It’s time to play Season Three’s GCP Bonus Round Matching Game! Many of my Season 3 guests played the #GCP Bonus Round and shared some of their favorite poems, quotes and children's books. As I’ve done at the end of my past two seasons, I’ve created a Matching Game to see if you can match this season’s guests [...]
It's Thoughtful Thursday! On the last Thursday of International Women's Month, we celebrate with the work of some wonderful women poets writing about women. From Lucille Clifton we have "Won't You Celebrate with Me", Nikki Giovanni gives us "Legacies", and finally, Marge Piercy sends us a "Memo" to remind us to never give up. Enjoy. Won't You Celebrate with [...]
On this Thoughtful Thursday we celebrate Black History Month with poetry by and/or about Black people. (Actually, we celebrate pretty much every month this way, but we'll jump on the BHM bandwagon for February.). Today we offer a variety of poems which all nod to the theme of sharing Black History, including our cultural history, with our children. We [...]
Even if you missed yesterday's inauguration, odds are you've already heard about Amanda Gorman, the 22 year old poet who was a star at the inaugural ceremony. The amazing Ms. Gorman read her poem "The Hill We Climb" as the world watched in awe. Her words, her imagery, her poise, her eloquence, and the joy in her delivery captivated [...]
Eight days after the horrifying attack on the U.S. Capitol last week, today's Thoughtful Thursday offers "America", by the great African-American poet Claude McKay (1889-1948). In this poem, McKay notes the difficulty Black Americans have with balancing their love for this country with their knowledge of the way that it has treated them. This balance was particularly challenging last [...]
This week on Ground Control Parenting with Carol Sutton Lewis I'm talking about Mothers and Daughters with Emmy award-winning actress Lynn Whitfield. You can hear this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and many other podcast spots, as well as here on the Ground Control Parenting blog. In this episode Lynn reflects on the wonderful complexities of mothers and daughters, realized even [...]
It's Thoughtful Thursday! Today we are celebrating one of our favorite poets, Kevin Young. In case you hadn't heard, Kevin Young has just been named as the new director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He will be leaving his position as the head of the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division [...]
At the end of most podcast episodes in Season 1, I asked guests to play The GCP Bonus Round where they'd tell me their favorite poems, children's books and TV/film/theater parent. I've compiled the responses of my first five guests from Season One, pictured above. Click on the links below to check out their favorites –– you may find [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday we celebrate Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden's choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate. As most everyone certainly knows by know, she is the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be named as a vice presidential candidate by a national party. As exciting as Biden's VP choice is, it's true historical [...]
A bit of a hodgepodge for Summer 2020 poems in today's Thoughtful Thursday: two poems celebrating familiar visions of summer (Fireflies! Kool-Aid!) and one prayer/poem that reminds us that our focus this summer must include more sobering and critical visions. Jacqueline Woodson, who brings us "Firefly", is an award-winning of over 30 books for children and young adults, who served [...]