“Dead Ass by Michael Cirelli”, Research Essay

Part 1

Annotated Bibliography

Cirelli, M., “Dead Ass”, The Best American Poetry 2011. (2011). pp. 1972

Michael Cirelli is a poet, but his full time job is giving teens a place to perfect and perform their art, sometimes gets in the way of his poetry. He sits in a crowded space in Chelsea, the room divided by a thin separation into workshop spaces and an administrative area. Sound, naturally, flows freely, ignoring the barriers between the spaces. This is the Urban Word, a grass-roots organization that presents literary arts education and youth development programs in the areas of creative writing, journalism, college prep, literature, and hip-hop, where Cirelli acts as the executive director. He first started writing after high school, and soon turned it into a career. Later, he got into teaching English and poetry in high schools, which naturally led him to his work in Urban Word. When he first came to New York City in 2003 to get his master's degree from the New School, the organization was much smaller. Now, it hosts more than 100 performances a year, including on Broadway and in the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Free workshops available for teens of every sort and shape are held 6 days a week in three locations in the city. In his poem “Dead Ass”, he is full praise for the language that is used in the hip-hop culture. He is really attracted by the colors and the beauty of the words that are used in the hip-hop culture. Appraising the language of the hip-hop culture in his poem dead ass, he bows down to the beauty of the language that comes from the hip-hop culture. He is humbled by it, as if he will never be able to keep up.

Part 2

Introduction

Michael Cirelli is a poet, but his full time job is giving teens a place to perfect and perform their art, which sometimes gets in the way of his poetry. He sits in a crowded space in Chelsea, the room divided by a thin separation into workshop spaces and an administrative area. Sound, naturally, flows freely, ignoring the barriers between the spaces (Rosen, Jody, p. 32). This is the Urban Word, a grass-roots organization that presents literary arts education and youth development programs in the areas of creative writing, journalism, college prep, literature, and hip-hop, where Cirelli acts as the executive director. He first started writing after high school, and soon turned it into a career. Later, he got into teaching English and poetry in high schools, which naturally led him to his work in Urban Word. In the poem “Dead Ass”, he focuses on presenting the beauty of the language used in the hip-hop culture. He is amazed by the fact that hip-hop culture is such a beauty that it keeps on bringing new words and new ways of saying the same words, as well. He believes it as a way of expressing yourself. By focusing on the beauty of the hip-hop culture ...