Labels

Saturday, April 11, 2015

April: Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month with Ibtisam Barakat's Tree Day Celebration

in

Growing Gardens for Palestine


For this poem and 155 more (all in English AND Spanish), order your own copy of The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations HERE and for more Poetry Celebrations fun, click HERE. And for more on National Poetry Month, click HERE.
http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/2015/04/april-celebrating-arab-american.html
AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine (& America)]
 

April: Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month 

In The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations, we feature DAYS, WEEKS, and whole MONTHS of celebration, too. We've already showcased December 10: Dewey Decimal Day; April 2: International Children's Book Day; and 2nd Week of February: Random Acts of Kindness Week. Today, we're featuring Arab American Heritage Month-- the month of April.

We're so pleased to feature poems by Palestinian American poet, Ibtisam Barakat, who has her own YouTube channel of poem readings here Here is her original poem in celebration of Arab American Heritage Month from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations. You can listen to her read the poem aloud by clicking here and see it translated into Arabic here. Cool, right?

For a lovely note with more information and details from Ibtisam, click here.
And here are the Take 5! activities that accompany this poem in the book:
  1. Introduce the idea that tree-planting traditions are found around the world from Arbor Day to Christmas to the Tree Day Celebration in Arab countries, India, and elsewhere. Then read the poem aloud with a pause between stanzas.
  2. Work with children to plan a dramatic interpretation of the poem, with two volunteers (one as child, one as tree) pantomiming the planting, measuring, sleeping, and sharing stories while you read it aloud again. 
  3. Share planting experiences (of trees, bushes, flowers, etc.) and talk about the steps involved....READ MORE

Pomelo Books is Poetry PLUS!

The Poetry Friday Anthology series helps teachers and librarians teach poetry easily while meeting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and the Texas TEKS for English Language Arts (ELA)/Poetry and Science & Technology. Celebrate Poetry on Fridays—and any day—with The Poetry Friday Anthology!

Friday, April 10, 2015

Comment I posted RE Hussein Ibish: The tragedy in Yarmouk

NOW: A man stands inside a demolished building in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital Damascus on 6 April 2015. Around 2,000 people have been evacuated from the camp after ISIS seized large parts of it. (AFP/Youssef Karwashan)
The tragedy in Yarmouk: The Syrian Palestinian refugee camp has become "hell on earth"by
Hussein Ibish
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentary/565103-the-tragedy-in-yarmouk
AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

[Dear...]

Heart breaking- but a very good column by Hussein Ibish.  I am glad Ibish has not abandoned Palestine and the refugees. 

While I understand Ibish's call is for the international community, I have to wonder what exactly is the international community- is it formal governments worldwide, or is it mainly people speaking out to persuade their peers and elected leaders and newspapers to promote preferred story lines?   I can not help but think of all the many "pro-Palestine" activist individuals who constantly knock support away from diplomacy and state building efforts for Palestine.  Why are one-staters, anti-Israel Jewish activists and Islamists, who all tend to scorn negotiations, never ever held accountable for prolonging the Israel-Palestine conflict?

How many reasonable able advocates has Palestine lost, and how many good arguments for negotiations and statehood simply are not being made because 'pro-Palestine' in America has been hijacked by anti-state activists?

Seems to me the real Imperialism of today is a conglomeration of all the many "pro-Palestine" activist inciters weighing in to exasperate racism, religious bigotry, extremism, escalating conflict... further disenfranchising people connected to Palestine, and alienating America (and donors for UNWRA), rather than giving people concerned about the very real plight of the Palestinians the tools to help build a future with good jobs and real freedom based on a just and lasting peace for both Israel and for Palestine.

I wish more people had given more public support to American Task Force on Palestine efforts... I wish more people understood the vital importance of diplomacy and dialogue... and citizenship. American Task Force on Palestine might not be super active today, but all the many wise words, honest insights and good advice written through the years by Ibish & Dr. Ziad Asali (and others) remain in view providing a glimmer of hope that reasonable arguments for a real Palestine can still be made.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES