The original live stream aired in April, which is National Poetry Month (and National Poetry Writing Month, NaPoWriMo). So I shifted my focus from the previous two weeks of practical grammar lessons to a more poetic focus on the power of metaphors.
Metaphor is essentially just referring to one thing as something else that is comparable. Some common examples from everyday speech are wave of emotions, get off your high horse, bag of tricks, and I hit rock bottom. In fact, even people who claim to not be “good at poetry” or poetic people, actually use metaphors all the time. Metaphor is deeply engrained in our everyday language.
The Power of Metaphors and Colorism
As such, metaphors greatly influence how and what we think about things, including people. That’s the connection to colorism. Metaphors, how we describe and talk about things, reflect and influence our attitudes and beliefs and feelings about those things. A classic example of this is how we describe things at are dark, brown, or black. That’s why I love using my passion for language and writing to address the issue of colorism.
Writing Prompt: Describe what you see. Pick a person, place, or thing and describe it in three ways: as objectively as you can, as if you are in love with it, and as if you are afraid or suspicious.
Homework: Pay attention to how you’re using language and consider what effect it might have.
Affirmation: You are creative. You have the power to create.