Nothin' but Nihil

I think it was maybe 8th grade in Mrs. Wright's class, but I distinctly remember reading We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks and feeling as though I didn't understand something. The deeper meaning behind it. Yes, education is cool and all, but what else lurks beneath this quintessential American poem? The short film that comes with the poem has allowed me to explore Brooks' piece through a completely new lens. I feel as if it provides me with more of a basic understanding of what she meant to accomplish by writing this piece, especially since it's told from her own perspective The film begins with Brooks as an old lady, traveling to different schools to read to them We Real Cool , as her target audience - the ones she is trying to warn - is the youth of America. While she takes us back to 1959, the year she first wrote this poem, the film turns from a color filter to a black-and-white one, perhaps symbolizing how the problems she discusses in her poem may feel like they w

My mother always told me to never start the week off wearing black. Why wear the colors of a widow at the dawn of a new week? And while the Grim Reaper and the witch's cat both masquerade in black, has anyone ever thought  to ask them why they do? Perhaps it reminds them of late summer nights surrounded by your closest friends and family, unaware of how rapidly time passes us by, simply enjoying the moment we have. Whenever I close my eyes, all I see is black. But rather than fear and avoid it, I welcome it with open hands,  ready for it to momentarily whisk me away from the growing pains I entangle myself in. You see, black is like an empty canvas. You can make of it however you so choose. It can be oppressive when i'm anxious and afraid  of the world and of people and of how they perceive me and how i fit in and what did i do wrong this time and why must i be like this and and and... But it can also restore and heal, or, at least, I choose to believe it does. For when I'm