Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones, Newberry Opera House School Show
About Ken Waldman and How to Use this Study Guide
Ken Waldman combines original poetry (and poetry written by elementary-school-age children), old-time Appalachian-style fiddling, and Alaska-set storytelling for an interdisciplinary and interactive educational experience. A former college professor with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, he has 17 full-length collections of poetry, 3 books of acrostic poetry for children, 2 memoirs, a creative writing manual, a short story collection, and a novel, as well as 12 CDs that combine original poetry with traditional string-band music. More than 400 of his poems and stories have appeared in literary journals. Since 1995, he's performed throughout North America at leading performing arts centers, theaters, festivals, concert series, and clubs. He's been a visiting artist at over 250 schools in 35 states and a visiting writer at over 100 colleges and universities.
This study guide is designed for Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones visit to the Newberry Opera House, and can be used before or after a visit.
Because Ken Waldman shares poems and talks in depth about his writing process, his program directly relates to any poetry unit, as well as to more general language arts and literature requirements. In addition, Ken Waldman has led in-services for language arts teachers and is mindful how all writing—not just poetry—spans disciplines so can function as a gateway to any part of the curriculum. There's no reason a poem or any piece of creative writing can't be about history, math, or anything else. In addition, Ken Waldman's fiddling is an introduction to an often overlooked or misunderstood branch of American music. Ken has brought six additional musicians with rich experience and perspectives. Also, Ken's stories about Alaska offer a lesson in geography.
Because Ken Waldman's poetry varies widely—he's written both free verse and structured, formal poems; he's written not only about Alaska, but about comedy, sports, family, the environment, health issues, and much more—he can confidently go into any school or venue. He especially excels in master classes with young writers (sometimes as part of a gifted and talented program) as well as with at-risk students.
Ken Waldman has appeared in such a wide variety of settings that he understands that he's making a real impact, even without a study guide like this. But having this guide can deepen the impact Ken makes. Knowing more about the artist, the work, and the subject can lead to a more dynamic lesson for both the teachers and students. And make no mistake that it's the teachers who are there day after day, week after week, month after month, who are doing the essential work.
While Ken Waldman has a knack for coming to a community for a short time and inspiring with his art, he understands it's the teachers and the administrators that allow his visits, who are the real heroes of the programs.
In some communities, Ken might come solo and work with kindergartners and first graders one day, and with Advanced Placement and at-risk high schoolers the next. In other communities he might bring an accompanist or two, or a whole troupe of artists, like he's doing here in Newberry, and participate in and produce an interdisciplinary show that might include not only music and literature, but dance, visual art, geography, and more. It's always different, and Ken strives to put together programs that are inspiring, entertaining, and most of all, educational.
Below is an updated study guide for an April 2027 show for older elementary school students that Ken has put together for the Newberry Opera House Daytime School Series. Ken adapts this study guide with working with older students, younger students, and when bringing in other sets of artists.
Study Guide
Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones
An Interdisciplinary Arts Extravaganza for Elementary School Students
with Music, Poetry, Surprises
featuring Ken Waldman from Anchorage, Alaska
The Little Mercies (Rosalee Walsh, Shanice Richards, Bronwyn Chelette)
from Greensboro, North Carolina; New Orleans, Louisiana; Tallahassee, Florida
Ilan Moss from Brooklyn, New York
Erica Weiss from Cambridge, Massachusetts
Kristen Harris from Columbia, South Carolina
Created for the Newberry Opera House in Newberry, South Carolina, for an April 8, 2027 school show
Table of Contents
Biographies
About Poetry
About Fiddling and String-Band Music
About Alaska, South Carolina, The World
What You Can Expect from Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones
Post-Show Questions
Coda
Biographies
Ken Waldman
Ken Waldman combines original poetry, old-time string-band music, and smart storytelling for a performance uniquely his. Since 1995 he's appeared from the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage to the Dodge Poetry Festival to the Woodford Folk Festival (Queensland, Australia). 25 books consist of 17 full-length poetry collections, 3 kids' poetry books, 2 memoirs, a creative writing manual, a short story collection, and a novel. 12 CDs include two for children, and another that was recorded to accompany the novel. While he sometimes will still appear solo, more often he appears with The Wild Ones, an ever-changing troupe of local, regional, and nationally recognized musicians, many of whom are headliners themselves. Also known as Alaska's Fiddling Poet, Ken has visited over 250 schools in 35 states and especially loves putting together shows like this one at the Newberry Opera House.
