Poetry and Pop Culture

Poetry and Pop Culture was among classes offered at Texas A&M Term II in 2007 and Term I 2008. The instructor was Roger Reeves and the TA for 2007 was Victoria (or Professor Wheatgrass) and in 2008 was Malachi Black. In addition to reading classic poems by Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Wiliam Carlos Wiliams, and others, students wrote their own poems, including the styles of sonnet and ghazzal. In addition to poetry, students also had to anylize The Simpsons episodes. In this class, there was a student who after meeting, the phrase "Don't taze me" will never be the same. In addition to "don't taze me", there also was a student whom after meeting, the phrase "The power of Christ compells you!" will never have the same meaning. They are, and forever will be no matter what campus they're on, the cool kids on campus.

Official Course Description

In thit course, students will examine the phenominon of spoken word poetry and poular music through its literary predecessors like the Beat Generation, the Harlem Renaissance, bop poetry, and jazz to understand what literary movements have not only expanded the American literary cannon but also transformed the very political and social fabric of America. This course aims to go beyond the analysis and deconstruction of the literary phenominon of political poetry by also allowing students to develop insight into why this genre of poetry and art continues to influence American politics and society. Writing intensive.

In Jokes

• We got manipulated by a dead guy!
• I'm gonna taze you! [preceeded by "Don't taze me!"]
• Does the power of Christ need to compell y'all? [occasionaly followed by "again"]
• I'm gonna be the next Walt Whitman!
• My favorite part of class, Break Time!!
• Wake up Bobby!
• Well, today all of us got pregnant... even the guys...
• Freeze!
• No, no, one more... (see Open Mic Night for details)
• Emily Dickinson is the mother of emo!
• You are forgeting, this class is a dictatorship.

T-shirt

Flaming notebook with "Children of the Fire" (Whitman quote) on the back that made us all look like pyromaniacs.

Instructor

Mr. Roger Reeves, in addition to running the dictatorship of Poetry and Pop Culture, also did the following things:

• Jumped some poor kid during Student vs. Staff Ultimate Frisby
• Made the entire class do at least 10 push ups after select students (you know who you are) lagged more than the maximum 10 feet behind
• Hosted roll call (making the ledgendary statement "Please keep your stuffing in") and the tallent show
• Taught tai chi, salsa dancing, and cambia dancing to class

TA

The TA, Malachi Black, taught a class on sonnets and Shakespeare when Roger was sick. He did have some memorable quotes which shall now be imortalized;

• (while the class was on a 'feild trip' and throwing random things into a grate with water underneath)That may very well be sewage, so I would recomend not doing that.

Activities

Note: below activities may be specific to certain years/terms.

• Open Mic Night: The students in this class who wanted to participate were taken to an open mic night at Hastings book store. At said open mic night, student Fillipe would not stop reading poems. It is widely accepted he read every poem he wrote in this class. This being said, most students read 2-3 poems. Fillipe read, oh, about 6-7.
• Guerrilla Poetry: Students were to read poetry they selected in class (not written by them) to random people across campus. On the first attempt, the instructor had gotten ill. Thus, there were two Guerrilla Poetry Readings.

Class List/Quotes

(In the order we were in in the second room, starting at the right, from what I remember. Sorry if I spelt anyones name wrong. Quotes may or may not have been said in class.)
Brandon(we're gonna taze him one day, am I right?)

• Don't taze me!

Haishat
Johnathan
Yahira
Josh
Bobby

• No, maybe there was this pimp, and he named all his hoes after ice cream flavors...

Sarah A.

• So we're being manipulated by a dead guy?
• Wait, men have breasts?

Filipe

• No, no, I have one more!

Kathy

• Power of Christ people. Power of Christ.
• Y'all have issues.

Patricia
Theresa
Lan Tiqua

• There is a difference between a prostitute and a ho. A prostititue gets paid.

Liz
Christan
Milan
Sofia

• So, what do you think of when you see a tree?
• Anybody want an eyelash?

Sarah T.
Da Bria
Juan