Camelot Academy Chicago Students Collaborate with Filmmaker on ‘Choices’ Video
With the help of Youth Experiment, Camelot Academy Chicago students presented a short film interpretation of the Nikki Giovanni poem “Choices” at the school’s African American History Assembly on Friday, February 27.
Students worked with Chicago filmmaker Jeremiah Baffour-Osei, who selected the participants for the projects based on academics, attendance and leadership qualities.
“Most of the students participating in this project are on their way to student government,” said Camelot Academy Chicago Executive Director Joe Haley.
Students prepared for a week before they began filming the video. The students reviewed the poem, and then analyzed and spoke to the group about what Giovanni’s words meant to them individually. They then had to apply the poem to their own life.
“When they recited the poem, their words and convictions would be believable, because they were able to relate her words to their own lives,” Haley said.
Below is the full text of Giovanni’s poem:
Choices
If i can’t do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don’t want
to do
It’s not the same thing
but it’s the best i can
do
If i can’t have
what i want . . . then
my job is to want
what i’ve got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more to want
Since i can’t go
where i need
to go . . . then i must . . . go
where the signs point
through always understanding
parallel movement
isn’t lateral
When i can’t express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal
I know
but that’s why mankind
alone among the animals
learns to cry
—Nikki Giovanni
