Langston Hughes- Bess

Born in Missouri in 1902, Langston grew up to be one of the most well-known poets/writers of the 20th century. Focusing on Hughes in this post will definitely be a different direction than Ezra Pound, as Hughes wrote more than just poetry, (Novels, short stories, essays, and plays) along with the influence of jazz and black folk rhythms in his work. He is also known for his influential work in the Harlem Renaissance.

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

My Final Blog: Writing and Selling-Bess

After a semester of learning about poets, their writing styles, writing and publishing–I have finally reached the end of this (specific) project. Throughout the semester I have learned and cultivated a lot with my writing. I have also had the experience of learning how to design and publish a book. Now that I have gotten to the near end, I wanted to talk about how I plan to sell my book.

The cover of my book, Let me Grow!

An Ode to Toluwa/ Updates on my work- Bess

Hi everyone! Because of Westtown having a visiting poet, I decided to take the opportunity to interview and converse with her, and write a little mini-biography on her. (Along with updates on my work.)

Toluwanimi Oluwafunmilayo Obiwole is a Nigerian-born, Colorado-raised visual and performance artist, educator, and organizer. At Westtown, she went by Toluwa.

Toluwa performing at the poetry assembly, Friday April 12th, 2019.

Reflection+ New Work -Bess

After some reflection and review of my timeline for this semester, I decided not to research the additional poet I was planning on researching, as I want to get started with my work as soon as possible. Personally, I feel that from learning about Ezra Pound and Langston Hughes, I accomplished my goals of

• Learning some history about poetry
• Exploring new writing styles
• Understanding the difference between purpose and tension in a poem

Ezra Pound – Bess

I’ve decided that the first writer I research to be Ezra Pound, who was referenced in my introduction post. I have always admired his work, for he is known to be the creator of an important movement in writing, Imagism, but I have never had the chance to dive deeper into his history and writing style in relation to his contributions.

Ezra Pound in the 1920s is a photograph by Everett which was uploaded on December 5th, 2011.

An Introduction to my Project

Here’s just a shot of me performing one of my spoken-word pieces.

Hi everyone, my name is Bess Goldstein. This semester I’ll be aiming to learn, cultivate, and create poetry. Whether that be through research of famous poets, attending slam poetry events, or just listening to YouTube videos of spoken-word poetry, my goal for this semester is to learn from the writers around me.