Margin Notes

What I was reading:

Ain’t Burned All The Bright by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin.

From the book blurb: “Jason Reynolds, using three longgggggg sentences, and Jason Griffin, using three hundred pages of pocket-size moleskine, hav mind-melded this fierce-vulnerable-brilliant-terrifying-whatiswrongwithhumans-hopefilled-hopeful-tender-heartbreaking-heartmaking-manifesto on what it means not to be able to breath, and how the people and things at your fingertips are actually the oxygen you need.”

What moves I noticed the writer/illustrator use:

• The text and the artwork are equally prominent 
• The author and the illustrator work together to create the text (true collaboration)
• All the art is created in a Moleskine notebook
• Some of the words are crossed out but kept visible
• On a few pages, blackout poetry is used
• The text on each page appears to be cut out of a larger page and taped down in the Moleskin
• Many art media are used – ink, pencil, paint, chalk, collage, stencils, etc.
• The text is an example of a prose poem
• The artist uses nature themes as a metaphor for the pandemic
• The text is an example of a remix. Learn more about remixes from educator Paul W. Hankins here.

Possibilities for Writers:

• Try your hand at writing prose poetry and then play around with cutting it up, changing it, adding to it – in other words- remix it. 
• This book is a true collaboration. Try collaborating with another person to create a text together using a poem and art. This could be your poem, or someone else’s. 
• Create a blackout poem from a old book, newspaper or magazine

Here is a sample:

You can also make blackout poems using a Blackout Poetry Maker. 

Most of all, have fun!