On Monday evening, we finally finished the poetry presentations with Stephanie’s poem, The New Colossus.  This poem was the perfect ending to the New York poetry unit, because it represents American freedom and pride.  The statue on which this poem is inscribed is the symbol of America and its open gates.  America is a country of immigrants, and everyone has a story about why they came and how it felt to finally be free.  My grandfather was a survivor of the Holocaust and after losing his whole family in the war, he set out to America in order to start a new life.  After being on a boat for fourteen days, he finally reached New York.  In the poem, the statue is personified and tells the other countries to “give [her their] tired, [their] poor, [their] huddled masses yearning to breathe free”.  My grandfather was one of those “homeless, tempest-tost” people, and was welcomed by the statue with open arms.  As the poem suggests, all refugees are invited to America, and are welcomed sincerely by the ‘Mother of Exiles’.

While poetry reading was fun, I am excited to begin watching, and comparing, New York movies in class.  I do not watch a lot of movies at home, and so it is refreshing and interesting to be doing this in class.