Says The Austin Chronicle about any Ken Waldman appearance: “Feels like a Ken Burns movie . . . Always recommended.” Says a Las Vegas, Nevada middle-school student, “You inspired me to do something bigger with my life.” Says a 2nd grade teacher, “perfect extension to the poetry unit . . . Mr. Waldman did a great job getting students to believe in their ability to write.”
Ken Waldman grew up near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and didn't start playing fiddle until he was living in North Carolina in his 20's. He wrote his first poem after he moved in Alaska in 1985.
The Little Mercies (Rosalee Walsh, Bronwyn Chelette, Shanice Richards)
The Little Mercies are three good friends who met just a few years ago in Tallahassee, Florida, who all love to play music and dance. They all play multiple instruments, write songs, and sing. Recently they've progressed from playing around Tallahassee to touring throughout the United States, appearing at major venues and festivals.
Rosalee Walsh grew up in rural Colorado, and discovered her love of music through her parents, who were big music fans.
Bronwyn Chelette grew up on the Florida Panhandle, and remembers her mother singing her to sleep with mountain lullabies.
Shanice Richards grew up playing percussion and fiddle in her parents' church in South Georgia. Her work as a Music Therapist also reflects her Caribbean Heritage.
Ilan Moss
Ilan Moss is a banjo player and accordionist from Brooklyn, New York. For his day job he travels the world, working for the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. The traveling has led him to document rare music in Asia, Africa, South America, Europe, and here in North America.
Erica Weiss
Erica Weiss, from Cambridge Massachusetts, plays in numerous bands. Principally a guitarist, she also plays fiddle, bass, accordion, and calls dances. She teaches guitar, Balkan singing, and Cajun and zydeco dancing at numerous camps throughout the country.
Kristen Harris
Kristen Harris is two-time South Carolina state fiddle champion and is currently on faculty at The Suzuki Academy of Columbia and The University of South Carolina. She plays numerous styles--jazz, classical, traditional folk, rock--both in her own bands and as an in-demand side musician.
About Poetry
True story. One of Ken Waldman's friends is David Romtvedt, the former Wyoming state poet laureate. An accordion player, a professor, a husband, and a father, David Romtvedt has also been a carpenter, a rancher, a truck driver, a mailman, a blueberry picker, and an assembly line worker. Once he told Ken Waldman that when he flies on planes and his seatmate asks him what he does, if he wants to be left alone, he answers he's a poet. He finds this not only usually shuts them up, but that his seatmates will inch as far as they can from him, as if he's now carrying a communicable disease. If he answers, instead, that he's a musician, professor, or writer, or if he mentions any of his former jobs, they'll invariably engage him in a conversation.
Why Ken Waldman mentions this story is that even though people might say they like poetry, or appreciate it (and some of those people might even be you), the majority of people don't (or think they don't). In fact, most people not only don't understand poetry, but actively distrust it. If they think about poetry at all, they might think of sing-song elementary school rhymes, something that has nothing to do with them. Or maybe they think of it as something written long ago in a kind of code that's hard to understand—and again has nothing to do with them. Or maybe it's something they've come across in another way, and it's something they just don't like, so from then on they stay as far away from those poems as they can.
Fair enough. But that's the thing: like everything else, there are good poems and bad poems. And what Ken Waldman has found about good poems is they can be the absolute coolest, smartest, most brilliant things out there. Good poems really can make you think. They're also fun. The trick is finding them. Here's the beginning of a poem that Ken likes to share with elementary students since it was written by a fourth grade girl. It's a list of wishes, and it's something most any student could potentially write.
I Wish
I wish I was a country so they would like me.
I wish I was a sea so fishes would live in me.
I with the world was candy.
I wish we had everything in the store for free.
I wish I was one year old so I wouldn't go to school.
I wish I could fly.
I wish I was magic.
I wish my puppy was superdog.
The poem continues with more than twenty wishes, some more serious, some silly. But here the repetition offers not just a rhythm and a sound, but a way forward.
