Today's Thoughtful Thursday celebrates the poet Kevin Young, who is now the Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. The Schomburg, located on 135th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem, is a leading research institution focusing exclusively on African-American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. Its collection includes letters, papers and other [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday is a solo show by the poet Ross Gay. Gay is the author of three poetry collections, most recently “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude,” winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. He is a founding editor, with Karissa Chen and Patrick Rosal, of the online sports magazine Some [...]
It's officially Spring! To celebrate the season, the Spring Breaks some of our children are enjoying this week, the worst of the winter storms behind us (we hope), this Thoughtful Thursday offers some Spring poetry. Today's we have odes to Spring from several masters: two poems by the great African American poet Claude McKay, one by the renowned Puerto [...]
March 17th is St. Patrick's Day. While skimming through poetry relating to St. Patrick's Day, frankly expecting to find nothing to hit my fancy, I was pleasantly surprised to run across a poem celebrating motherhood which, while written about an Irish mother, has universal application. I also found a couple of lovely Irish blessings which we all can use. [...]
In celebration of Women's History Month, today's Thoughtful Thursday features poems by well known African-American women poets: "won't you celebrate with me" by Lucille Clifton, "Legacies" by Nikki Giovanni, and "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou. The following biographies, courtesy of poetryfoundation.org, gives you some insight into their brilliance. A prolific and widely respected poet, Lucille Clifton's work emphasizes endurance [...]
We at GCP think parents should celebrate Black History every month. But since February is the "official" Black History Month (established as such in 1967 by President Gerald Ford; now there is a bit of BHM trivia for you), we will focus on some family "must-do's" this month. 1. Talk about your Family History with your sons and daughters. [...]
Thoughtful Thursdays are back! For those new to GCP, Thoughtful Thursdays feature poetry, quotes, and other literary delights for you to enjoy and share with your sons. The first Thoughtful Thursday of Black History Month 2017 features a classic poem by Langston Hughes, "I Too, Sing America". In this poem Hughes reminds us that Americans of all hues can [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday offers an anthem to remind us that we have endured hard times before, and we will survive them again. James Weldon Johnson wrote the lyrics to "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (and his brother John Rosamond Johnson wrote the music) in 1900 as a birthday tribute to Abraham Lincoln, and it was first performed by a [...]
Excitement is in the air!! The Cubs win the World Series! America will soon elect a new president! All the goings on this week has led today's Thoughtful Thursday to be a bit of a hodge-podge, but with a bit of brain-wracking we have come up with a unifying theme for the quotes and poems of the week: perseverance. [...]
We at GCP were so excited to see poetry included in the opening ceremonies of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, we just had to make this the subject of this week's Thoughtful Thursday. Oprah Winfrey (who funded the museum's auditorium) and Will Smith gifted us with some mighty thoughts in a poetry battle. You can [...]