In returning from the hush of the offline world for several days that I spent out and about in Kenya, I come to find out that Gil Scott-Heron has died at age 62. I am sure the internets are brimming with remembrances already, notching video and audio clips of a remarkable man who did remarkable things. I won't overlap with those voices. I want to only offer a personal note of gratitude for this great storyteller.
When I taught the required composition class at Henry Ford Community College, I made it my mission to detach the idea of "essays" as a boring exercise embedded in academic routine, a lifeless five-paragraph sort of writing that nobody reads outside a classroom. I wanted to create a space where the students could feel the potency of the art of telling the world what they thought: an art that can carry stories and rhythm and creative forms that call for our attention. In my lesson on thesis statements, I brought in "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." We listened to it together before the students had any idea why ... I remember their perplexed faces shining back at me. But the song spurred one of our most interesting discussions we had that semester: We talked about the use of refrain. We talked about how a thesis statement can work as the pin that holds big ideas together. We talked about how a thesis doesn't have to be a sort of building-block of literalism: there is room for metaphor so long as it ultimately brings clarity to the essay, rather than obscurity.
Gil Scott-Heron taught our class that essays can be interesting. That is, what you think matters. And if you are attentive and creative to how you share your ideas with the world, people will hear you. We hear you. I hear you.
Image Credit: NPR
Anna you are an amazing writer.tell them...
Evalyne
Posted by: Evalyne | May 31, 2011 at 02:20 AM