Blackout poetry 3

Newspaper Blackout by Austin Kloen http://www.austinkleon.com/category/newspaper-blackout-poems/

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Goal: To use newspapers of other sources of print to create poetry for a variety of purposes

The Process •TIME magazine recently revealed its 30 MustSee Tumblr Blogs which includes the highly creative, user-generated Newspaper Blackout.

•This blog is the brainchild of Austin-based artist and writer Austin Kleon.

•The main objective of the Tumblr is to display poetry through the omission of words in already printed text. Essentially, it is poetry by way of censorship, executed with the aid of a black sharpie.

The Process •

Taking published works in the form of newspaper articles, novels, and even horoscopes, this style of "blackout poetry" reveals only carefully selected words to create a new, shorter composition of expression. Often, the poems produced offer a sense of hope and inspiration. At times, they can be depressing but thought-provoking. I love the way this Tumblr reflects how art inspires art.

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“Creativity Is Subtraction” (Austin Kloen).

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(Often positive)

Free template from www.brainybetty.com

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Free template from www.brainybetty.com

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(From Fiction)

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Free template from www.brainybetty.com

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(Including titles)

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Free template from www.brainybetty.com

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(Even Horoscopes)

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Free template from www.brainybetty.com

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As a Strategy • •

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Blackout words in a story or article to leave behind the general gist of the piece.

Given any written piece (newspaper, something from online, etc.) as a source of words, students could black out words to create an understanding of independent reading material.

Students could blackout words from the newspaper et. al. to demonstrate a feeling or theme or understanding of a class novel (chapter, unit, whole piece).

To play around with words to create something new.

To play around with parts of speech to create a poem, maybe using specific parts of speech.

Any other strategies you can think of!

From Informational Text • (http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/advice-forstudents-beware-of-thesaurus.html#)

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• As a summary : “Thesaurus”

Lofty, less plain Replacing plain words with big, shiny writing May look Thesaurus-dressed Awkward Mull over word-substitution

From a Newspaper for Night “Night” 600 million Held Extremely high Not for lack of trying Luck with numbers On a threshold Emerged winners?

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(words from “Do You Feel Lucky?” Argus, Sunday, March 31 )

From a newspaper for Of Mice and Men (“Three children rescued in north-end apartment fire,” Argus, March 31, 2012)

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Concern about a “boy” Fear Wrapped around him Shaken up Near the scene Found “Rescued”?