Category: Student Work
Make Plain Paper Beautiful – The 2021 Pizza Poetry Anthology
WGNO: Kids ‘Writing on the Wall’ to reflect on life in quarantine
WGNO interviewed our Executive Director, Brooke Pickett about our project “Writing on the Wall” that kept students writing near the beginning of quarantine. Read about it here.
Youth Monument Proposals Featured on Buzzfeed!
“Was Ruby Bridges old when she fought racism? No, she was not. She was a kid.” https://t.co/DolliOms92
— wikipedia brown (@eveewing) July 7, 2018
London, Coby, Aakhirah, and Lukas’s pieces from Courageous, Eccentric, Diverse: New Monuments for New Orleans went viral on Twitter thanks to the wonderful author Daniel José Older. Buzzfeed covered the excitement, which you can read all about here.
Shout out to our partners at Homer Plessy Community School and to Cartoon Network and Teaching Tolerance for supporting this special project.
Muses Stories: King Cake by Rosaria
One time I woke up, there was king cakes falling in the sky. I went outside. I ate a big juicy bite. There was cream, jelly, cinnamon, a baby, icing and lots more. The sprinkles were yellow, purple, and green.
Muses Stories: Hot Sauce by Cineca
Hot sauce was not mah sauce till I taste that hot sauce and then that chicken was lame till I hit it with that flame and that pizza was all cheezy till I hit it with that heaty and them noodles was all loose till I spiced up the noodle juice.
Muses Stories: The Big City Panda by Ariana, Grade 4
Panka was so hot and so cute! She went to Paris, but what Panka didn’t know was Paris was so hot in the summer! Then, Big Freedia found Panka and gave her a home! Soon, Panka tried to steal Big Freedia’s life. Big Freedia’s agent heard of this and did not like her. He paid people to drop the Eiffel Tower on Panka, and they did. Panka died that day. They buried her where the Eiffel Tower had once been. Then, Big Freedia came to dance on her grave.
Muses Stories: Dear America by Mya, Grade 7
Dear America,
I am a young African American. I stand for justice. In this life, I stand for equal rights. I stand to be a powerful woman. I want to be treated the same.
Having a new president, I feel like I am denied as a woman. Trump judges us as women. I’ve been bullied and as a young girl it pushes me, but I am powerful, intelligent, and smart.
I want a better country! I stand in, and I demand justice!
All About Protocol
As I quietly sat in the center of my loud predominately black 7th grade classroom trying to pay attention to the English teacher’s lesson of the day, the noise grew louder with laughter and chatter. Because my middle school was both an English and French speaking school, it did a great job representing the two cultures. However, there was a great division between the English and French programs. So, this French-speaking teacher had trouble controlling these rowdy teenagers and constantly lost control of the classroom with teenagers pushing her patience.
After getting tired of the heckling from the class, my teacher turned around from the whiteboard with her piercing, blue eyes narrowing on us and her pale, white skin turning red. She yelled “quiet!” To which all the kids laughed at her frustration. She grew redder and started calling out the names of the loudest and most “delinquent” kids in the classroom. Not one of them seemed phased as they not so silently chuckled and made faces at one another.
At one point, the girl sitting behind me whispered, “watch her hair stick up while she fuss.” And I smirked as it was evident that her short, gray strands of hair stood up as she continued screaming out names. She noticed my small smile I was trying to suppress and immediately addressed it. “Now, Talon, I’m sure your father wouldn’t pleased to hear about you misbehaving in class!”
You can read Talon’s full piece in There Is No School Without Us, coming out this February.
#BigClassBestTen: Courageous, Eccentric, Diverse
After the Confederate monuments came down in New Orleans, Homer Plessy Community School third graders authored a book of their ideas for new monuments for our city—monuments for all people.
In classic Big Class fashion, we concluded the project with a reading and publishing party where students held their completed book in their hands and celebrated with friends, family, educators, and community members.
Thank you to Homer Plessy Community School, partner teacher Amy Dickerson, Cartoon Network via 826 National, and Teaching Tolerance.
Purchase Courageous, Eccentric Diverse: New Monuments for New Orleans here.
#BigClassBestTen: I Want You To Know Something About Me
The 2016 election of Donald Trump evoked emotional responses across personal and political spectrums.
In the months that followed, New Orleans youth wrote letters in response to the election—to friends, family, their future selves, America, and to Donald Trump himself.
On November 9th, 2016, the day after the presidential election, Big Class staff visited a first grade classroom and asked, “What does a great America look like?” Amongst the responses, we heard “take care of bugs and animals” and “sharing and having fun”. These young New Orleanians made us hopeful, made us laugh, and made us think.
From there, Big Class began to realize the magnitude of what New Orleanian youth had to say about the direction of our country, and the necessity to amplify these voices on a larger scale. We held letter-writing workshops in classrooms in schools throughout New Orleans, at the Gentilly branch of the New Orleans Public Library, and collaborated with students in our own programs.
This collection of letters culminated in I Want You To Know Something About Me—Big Class’s first publication of 2017, released on January 15th (right in time for Inauguration Day). These letters range from angry to hopeful, and offer powerful insight into how we can move forward as individuals and as a country.
Contributing youth authors shared their work at Writers’ Resist New Orleans, an event in collaboration with with PEN America, as part of a international day of readings championing freedom of speech, and the power of expression to change the world.
Dear America,
I am a young African American. I stand for justice. In this life, I stand for equal rights. I stand to be a powerful woman. I want to be treated the same.
Having a new president, I feel like I am denied as a woman. Trump judges us as women. I’ve been bullied and as a young girl it pushes me, but I am powerful, intelligent, and smart.
I want a better country! I stand in, and I demand justice!
—Mya, Grade 7
You can purchase the book here.
