Online Journals
The Fabulist, Fables, Yarns and Tales
Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show
Writing Forums, Contests, and Young Adult Book Reviews
Teen Ink Magazine and Writing Forum
Short Films and Videos of Interest
On Creating:
We’re all scared, Hank Green admits in this youtube post. As a writer, how do you get over the fear of revealing yourself? You don’t, Green argues; it’s a part of the condition of being a creator, which is a great thing anyway.
Young adult writer Maureen Johnson challenges you to abandon the perfectionism that can kill your first drafts and Dare to Suck.
Author Neil Gaiman reveals the secret source of his startlingly original ideas.
Short film on growing up as a black man. This is a strong short film, and also an idea for you to carry into one of your own: the one question interview. What is one question you could ask students at our school, or ask people in your family or community that would make an engaging short film? The question could have significant social or political content, as this one does, or could be something lighter. What is one possession you can’t live without? What word do you hate, and why?
Poetry strategies:
Creating visual poetry: give it a try — working with found words and phrases can pull your imagination in new directions.
If you balk at destroying a book — even a bad one, and even to make a poem — try using a newspaper instead:
Visual poetry can move beyond the written word as well — incorporating found images, or images from your own life:
Running at the topic of visual poetry from another direction — an imagistic poem can be a jumping off point for short film. Here is a film by Jeffrey Schell of a poem by Aaron Fagan, “My Entrepreneurial Spirit.”
Or you can make a film of your own poem. Here is a spoken word poem of definition, “happiness,” written and performed by Shaira Mae Garzota & Angel Solomon.
More Inspiration:
A Brief History of John Baldessari: A short film about conceptual art (6 minutes).
Baldessari finds art in places where you may not have thought to look.
A Brief History of John Baldessari
Spoken Word Poetry: the opening of Kate Tempest’s poetry and music performance, “Brand New Ancients”
Tavi Gevenson: Founder and Editor of Rookie Magazine (now an actress as well), exploring a more complex view of teen girl life and culture.
Harker Aquila Interviews Upper School 2015 Scholastic Award Winners
Harker Alumni Artists and Writers
Local band Letters from the Fire released their first album in the summer of 2014. Two band members, Grayson Hurd and Mike Keller are Harker alums. Here’s their song, “Zombies in the Sun.” (Way to break the Harker nerd stereotype, guys!)
31 year old fashion designer Alexander Wang attended Harker elementary and middle school; he now splits his time between New York, when he runs his own line, and Paris, where he is the creative director for Balenciaga. Below is the Alexander Wang 2015 spring/summer runway show.
Wajahat Ali, who graduated from Harker Middle School in 1994, is interviewed by Shay Lari-Hosain in the current issue of the Harker Upper School’s new long form journalism magazine, Wingspan. Ali is currently co-host and digital producer of Al Jazeera America’s news program, ‘The Stream.’ He is also the author of an off-Broadway play and a frequent contributor to national news magazines. Further, Lari-Hosain writes that “in 2012, Ali worked with the State Department to design and implement the ‘Generation Change’ leadership program to empower young social entrepreneurs,” and was honored for his efforts by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Wingspan’s interview of Mr. Ali is linked below his photo.
