Social Justice Poetry Project

I want you to choose a social justice cause of your choice and write a poem about it. It can
be any cause that you want. Examples can include (but certainly aren't limited to):
a) Racial Equality/Racism.
b) Gender Equality/Sexism.
c) LGBTQ Equality/Trans/Homophobia.
d) Economic Equality/Poverty.
e) Environmentalism.
The purpose of this project is to give you a creative way too be an advocate for a social
justice issue that you personally care about. This is also a way for you to demonstrate your
understanding of the poetic devices that we focused on in this unit.
The criteria for this project is as follows:
1) Your poem must at least be eleven-lines long.
2) You must use at least two of the poetic devices that we discussed this term
(these will be listed below).
3) You must provide me with a 500-word artist's statement describing the process
you undertook to complete this project and personally reflect on what you have
learned.
The poetic devices you can choose from include:
1) Witness Testimony (see: Cry of the Children.); must include source in artist
statement).
2) Symbolism (see: Mending Wall, Strange Fruit, i was on beech avenue in
vancouvr.)
3) Juxtaposition (see: Strange Fruit.)
4) Paradox (see: A Nice Day for a Lynching.)
5) Implied/Ambiguous Subject (see: Greek Statue.)
6) Structure, Repetition, Rhyme/Rhythm scheme (see: any of the poems we have
discussed this term).
7) Imagery (see: Mending Wall, Strange Fruit, Greek Statue.)

Name:__________________________
Date:__________________________

Proposal
1) Which social justice cause are you choosing to write about?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
2) Which two poetic devices are you planning on incorporating in your poem (note: you
can change these if you change your mind once you have started writing; I just need to
know that you have some sort of plan before you start)?
i) Device:_____________________________________
What meaning will it contribute to my poem?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
ii) Device:______________________________________
What meaning will it contribute to my poem?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
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