Former SEEK teachers Adrienne Rich and June Jordan dancing at the Associated Writing Programs annual conference in Tempe, Arizona, 1984.

  Adrienne Rich and Basic Writing: Annotated Links for Further Reading:

PRIMARY SOURCES BY ADRIENNE RICH

An Interview with Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich: Lorde describes teaching as "to literally incite, like a riot," and also refers to her work at John Jay College teaching BW as a creative writing class. Rich and Lorde discuss teaching grammar as encountering a deeper understanding of language.

Adrienne Rich Teaching Materials, the Seek Program, City College of New York, 1968-1972: Assignments, a syllabus, and close reading linked to grammar; these materials suggest a student-centered approach and the idea of writing as bearing witness to history.

Arts of the Possible by Adrienne Rich: Offers Rich's analogy of access to public education as access to public roads-- available when needed, especially for poor and working class students and students of color.

Teaching Language in Open Admissions (excerpt) by Adrienne Rich: Addresses white guilt, white privilege, and teaching literary texts rhetorically in student-centered classrooms.

 The Burning of Paper Instead of Children (poem) by Adrienne Rich: Includes an excerpt from a student's writing & a description of a writing class at City.

COMMENTARY

Adrienne Rich: Teaching at CUNY, 1968-1974 (Parts I & II) (eds. Iemanjá Brown, Stefania Heim, erica kaufman, Kristin Moriah, Conor Tomás Reed, Talia Shalev & Wendy Tronrud): More syllabi, a report on a yearlong Seek Learning Community, communications w/students during national student strike that took place after the Kent State University Massacre  on May 4, 1970, when classes at City College and across the U.S. were shut down. Also includes essays by the editors that frame the historical contexts for Rich's teaching practices.

Open Admissions, Basic Writing, and the "Treasures that Prevail": In Memory of Adrienne Rich by Susan Naomi Bernstein: An obituary for Adrienne Rich that focuses on her work as a teacher of Basic Writing.

"Treasures that Prevail": Adrienne Rich, the SEEK Program, and Social Movements at the City College of New York, 1968-1972. By Conor Tomás Reed : An essay from "Teaching at CUNY" that offers a historical framework for Rich's work in terms of social movements at City College, from the Young Lords (concurrent with Rich's time at City) to the closing of the Morales-Shakur Center at City in 2013. 

All of Our Grievances are Connected: Quilt descriptions available here.