Prompt #49 Historically Speaking

This is one of those prompts that arrives in a second and you know it is right.

I suppose it was prompted by a moment this week, a moment a student had. The kids were filling out a chronology of the Civil Rights Movement on a chart that had missing pieces they had to complete. A (black) girl called me over and asked, "Who is the Ku Klux Klan?"

I explained.

Then she said: "They killed children."   (She was filling in the part about the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham.)

 I said, yes, and many other people, too.

She just sat there stunned, and said again: But they killed children.

It was a moment.

History has the power to delight and terrify us. This is your opportunity to find out a little more.

YOUR FOCUS

This can be done one of two ways. You can use your birth year, and investigate events from that year.  Or you can take your birth date and look at it through history.

For example:  In 1955, my birth year, the first McDonald's was built, and Disneyland in California opened.

On my birth date in 1945, the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and in 2015 Hamilton opened on Broadway.

Any of these events can provide fodder for writing. Create a character living in the time. Find a news report and devise a found poem.  Combine a couple of events. Move through time. Be poetic or philosophical or angry or delighted. Make a connection.

Mostly...don't overthink and have fun! And who knows -- maybe you, too, will have a moment.