Ken Waldman wrote his first poem when he was thirty years old, living in Fairbanks, Alaska. At the time he was in graduate school, studying how to write stories better. His first year there he was taking a class that combined fiction writers like himself with classmates who wrote poems and classmates who wrote nonfiction essays. Though poems had been all around him before—and, really, there are always poems around you (just go to the library and look!)—he'd never been properly introduced in all his years of schooling or independent reading.
In Fairbanks, Ken Waldman read his classmates' poems and learned what they'd been reading the past weeks, months, and years. There were some wonderful poets out there he'd known nothing about. Now he knew more. The next years, as he continued to write stories, he began writing more poems. And while he learned that poems could be about anything, he also learned about tastes. While experts could disagree, which was true for any art form, there were ways to improve poems.
Here are a few things Ken Waldman learned:
With poems, not only did every word make a difference, but every syllable and sound did too.
When revising, it often helped to cut and cut. So often there were extra words.
Poems could be about anything: they could be like super-short stories; they could be a description; they could be a mood; they could be words that pay attention to sound; they can be part of a riddle or game. A contemporary poet, Tod Marshall, when asked how he'd describe poetry to a seven-year-old, answered, “An arrangement of words that matter to you.”
Paying attention to sound doesn't mean rhymes. Most poems these days don't rhyme in obvious ways. Poetry is much more subtle than that. With elementary school children, instead of using rhymes, Ken Waldman encourages repetition, which feels more natural and authentic. It easy, fun, and effective. Rhyming often feels forced. Ken Waldman also shares acrostic poems with elementary school children. And while the acrostics can be a single word for each line, Ken's acrostics are more sophisticated, which the students pick up on, and enjoy. He sometimes shares acrostics which work for both the first letter and last letter of the lines, which challenges the more adventurous student writers.
Something the poet Emily Dickinson said has stuck with Ken Waldman: “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”
Another helpful quote is from the poet Robert Frost: “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”
Both the Dickinson quote and the Frost quote point to the reader finding something that's extraordinary in a particular poem, something that “takes your head off,” or makes you cry, or just plain surprises you—and, to Ken Waldman's way of thinking, the only sure way to get to that point as a writer is to write something you didn't know that you could say. It means going back and instead of reading something absolutely cool, smart, and brilliant, it means writing something like that, which means not writing the obvious or predictable, but writing something deeper, or wilder, something that only you can write.
six terms (and the name of an advocate, and anthologist, of children's poetry):
haiku voice line
acrostic stanza line break Paul B. Janeczko
Ken Waldman's best piece of advice: sample lots of poetry collections and anthologies, and when you find a poem you like, read it, reread it, reread it again, and then read everything you can by that poet. Chances are you'll find more poems you like. Do you want even better advice? Write lots of poems. Share them. Listen to teachers. Then write more. Have fun with it.
As for online resources, Ken Waldman doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. www.poets.org has most everything you'd ever want, and so much more. It's so much to go through that you're invited to contact Ken Waldman for suggestions how to narrow the focus or for other sites to visit. Like with most everything else these days, the problem isn't gathering information, it's how to most effectively sift through all the information that's already available. Ultimately, like with so much else, once you have a good overview of the field, it becomes a matter of taste.
Also, and maybe most importantly, everyone attending this Newberry show will receive a poem or two Ken has written for this occasion, and a bookmark with a poem (and Ken Waldman's address in Anchorage), and an invitation to write him. Write Ken a letter, and if there's a return address, he'll get back to you!
About Fiddling and String-Band Music
Sometimes people ask Ken Waldman what's the difference between a fiddle and a violin.
To answer, Ken Waldman will take out his instrument, play a scale, usually with a bit of vibrato (a sound made by maneuvering a finger on the violin string being bowed so there's a throbbing quality) on one or more of the notes. Vibrato is one of the hallmarks of classical music. After finishing playing the scale, Ken will say, “That's a violin.” Then he'll start playing a Southern fiddle tune, with double stops (when two strings are bowed at the same time) and slides (moving a finger up, making a slippery and bluesy sound). “That's a fiddle,” Ken will say afterward. Fiddle is the term used for a more folksy or bluesy music—Irish music, Cajun music, blues all may have fiddles. While the instrument is the same, some fiddlers prefer slight modifications, like flatter bridges, plus fiddlers will sometimes tune their instrument different from standard G, D, A, E tuning to get a different sound, depending on the particular piece. But, really, the differences are individual. It's the style, and music, that's different.
