ARCHIVE FOR Holly Thompson

In anticipation of 75-degree-or-higher weather, endless waffle cones of ice cream, and later curfews, we’ve asked teen instructors to describe their upcoming teen class as a pop song. Our next instructor in our YAWP Summer Playlist series is Holly Thompson, author of the verse novels Falling into the Dragon’s Mouth, The Language Inside and Orchards, the novel Ash and picture books Twilight Chant, One Wave at a Time, and The Wakame Gatherers.

In our summer YAWP class Making Motion Poems, we'll be combining poetry and video using whatever smartphone or tablet tools we …

During the fall term I had the opportunity to teach Multimedia Poetry, the first multi-week course of its kind to be offered at GrubStreet. In this six-week class we explored and experimented with multimedia poetry—poetry combined with video, still images, audio, typography, animation, movement, live performance, and other content forms. Each week we viewed and discussed example works—many from Moving Poems, as well as other sources—paying close attention to author-made multimedia projects (as opposed to collaborations). We then brainstormed and began drafting or adapting our own poems for the week’s project assignment. Students were encouraged to experiment with whatever …