Introduction

Standard poetry curricula often prioritize Western forms like sonnets, villanelles, and modernist free verse, sidelining rich global traditions that reflect diverse cultural expressions. This exclusion limits students' understanding of poetry's universal role in human storytelling and identity. By integrating griot storytelling, tanka sequences, and Indigenous oral traditions into the classroom, educators can foster inclusivity, deepen literary analysis, and highlight the interconnectedness of global voices.

Griot Storytelling: West African Oral Chronicles

What Is a Griot?

A griot (or jeli in Mandinka) is a West African historian, poet, and musician who preserves genealogies, epic tales, and communal wisdom through oral performance. Griots use rhythm, call-and-response, and improvisation, blending poetry with music and audience participation.

Why Teach Griot Traditions?

Griots challenge the written text as the sole vessel of knowledge. Their work introduces students to oral literature's complexity, oral history's fluidity, and the interplay of individual and collective memory.

Classroom Integration Strategies

• Call-and-Response Poetry: Have students create collaborative poems where one voice leads and others respond, mirroring griot performances.

• Epic Narrative Analysis: Compare the Epic of Sundiata to Homer's Odyssey to explore cultural values and storytelling techniques.

• Performance Days: Encourage students to recite original poems accompanied by instruments or rhythmic clapping, emphasizing oral delivery over written form.

Tanka Sequences: Japanese Forms of Emotional Resonance

What Is Tanka?

Tanka, a classical Japanese poetic form, follows a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic structure. Unlike haiku, tanka often explores personal emotion, seasonal imagery, and narrative progression, sometimes linked into sequences.

Why Teach Tanka Sequences?

Tanka sequences demonstrate poetry's capacity to build emotional arcs across stanzas, a concept rarely emphasized in Eurocentric curricula. It also invites discussions on brevity, metaphor, and the cultural significance of nature.

Classroom Integration Strategies

• Seasonal Tanka Chains: Assign students to write a tanka sequence where each stanza reflects a different season, linking themes across transitions.

• Collaborative Ekphrastic Projects: Partner with art classes to create tanka inspired by visual artworks, blending literary and artistic interpretation.

• Comparative Form Analysis: Contrast tanka with the English sonnet, focusing on how structure shapes emotional expression.

Indigenous Oral Traditions: North American and Global Perspectives

What Are Indigenous Oral Traditions?

Indigenous stories, songs, and chants serve as both art and pedagogy, conveying ecological knowledge, spiritual beliefs, and community values. These traditions prioritize communal ownership, cyclical time, and the interplay of silence and sound.

Why Teach These Traditions?

Indigenous practices destabilize linear, author-focused narratives, offering alternative ways to perceive time, authorship, and humanity's relationship to place. They also align with contemporary dialogues about land stewardship and cultural preservation.

Classroom Integration Strategies

• Land Acknowledgment Poetry: Have students research local Indigenous histories and compose poems honoring the land, blending personal voice with collective memory.

• Story Circles: Adapt Indigenous storytelling circles, where students share oral poems in a community setting, honoring listener feedback and communal interpretation.

• Myth and Ritual Analysis: Examine creation stories from Haudenosaunee, Inuit, or Maori traditions alongside Genesis or Greek myths to compare cosmological frameworks.

Teaching Strategies Across Traditions

Comparative Analysis

• Create Venn diagrams to contrast griot improvisation, tanka's seasonal focus, and Indigenous circular narratives.
• Host debates on the role of audience participation in each tradition.

Creative Writing Fusion Projects

• Task students with hybrid poems that blend griot rhythm, tanka structure, and Indigenous imagery to explore a modern theme like climate change.
• Assign "oral history zines" where students interview elders in their communities and transcribe stories into poetic forms.

Ethical Considerations

• Emphasize cultural sensitivity by inviting community representatives or using age-appropriate, authorized texts.
• Discuss appropriation vs. appreciation when adapting non-Western forms, prioritizing context and respect.

Conclusion

Global poetic traditions offer transformative pathways for teaching beyond Eurocentrism. By incorporating griot storytelling, tanka sequences, and Indigenous oral traditions, educators can decolonize their curricula, validate marginalized voices, and equip students with a more expansive view of poetry's purpose in human society. Start small-replace one sonnet lesson with a tanka exercise, or pair The Canterbury Tales with a griot epic. Every shift matters.