Ken Waldman started playing when he was living in North Carolina, sharing a house with a banjo player and a guitarist. One day a friend of the banjo-playing housemate decided he wasn't going to keep his fiddle, so brought it over to the house to sell it. When Ken Waldman bought it, he'd just turned 25 years old.
Ken Waldman kept practicing, and was fortunate to be living in the community near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where there was a tradition of this old-time string-band music. Though Ken never learned to read or write music, he learned as others before him learned: by listening and watching local fiddlers, which is the age-old way for learning this style. As he continued, occasionally one of those other local fiddlers showed Ken Waldman a few tricks. For some tunes, it meant specific techniques with the bowing. For others, it meant tuning the fiddle differently. Always, it meant listening to the music.
As Ken continued listening to this kind of music, he continued to practice. A few years later, he moved to Seattle, Washington, then the following year to Fairbanks, Alaska. After three years in Fairbanks, he moved to Juneau, then Sitka, then Nome, and from 1982-1992, he played at least a little bit everyday. He continued improving.
What Ken Waldman plays is called old-time music, a style that predates bluegrass. The style comes from the Appalachian Mountains and the adjoining regions of the southeastern United States. Though the music has spread all over the country—and all over the world—it's still identified with the South. But while the music may come from there, it's evolved from other music that preceded it. Since the fiddle and banjo are the main instruments, it helps to know that the fiddle style is related to Irish, Scottish, and English fiddle styles from early settlers. The banjo is derived from various African instruments, and came to this country with the slave trade. The clawhammer banjo style used in old-time music, where the right hand is shaped like a claw and then the hand comes down like a hammer, with the thumb following to pick a string (usually the short, high string), takes the instrument back to its roots as a strung drum. While fiddle and banjo are the classic combination, other instruments found in bands include guitar, bass, and mandolin. Sometimes you might find a dulcimer or a piano in a string band (and some bands will include two or three fiddlers—it can get pretty wild).
In 2000, Ken Waldman made his first CD. And over the next nine years he made eight more CDs, including two double CDs, and two children's CDs. All the CDs include fiddle, banjo, guitar, poetry, and more. After making three more CDs in 2022, he now has twelve.
Like with the poetry, there are near infinite resources for this music on the internet, and going to YouTube you can see and hear enough to keep you busy for weeks (or months, or years).
Here at the Newberry Opera House show, you have six other musicians whose skills complement Ken Waldman's. Are they geniuses? How did they get so good? They have their own particular stories. They started young, maybe. They practiced long and hard. They met people that inspired them. Some of their stories you can find more easily online. Some you may have to reach out to after meeting them here. Rosalee Walsh, Shanice Richards, and Bronwyn Chelette are a trio of friends who used to live in the same town, and now live in three different places. They're currently on tour a lot. Ilan Moss travels all over the world searching for distinctive music, and playing distinctive music himself. Erica Weiss plays in several bands, and teaches music at big festivals. Kristen Harris lives down the road from Newberry in Columbia, where she teaches music and plays. A few years ago, her festival band, which included her friend, Ilan Moss, placed at the prestigious Appalachian String-Band Festival.
But you know what? There may be accomplished musicians in your own families, or who live next door, or down the street, or who teach at your school, or who you meet by chance as you go about your own life. So many people play music, whether professionally or for fun. If they can do it, you can learn too if you want to.
About Alaska, South Carolina, The World
Our 49th state has had a history as mythic as its size (it's not just the largest state, but if Alaska was divided in half, Texas would become the third largest state—Texans don't much like hearing that). It's truly a land of extremes, and is approximately 20 times larger than South Carolina (or approximately the size of South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas combined).
Because it's so far north, summer days are much longer than the 48 contiguous states—and winter days are much shorter. From late May through late July in the Interior Alaska community of Fairbanks it never gets darker than dusk; drivers can get by without headlights. Winter is the opposite with a long slow sunrise to the southeast over mountains, which is followed by a long slow sunset—and only several hours of light during the day. The highest spot on the North American continent is in the Alaska Range, on the summit of Mount McKinley, which is over 20,000 feet. But if you call that mountain Mount McKinley, Alaskans will know you're not from there. Everybody calls it Denali, which is an Athabascan Indian word for “Great One,” and is the name of the spectacular national park. By the way, Alaska comes from the Aleut word, Alyeska, which means “Great Land.”
