Tyner's music reaches out and brings together time and place, and Harper's poem puts into words the emotions we can't quite articulate. In the end Tyner's music has made the painful past beautiful. Music and poetry transform history and allow people to cope, to be proud, and go forward with their lives. Your first assignment is to write an ode about a hero of yours. It could be about the elderly man down the block who struggles to make ends meet but still gives out candy to the little kids in the neighborhood.
Heroes come in all shapes and sizes.
They don't have to be basketball players or musicians. Good luck, and remember with every effort you'll receive points as well as a chance to be in the creative writing magazine at the end of the summer.