On the week of Feb. 28, Caleb Rainey, (he/him), an Iowan poet, performer and producer, was able to come to Liberty to teach a workshop in the African-American Literature classes. After his week in the classroom, he was able to wrap it up by staging slam poetry in the Liberty Library along with his friend, Warren Longmire, who was his co-teacher.
In his classes, Rainey was able to teach Liberty students a workshop called “Looking Back At Black Iowans” that explored Iowan Black history over the course of five days. The lessons included Black activism, Black communities and Black power that could be found in the state’s history.
“It was exciting to see students engage with information they don’t always get to know. A lot of them talked about how surprising it was that Iowa has Black history,” said Rainey. “It was fun to hear their thoughts on what it means to be Black today, especially in the Midwest in Iowa.”
For example, classes discussed Buxton, Iowa, and the Black history found in the town’s earlier years. Rainey noted that Buxton was considered to be a “Black utopia”, which led to a discussion of power found in communities and what a utopia would look like in the students’ eyes. They also got to vote and debate on music surrounding Iowa’s top Black artists, analyze their poetry to learn about Iowa’s Black culture.
Rainey wrapped up his week at Liberty in the library, performing three of his poems in front of students and staff. His first work was called “Experimental Learning: A Letter to Mr. Johnson” that was aimed at a teacher who maltreated him because he was the only Black kid in class. With this poem, he wanted to acknowledge kids who have also experienced racism in their communities, and share what he has gone through because of the color of his skin.
His second poem was called “What You Need To Here,” reminding the audience that they are loved, seen and heard by the people around them.
“It’s a poem that we absolutely need right now,” said Rainey. “[It] talks about the power that you have, how much you matter and the fact that you are loved and you should love the people around you.”
His third and final piece was “Shots Fired.” The poem directly and explicitly talked about racism in the U.S., along with the violence of words and the violence of silence.
Rainey is taking his workshops to Iowa City High School and Iowa City West High School over the next few weeks. The programs were made possible by the non-profit, IC Speaks, that Rainey founded, and The African-American Museum of Iowa, who they partnered with.
IC Speaks also hosts a weekly workshop (11 a.m. on Saturdays) at the Iowa City Public Library that is open for all students to stop by whenever they please. They will be able to learn about spoken word and poetry, and practice performing around other artists.
“[The workshop is] for any kids who are writers or who read spoken word and poetry and go, ‘that’s cool.’ We have a space for them,” said Rainey.
Outside of the nonprofit, Rainey performs both nationally and internationally, but is based in Iowa. Every third Thursday, he performs at the open mic in James Theater in downtown Iowa City, while his co-teacher, Longmire, pursues his MFA in writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop.