The Southeast part of the state has a maritime climate, so isn't as cold as the northern latitude suggests. Still, the weather is a challenge, and many of the communities there average 100 inches of rain a year or more, including Juneau, the state capital, where approximately 30,000 people live. The main population center of Anchorage, where nearly half of the almost 700,000 residents live, isn't any colder than many communities in the Upper Midwest or Plains. But the state's second most populated community, Fairbanks, population of approximately 70,000, averages January highs of below zero.
There are a number of Native groups in Alaska. Athabascan Indians are in the Interior the state. Aleuts are in the extreme southwest, including the Aleutian Islands. Three Eskimo groups are Yup'ik, in the western part of the state; Inupiat, in the northwest; and Siberian Yup'ik, only on St. Lawrence Island in northwest Alaska. In Southeast Alaska, two Native tribes are the Tlingit and the Haida.
These Native groups have made Alaska their home for centuries. In the mid eighteenth century, the first European explorers, a crew from Russia, landed in the Aleutians. The next hundred years Russians settled from the Aleutians, to Kodiak Island, all the way to Sitka, on Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska. In 1867, the United States bought the land from the Russians for $7.2 million dollars, a deal brokered by Secretary of State, William Seward. After many years as an unofficial United States territory, Alaska officially became the 49th state in 1959.
As with everything else, there are plenty of resources on the web to learn more about Alaska.
South Carolina, your home state, is just as special. Kristen can tell you about living in Columbia. Upstate is so much different than the Low Country. Columbia, Spartanburg, Charleston—three completely different places. And they're different than Myrtle Beach, or Clemson. And then there's Sumter, and so much more. Every state has its long history. Bronwyn can definitely talk about Tallahassee, Florida, and now Shanice is in New Orleans and Rosalee is in Greensboro.
Both Ilan and Erica live in the Northeast, but they've both traveled a great deal--and Ilan has lived for a considerable time outside North America. Ken Waldman has also toured extensively, especially in the United States, and he was born in Pennsylvania, where he lived until graduating high school.
While Ken Waldman can say personally that living in Alaska was the perfect place to make dreams of writing and music happen--he says that with so few people in so big a place, anybody can do anything--the real truth is there's no single place to write, play music, dance, create visual art, or to dream big dreams. You can become anything living in or near Newberry County where there's this beautiful opera house, a college, and so much more. There are plenty of resources here. You can go anywhere (and you can start by going to nearby Columbia, or Greenville, or Spartanburg, or up to Asheville, or to places like Charleston, or all the way to Savannah or Atlanta. Maybe you'll make it to New Orleans, or north to Washington D.C., or New York City, or down to Orlando or Miami, or to some West Coast places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle. Hawaii is out there. And so is Alaska, of course. And so are National Parks. And then there's Mexico, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia. Traveling is a way of learning. So is poetry, music, dance, visual art. So is any kind of writing and reading.
What You Can Expect from Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones
Ken Waldman will begin with an original poem for the occasion, then another poem with one of the musicians joining him, then another musician, and another, and the rest. That will lead to an introduction of all the artists.
From there, Kristen Harris and Ilan Moss will do a short showcase-length set (probably with Erica Weiss joining them). Then The Little Mercies will offer their own short set. Ken Waldman will have his set with Erica Weiss (and he also promises a surprise or two since others will be joining them—and, again, students will receive Ken's take-home poems, perhaps at the theater, perhaps afterwards).
At some point, the artists will be explaining in their own words how they've gotten to where they are. Instead of offering a performance that could be repeated anywhere, Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones share a dynamic and educational entertainment. There are always endless possibilities of the exact content, since it can't be scripted--and if circumstances allow, we'll invite a handful of students to come on stage to ask questions.
The aim is to provide a show full of fun, inspiration, and surprises. It's interdisciplinary and interactive. It's fast-moving. There's critical thinking.
