Creative from Home: Blackout Poetry

Creative From Home is ARCK's new weekly series of arts and crafts tutorials kids can follow at home during quarantine. 

True to our mission and the aims of regular curriculum, we're bringing you projects that integrate the arts with literacy and STEM.

Share pictures of your creations on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by tagging @arckboston and #creativefromhome to be featured on our social media!

--

A man sketching

the Sea --

broad

mark

on dirty sand

It's almost the end of National Poetry Month and we just realized we haven't done much to exercise out poetry muscles! A shame, since ARCK's in-school programming aims to build literacy through art.

It's better late than never, so join us in making blackout poetry from old magazine pages. It's a great challenge to spend an afternoon on.

How to make

Materials you'll need:

• a selection of printed text (from magazines, newspapers, flyers, books, etc.)
• scrap paper
• pencil
• black permanent marker
• colored markers, crayons, pencils (optional)

Let's get started!

Step 1

Read your printed text. Find words, phrases, and themes you like, and copy them down onto your scrap paper in order.

Step 2

Now look at the words you've copied. Cross out the words you don't want to use in your poem, and see if you need any connector words (such as "a", "the", "is"). If you do, scan the printed text again to find them between the words you want to connect.

Step 3

When your poem's final draft is complete, lightly circle or box the words you are using with a pencil on the printed text page. If you want, you can also draw pictures and patterns on the page.

Step 4

Trace over the pencil lines with the black marker. Now carefully color the page outside the black lines, obscuring the text and images that are not part of your poem.

Step 5

Hang up the poem on your fridge. Don't forget to take a picture and share it with @arckboston!