poetry consultant. Originally called the "Consultant in Poetry to the Library of [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday continues the celebration of Women's History Month, featuring women poets from a variety of cultures and generations. Today we offer a delightful assortment of poems about women by women. First Patricia Smith (b.1955) gives us a "Hip Hop Ghazal" celebrating femininity. A ghazal, originally an Arabic verse form dealing with loss and romantic love, consists of couplets [...]
It's Thoughtful Thursday, and in honor of International Woman's Day (which is tomorrow, March 8), today we are featuring a diverse slate of fantastic women poets. From June Jordan we have "Oughta Be a Woman", a poem that pays special tribute to mothers of color but is an ode to mothers everywhere. Chilean poet and visual artist Celia Vicuña gives [...]
As it is the last day of Black History Month, today's Thoughtful Thursday features several poems celebrating notable Black figures in American history and one in commemorating the history of Black people in America. GCP hopes that parents share Black American history with their sons and daughters throughout the year, (not just for one month, every month), but we are not [...]
Fifty four years ago today, on February 21, 1965, activist and religious leader Malcolm X was assassinated by a member of the Nation of Islam while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Today's Thoughtful Thursday pays tribute to Malcolm X, first with the stirring eulogy Ossie Davis delivered at his funeral. Then, [...]