Seven responses to Ken's visits (where he came solo, or with accompanists):
“The experience was electrifying and inspirational to our students, who continue to talk about ”the fiddling poet of Alaska" and his music, his stories, and his poems. Among another remarkable talents, Waldman is uncanny in his ability to capture his audience, regardless of size, age, or backgrounds. He can lead an advanced creative writing workshop with budding poets during the morning, and then, in the afternoon, turn on auditorium filled with hundreds of middle school students. . . . When Waldman left us, I knew that he was the type of writer I would be calling upon again to visit us. He is a unique, authentic, American voice."
--Robert Boerth, Chair of English, Trinity Preparatory School, Winter Park, FL
“What a wonderful day it was at our school when you visited our English and Creative Writing classes! Our students were delighted by the interaction you offered in your presentations. Many have asked if you will be returning during the year for an encore.
--Jan Neighbor, Chair of English, Rosa L. Parks School of Fine and Performing Arts, Paterson, NJ
“Thank you for opening doors to writing, music, and Alaska in a manner that was easy for students to enter. Sometimes I worry that kids have given up on wonder. You proved me wrong.”
--Candace Tippett, Community in Schools Program, Granite Falls Middle School, Granite Falls NC (in response to Ken Waldman's outreach show at the Broyhill Center)
“Ken Waldman is truly an original. . . . It is always very exciting to incorporate traditional music performance in a class like American music, world music, or on an eclectic concert series. Ken's authentic playing and easy manner, accompanied by his unique insight and humor, make for an enjoyable performance. I recommend him most highly.”
--William Bradbury, Professor of Music and Music Technology, Coordinator Arts and Lectures Series, California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, CA
“I can't thank you enough for you excellent performances in Sidney. Your shows for our middle school students, both in the poetry workshop and in the school-wide assembly were excellent. It can't be easy to keep 900 rowdy middle-schoolers attentive and engaged, but you managed to do it, and make it look easy. Kids evidently relate to your laid back style and funny anecdotes, as well as your powerful poetry and fiddle.”
--Susan Fox, Director, Gateway Arts Council, Sidney, OH
“As a retired teacher, I sat in awe through (Ken Waldman's) four assembly programs and four small group workshops. Having taught for 34 years, I know how tough a middle school audience can be, but to see how he captured their attention and even more so how he drew out their delight in creativity was inspiring . . . P.S. He also incorporated mini-lessons in spelling, math, history, culture, and geography, but the students probably weren't even aware of that.”
--Harriet Carlson, for the Portage Center of the Arts, Portage, WI
“He managed to engage our entire school of 600 plus students, from the wiggliest kindergartners to the most jaded 5th graders. Ken combines a gentle folksy spirit with toe-tapping, traditional Appalachian fiddling, and eventually gets all the children writing poetry before they even realize it. I wouldn't have believed that a man who teaches university writing courses could work so well with such a wide range of elementary students, if I hadn't seen it myself. I had a kindergarten teacher tell me afterward that Ken should be an elementary teacher, he was so great with her kids!”
--Heidi Almy, 2nd grade teacher, Lyseth Elementary School, Portland, ME
Post-Show Questions
Ken Waldman shared a few short poems to open and close the show, one or two of which he passed on to students. What did you think? Can you try writing one or more of your own?
Why do you think Ken Waldman does what he does (even though he never started playing music until he was 25 years old, and didn't write a poem until he was 30 years old--and didn't start making his own books until he was 40 years old, and didn't have his first book from a commercial small press publisher until he was 45 years old, which was the same year he released his first CD)?
All the Little Mercies play several instruments and they also teach. Kristen Harris has been teaching music for years in Columbia. Erica Weiss also teaches music. How is what they do alike? How is it different? How do they learn so many different instruments and styles, and how do they practice on them all?
The Little Mercies are a regular band who tour together. Kristen Harris and Ilan Moss play together when they can, which may only be one or two times a year since they live so far apart. Do they sound like they're all well-practiced? If they're alike, how so? If they're different, how so? What would you like to ask the Little Mercies about playing in a band, and traveling together?
Ilan Moss has been all over the world. He's also a dad with teenagers. What would you like to ask him about his music, and about his life.
Erica Weiss teaches music, dance, and singing. She's also a writer. And she plays in several bands. What would you like to ask her about her music, and her life?
