NCTE Verse - Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz

Poetry highlights in honor of National Poetry Month!

Poet of the Day: Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz

Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz is an award-winning associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on racial literacy in teacher education, Black girl literacies, and Black and Latinx male high school students. Sealey-Ruiz appeared in Spike Lee’s "2 Fists Up: We Gon’ Be Alright", a documentary about the Black Lives Matter movement and the campus protests at Mizzou. A poet who has written poetry for over 30 years, Sealey-Ruiz's first full-length collection is Love from the Vortex & Other Poems (Kaleidoscope Vibrations, 2020).

This poet belongs in our classrooms because . . .

Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz is a contemporary poet whose work invites readers to discover who they are and how they love. A literacy teacher/professor for more than 20 years, Sealey-Ruiz reflects her love of writing, teaching, activism, and growing up in the South Bronx through her poetry.

A Poem by Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz

Just Us

Here is my invitation

for you to bend towards

justice.

My arc of self bends

in favor of love—

Asking hard questions

& waiting for answers

that don’t offer conclusions,

just more wonderings

about how to live a life

worthy of the children

who come after us.

Books

Love from the Vortex & Other Poems

Gumbo for the Soul: Liberating Memoirs and Stories to Inspire Females of Color

Teacher Education and Black Communities: Implications for Access, Equity and Achievement

Read a brief article published by Teachers College, Columbia University, about Sealey-Ruiz and Love from the Vortex & Other Poems

A Poet Takes on Healing

Listen to Sealey-Ruiz talk about Love from the Vortex & Other Poems and teacher education

3 Educated Brothas: Episode 2 - Love from the Vortex & Other Poems, Featuring Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz

Listen to the poet read two of her poems

"Leaving the Vortex"

"Hard Love"

Watch the presentation Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz gave to NCTE members.

Visit the poet's website

Teaching Ideas

Exploring Identity, Exploring Love: A Collage of Love

Ask students to bring in (or draw) pictures of people and things they love. This "Collage of Love" intends to have students visualize love — the people they love, those who love them, as well as the things they love to do. Read selected poems from Love from the Vortex and Other Poems that relate to people, places, and activities that the poet has written about. Invite students to write short poems in free verse describing their collage. Plan a gallery showing and spoken word presentation event where every student shares their work.

Add your thoughts on social media with #NCTEverse

Adam Falkner is a poet, educator, and arts and culture strategist. He is the author of The Willies (Button Poetry, 2020) and Adoption (Winner of the 2017 Diode Editions Chapbook Award). A former high school English teacher in New York City’s public schools, Falkner is the founder and executive director of the pioneering diversity consulting initiative the Dialogue Arts Project , in which capacity he develops and facilitates training for schools, companies, and cultural institutions across the country. Falkner has toured the United States as a guest artist, lecturer, and trainer for thousands of educators and corporate employees, and was the featured performer at President Obama’s Grassroots Ball at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. He holds a PhD in English and Education from Columbia University.