FINAL PROPOSAL:

Name: Foster Hudson

Project Name: The Mausoleum of All Hope and Desire

 

Statement of Definition

This 1-2 sentence description is your elevator pitch; it’s the short, easy to explain description of what you will do for your project. For my Senior Project, I will…

I am seeking to take a creative and personal challenge in poetry by marrying the experiences of my life with the poetry that I write.

 

Overview: Describe your topic and project to the committee.

Describe your project in detail, with attention to the reason why this project appeals to you and how you believe it will allow you to answer your essential question. What is the academic or intellectual scope of this project? How will this project challenge you? How does this project build on your prior learning or knowledge? How will you incorporate any or all of the 4Cs of the LREI education (courage, citizenship, critical thinking, creativity) or connect to the LREI mission statement (LINK)?

I will be writing a collection of poetry comprised of poems that draw their central inspiration from various experiences I have had over the past four years. Poetry is my main passion and it is what I will pursue for the rest of my life. This project will challenge me by forcing me to both learn vulnerability in my work and learn how to write consistently every day. Aside from the fact that some poems will be built from literature and film I have experienced through school, my independent projects and English classes have given me many tools to attempt this project. Since this is a creative endeavor, my project connects to that C of LREI. This project also connects to courage since it requires courage to reveal things about myself through these poems.

 

How will you measure your success?

Success should not be measured by product but by process and learning. What outcome from your project will indicate to you that your experience has been a success? What personal goals or achievements will indicate success? If you have a product-based project, what is that product, and how will you measure the success of that product?

Success will be the creation of a poetry collection by the end of the six weeks. It will look as close as possible to a professionally-published book of poems, without have a publishing house to print the books. Success will also mean a personal goal of learning how to be more open with myself and others.

Resource List 

Consider this the bibliography of Senior Project. What resources have you identified to push your understanding? List publications, institutions, media, books, websites, people with whom you have connected, etc that relate to your project. Include the book you will be reading.

• Editions of Poetry Magazine

 

• A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver 

 

• Letters to a Young Poet  by Rainer Maria Rilke

• The Elements of Style by Willaim Strunk
• Poets.org

 

 

 

• Ariel by Sylvia Plath

 

• Zami: A New Spelling of my Name by Audre Lorde

• The Practicing Poet: Writing Beyond the Basics edited by Diane Lockhard 

 

 

• The New York Public Library (The Reading Room)

 

Daily Plan & Schedule

Describe, in as much detail as possible, what you will be doing day to day or through the course of a week. This schedule needs to make it clear how you will spend your 30 hours each week. LREI classes, clubs, and ensembles should be noted; cohort groups will likely meet first and second periods on Mondays and Thursdays. (You will also complete a log of hours worked and tasks accomplished for each week of the project).

I will spend the first hour of each day reading from a book of poetry. I will be keeping running notes on the books that I read, transcribing techniques, themes and ideas that could aid me. The next five hours will be spent writing. Some of this time will be spent generating more work, especially in the beginning. Some of it will be spent editing the pages I have written on the typewriter. The rest will be spent writing new drafts of these poems.

 

Documentation Plan

Explain why this is the appropriate documentation for you and your project and how this plan fits your project. Include the platform or medium (blog, journal, Google Doc), intended frequency of updates, general description of the content (reflective writing, photos, essays, etc), the URL for digital documentation or the sharing plan for analog documentation. (Documentation must be updated at least twice per week and be accessible to the committee.)

I will be submitting the notes I take on these books, as well as the drafts of poems I am writing. These will be taken through photographs and put on a Google Doc. I will also keep a separate Google Doc summarizing the progress I am making every couple days. Additionally, once a week, I will photograph the notes Amy makes when we meet on Wednesdays. Since my project is product-based, these material updates, as well as a summary of the work, is the best fit for my project.

 

Material Needs

Note the material needs you are requesting from school (including work space & monetary needs) and the needs you are filling outside of school, including materials you already own.

I have the typewriter, desk and paper. That’s all I need.

 

Backup Plan

If something goes wrong – an internship falls through, an outside circumstance makes your project no longer feasible, you find that your project is not answering your essential question – what will you do? Ideal backup plans rely on known resources and only a single essential question.

In case I am somehow incapable of writing these poems, I can attempt to assemble a separate collection with the work I have already generated. This would shift the project’s focus to the more practical elements of writing: publishing, agents, submitting, ect. I would work with Amy on how to assemble a cohesive collection, and the process of submitting the work to houses or self-publishing it.