Kristen Harris plays so many styles and teaches in Columbia. What would you like to ask her about learning so many different kinds of styles, and about living here in South Carolina?
Ken Waldman goes all over the United States (in October he was in Utah, Montana, and Louisiana; in November he was in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Alabama; all December he was in Georgia; already in 2027 he's been in Alabama, New York, Vermont, Illinois, back to Louisiana, and much more; in May he'll be in Iowa; eventually he'll find his way back to Alaska), what do you want to ask him about music, about writing, about his travels?
The Little Mercies travel a lot themselves. How do they decide where to go next with their band?
After hearing and seeing everybody, are you ready for a travel adventure?
Do you think differently now about playing music, about writing poems or songs, about making art that you never before imagined? And what about combining art forms to make something new, maybe something nobody has ever made before?
Want to know more about any of the participants of Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones?
Below are websites to learn more about this Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones group:
CODA
Two Sample Ken Waldman Poems (and a poetry lesson)
My Grandfather
My grandfather, Jack.
My grandfather, Joseph Schwartz.
My grandfather, pipe-smoker and chess player.
My grandfather, married to a chatterbox.
My grandfather, businessman with an office.
My grandfather, who never told jokes.
My grandfather, who built a summer house on a lake.
My grandfather, who liked strolling late at night, alone.
My grandfather, who enjoyed mowing the lawn and gardening.
My grandfather, who fixed broken machines.
My grandfather, who carved roast beef and turkey.
My grandfather who could rock in a rocking chair all day before a fire.
My grandfather, who grilled hamburgers on the barbecue.
My grandfather, my grandfather, my grandfather.
(another example of repetition, which can work for elementary-school students—while they can write about their own grandfathers, they can also write about other family members, or about a friend, or about a pet)
D is for Dog Team
Days pulling a sled
on snow and ice, on
good trails and bad,
twenty miles or more.
Every run is different.
A winter bonus.
Moonlight shines.
(an acrostic from Ken Waldman's Alaska-set acrostic poetry book)
And a quick poetry lesson: the same six words five different ways:
She is walking down the stairs.
She is
walking
down
the stairs.
She
is
walking
down
the
stairs.
She
is
w a l k i n g
d
o
w
n Reading these offers a quick
the possibility of the power of poetry
s and of language.
t
a
i
r
s.
She is
walk
ing
do
wn
the
st
ai
rs.
Additional Resources, and a Discussion
Ken Waldman
3705 Arctic #1551
Anchorage, AK 99503
www.kenwaldman.com
It can't be emphasized enough that when a teacher grows more comfortable as a writer, he or she will be more comfortable as a writing teacher. For a teacher that could mean taking advantage of every professional development opportunity. It could also mean joining an informal, or formal, writing group in the community. It could mean taking a Creative Writing class at a community college, or attending a writers' conference. It could mean a self-study. While the internet is an incredible resource, it's an incredibly immense and ever-growing resource.
For instance, while Ken Waldman can recommend going to the poets.org website, he won't go so far as to recommend any one way to navigate it to best meet any one teacher's needs, but if you start at the For Educators link and click, you'll find plenty of useful information, including information about Teachers & Writers Collaborative at www.twc.org (highly recommended!) and the National Council of Teachers of English at www.ncte.org. We're individuals with individual tastes and needs—and there's always going to be random serendipity when doing research. That said, it's generally helpful to read interviews by practicing writers. The Paris Review is a venerable literary journal that always features those kinds of interviews. Ken Waldman has read plenty of interviews there, and elsewhere. And, no, it didn't surprise him to read how highly successful writers sometimes had opposite habits. Some made meticulous outlines; some never outlined. Some wrote with a special pen or on a manual typewriter; some used computers or talked into a tape recorder. Some wrote early in the morning, still in bed; some wrote late at night, fueled by coffee. The lesson, Ken Waldman believes, is to offer student writers a variety of ways to succeed, and to have fun with the process. Teachers can point students to writers who interest them, who are writing stories and poems that intrigue and fascinate. Teachers can then offer assignments that follow up on that interest. And none of us can never forget that this is all a process.
Any of us can go to an online search engine and type a few words and continue the search, but with www.poets.org and now www.twc.org and ncte.org, you have an excellent start.