Nū scylun hergan     hefaenrīcaes Uard,
metudæs maecti     end his mōdgidanc,

So begins a short poem traditionally titled Cædmon's Hymn, the oldest poem by a named poet in the English language. How did English go from that to these lines, that open Electric Slide Is Not A Dance, a 2019 poem by Porsha Olayiwola?

I wanna privy you to a little secret. Come close now. Good. So, what you need to know is the electric slide is not a dance. It's a transmission code.

In this eight-week course we will begin with now and look backward, tracing a path from modern English to its early roots.