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Monday, September 22, 2025

Ethical ELA September 22 Hell's Kitchen: A Fib

Today's Ethical ELA host, Barbar Edler, asks us to delve into a writer’s thinking to deepen understanding of a text and then write a poem about it. 

I decided to write a "fib" poem using the mathematical sequence in which each line is determined by the sum of the previous two lines. 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, …| I chose to write about the Alicia Keys' play Hell's Kitchen which is a semi-autobiographical depiction of life in NYC in the federally supported artist-musician complex known as Manhattan Plaza. Alicia's mom in real life, as well as in the play, had moved to the city to pursue acting; however, she left acting when she became a single mom. In the '90's, she was a single mom with a teenager in facing violence and discrimination an era was shaped by crackdowns on crime as well as racial profiling. Keys describes it as the "quintessential New York story."

She
Did 
Not have
A Dad's presence
Yet, he planted musical genes
Fueled by a wise teacher, a brilliant mentor
Notes, chords, tempos, beats, music
Shaped Superwoman
Beautiful
Noise




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