Make Plain Paper Beautiful – The 2021 Pizza Poetry Anthology
WGNO: Kids ‘Writing on the Wall’ to reflect on life in quarantine
WGNO interviewed our Executive Director, Brooke Pickett about our project “Writing on the Wall” that kept students writing near the beginning of quarantine. Read about it here.
Youth Monument Proposals Featured on Buzzfeed!
“Was Ruby Bridges old when she fought racism? No, she was not. She was a kid.” https://t.co/DolliOms92
— wikipedia brown (@eveewing) July 7, 2018
London, Coby, Aakhirah, and Lukas’s pieces from Courageous, Eccentric, Diverse: New Monuments for New Orleans went viral on Twitter thanks to the wonderful author Daniel José Older. Buzzfeed covered the excitement, which you can read all about here.
Shout out to our partners at Homer Plessy Community School and to Cartoon Network and Teaching Tolerance for supporting this special project.
Muses Stories: King Cake by Rosaria
One time I woke up, there was king cakes falling in the sky. I went outside. I ate a big juicy bite. There was cream, jelly, cinnamon, a baby, icing and lots more. The sprinkles were yellow, purple, and green.
Muses Stories: Hot Sauce by Cineca
Hot sauce was not mah sauce till I taste that hot sauce and then that chicken was lame till I hit it with that flame and that pizza was all cheezy till I hit it with that heaty and them noodles was all loose till I spiced up the noodle juice.
Muses Stories: The Big City Panda by Ariana, Grade 4
Panka was so hot and so cute! She went to Paris, but what Panka didn’t know was Paris was so hot in the summer! Then, Big Freedia found Panka and gave her a home! Soon, Panka tried to steal Big Freedia’s life. Big Freedia’s agent heard of this and did not like her. He paid people to drop the Eiffel Tower on Panka, and they did. Panka died that day. They buried her where the Eiffel Tower had once been. Then, Big Freedia came to dance on her grave.
Muses Stories: Dear America by Mya, Grade 7
Dear America,
I am a young African American. I stand for justice. In this life, I stand for equal rights. I stand to be a powerful woman. I want to be treated the same.
Having a new president, I feel like I am denied as a woman. Trump judges us as women. I’ve been bullied and as a young girl it pushes me, but I am powerful, intelligent, and smart.
I want a better country! I stand in, and I demand justice!
All About Protocol
As I quietly sat in the center of my loud predominately black 7th grade classroom trying to pay attention to the English teacher’s lesson of the day, the noise grew louder with laughter and chatter. Because my middle school was both an English and French speaking school, it did a great job representing the two cultures. However, there was a great division between the English and French programs. So, this French-speaking teacher had trouble controlling these rowdy teenagers and constantly lost control of the classroom with teenagers pushing her patience.
After getting tired of the heckling from the class, my teacher turned around from the whiteboard with her piercing, blue eyes narrowing on us and her pale, white skin turning red. She yelled “quiet!” To which all the kids laughed at her frustration. She grew redder and started calling out the names of the loudest and most “delinquent” kids in the classroom. Not one of them seemed phased as they not so silently chuckled and made faces at one another.
At one point, the girl sitting behind me whispered, “watch her hair stick up while she fuss.” And I smirked as it was evident that her short, gray strands of hair stood up as she continued screaming out names. She noticed my small smile I was trying to suppress and immediately addressed it. “Now, Talon, I’m sure your father wouldn’t pleased to hear about you misbehaving in class!”
You can read Talon’s full piece in There Is No School Without Us, coming out this February.
#BigClassBestTen: Courageous, Eccentric, Diverse
After the Confederate monuments came down in New Orleans, Homer Plessy Community School third graders authored a book of their ideas for new monuments for our city—monuments for all people.
In classic Big Class fashion, we concluded the project with a reading and publishing party where students held their completed book in their hands and celebrated with friends, family, educators, and community members.
Thank you to Homer Plessy Community School, partner teacher Amy Dickerson, Cartoon Network via 826 National, and Teaching Tolerance.
Purchase Courageous, Eccentric Diverse: New Monuments for New Orleans here.
#BigClassBestTen: I Want You To Know Something About Me
The 2016 election of Donald Trump evoked emotional responses across personal and political spectrums.
In the months that followed, New Orleans youth wrote letters in response to the election—to friends, family, their future selves, America, and to Donald Trump himself.
On November 9th, 2016, the day after the presidential election, Big Class staff visited a first grade classroom and asked, “What does a great America look like?” Amongst the responses, we heard “take care of bugs and animals” and “sharing and having fun”. These young New Orleanians made us hopeful, made us laugh, and made us think.
From there, Big Class began to realize the magnitude of what New Orleanian youth had to say about the direction of our country, and the necessity to amplify these voices on a larger scale. We held letter-writing workshops in classrooms in schools throughout New Orleans, at the Gentilly branch of the New Orleans Public Library, and collaborated with students in our own programs.
This collection of letters culminated in I Want You To Know Something About Me—Big Class’s first publication of 2017, released on January 15th (right in time for Inauguration Day). These letters range from angry to hopeful, and offer powerful insight into how we can move forward as individuals and as a country.
Contributing youth authors shared their work at Writers’ Resist New Orleans, an event in collaboration with with PEN America, as part of a international day of readings championing freedom of speech, and the power of expression to change the world.
Dear America,
I am a young African American. I stand for justice. In this life, I stand for equal rights. I stand to be a powerful woman. I want to be treated the same.
Having a new president, I feel like I am denied as a woman. Trump judges us as women. I’ve been bullied and as a young girl it pushes me, but I am powerful, intelligent, and smart.
I want a better country! I stand in, and I demand justice!
—Mya, Grade 7
You can purchase the book here.
