LifeWords Recitation Showcase: Jan Smalley Connects the Syrian Refugee Crisis With Markham’s “The Man With the Hoe”

Students of LifeWords Readings Circles recently took part in this semester’s Recitation Showcase, where they shared pieces of literature that are meaningful to them or that have impacted them somehow. LifeWords staff was on hand to record these performances, making them available for family and friends and saving them for posterity . Indeed, we think of these performances as a literary legacy, as memorializing a part of ourselves we don’t often share.

Congrats to this semester’s participants. We are so proud of all you’ve accomplished this semester!

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Sherrill Hills resident Jan Smalley chose to read Edwin Markham’s poem “The Man With the Hoe” (1899). Based on Millet’s painting of the same title, the poem speaks to the ways rulers and governments break down and oppress their citizens, stamping out native dignity and creative spark.

Smalley uses the poem as a lens through which to discuss debate over Syrian refugees, connecting the downtrodden state of Markham’s subject with the oppression many refugees seek to escape.

Watch her performance:

See other performances:

Shirley Lipa Presents Cherished Book of Poems

Ruby Liles Explores “the Importance of Being Ugly” With Hearst’s “The Blobfish: A Short Poem”