Our Culture, Our Poems

Introduction (5 minutes)

• Welcome the participants
• Introduce yourself and the Ideas Box project (give your name, say that you work for the Ideas Box, explain that the Ideas Box is a centre that implement activities for the Rohingya community to improve their access to knowledge and information).
• Introduce the activity: today we are going to do an activity about poems. We will discuss about what is a poem, we will share poems and create new ones.

Ice-breaking game (10 minutes)

• Explain that you are going to do an ice-breaking game to warm up the participants
• Ask the participants to stand up, with some space between each other (they should not touch each other). They have to place their feet wide apart, to have the knees slightly bent and to have their arms up to the sky.
• Explain to the participants: during this game, you are a tree. Your arms are the branches in the air, your body is the trunk and your feet are the roots. Close your eyes. I am going to tell you a little story about a tree and you have to move accordingly. For instance, there is a little and warm wind in the air, so the branches (your arms and hands) are moving slowly with the wind.
• Tell the story slowly (make a pause between each sentence): the weather is calm. There is a big sun and almost no wind. There is a bird coming in the branches of the tree. A little breeze is coming from the north. It’s making the branches move a little, only the top of it. Some clouds appear too. The bird goes away. The breeze become stronger. The branches are moving from one side to another. It’s not a breeze anymore, it becomes a wind. All the branches are moving. The wind is getting stronger and stronger. It’s almost a windstorm. Even the trunk of the tree is moving. Then the wind suddenly stops completely. There is no movement at all. The storm is gone, the bird comes back in the branches.
• Ask the participants to open their eyes, ask them to take a few deep breaths and put down their arms.
• Ask the participants what they think about this game, how it makes them feel. Give some time to everybody to answer.

Heart (70 minutes)

Part 1 – Discovery (15 minutes)

• The participants and the facilitator will seat in a circle, where everybody can see and hear everybody else.
• Explain and Ask: we are going to do an activity about poem. So, can you explain what is poetry and what is a poem? (the facilitator will give some time to the participants to think and answer).
• Explain: Poetry is a type of artistic writing, that attempts to stir a reader’s imagination and emotions. The poet does this by carefully choosing and arranging language for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. Some poems are simple and humorous. Other poems may try to express some truth about life, to tell a story, or to honour a person. Poetry appears in great many forms and styles.
• Explain: a poem can be about any topic, can use only a few words or be several pages long, often ends with a punch, has a title, may use invented spelling, may be serious or humorous, usually expresses personal feelings and emotion but not always. There is no right or wrong poem.
• Ask: Poetry and poem are in many different countries and cultures. Do you know why people write poems? And why do you like or dislike poem? (the facilitator will let some time to the participants to think and answer).
• Explain: here too, there is no right or wrong answers. We all like or dislike poem for different reasons and it is fine, because we are all different persons with different feelings. One reason why people write poems is because it is a nice way to express what they feel, to express their emotions, using words. It is a way to share what you feel and to make the others understand how you feel in a different way than speaking.

Part 2 – Sharing (35 minutes)

• Explain: now that we know a bit more about poems, let’s share the poems that we know. Each of you know a poem. Who would like to say it first? Who feels ready to share? (the facilitator will invite the participants who feel ready to stand up and to say the poem he/she chooses. Everybody will be invited to clap at the end of the poem and the participant will seat down again. If nobody wants to start, the facilitator will start him/herself by sharing a poem, to give example and make people more comfortable. The same process will be applied until everybody had a chance to say a poem).
• Ask: How do those poems make you feel? Do you think the person who wrote these poems wanted you to feel that way? Did you use your imagination to bring images to your mind?
• Explain: Poems are part of our culture and our identity as a community. One way to keep a trace of it is to record it. We have voice recorder and camera in the Ideas Box. We are going to record the poems that we just shared. We are going to make some videos, using the camera, seeing one person saying the poem. If you are not comfortable with videos, then we will record your voice only, using the voice recorder. The facilitator will specify that the records and videos will be included in the Ideas Cube to be used in future activities. Let’s make groups of 2 persons, so one will say the poem while the other will record or make a film.
• The facilitator will explain how to use the voice recorder and the camera so the participants can film or record their partner. Everybody gets a chance to have his/her poem recorded or filmed. After the activity, the facilitator will save the records and films in the Ideas Box laptop, with clear title (including the date and the name of the activity).

Part 3 – Creation (20 minutes)

• Explain: Now that we have discovered a lot of poems through our sharing session, we are going to make our own poem. Indeed, we are all able to create a poem. By team of two persons, you will choose a theme that you both like. It can be about the nature, some animal that you like, some events in your life, some feeling that you have and want to express. Think about the topic in your mind, share it with your partner and start to think together about the words you can use to express what you feel.
• The facilitator will give around 10 minutes to each team to create their poem. Then the participants will come back forming one big circle and each team will have the possibility to say their invented poem to everybody.
• Conclude: Thank you all for the poems you all created and shared today. As you see, we can all create poems. Maybe you enjoyed doing it and will continue to create poems in the future. You can try on your own to make poems and share them with your family or friends if you want. You can also keep it in your mind and in your heart if you prefer.

Conclusion (5 minutes)

• Conclude the activity by a summary of what we learnt today: we learnt that poetry is part of the culture. We learnt that there are many different ways to create a poem and that everybody is able to invent one.
• Thank the participants for their involvement in the activity
• Invite the participants to visit the Ideas Box center during free time to use the content or to join a course in the future, to learn more new things