After reading Lucy Terry’s Poem, “Bar Fight”, we were asked to evaluate which qualities make it both a “good” and a “bad” poem. We were not allowed to look anything up, giving us no context of the poem. Continue reading “The Power of Prefaces”
“Call and Response”
Call and Response, our massive anthology, sets up texts of African American traditions in such a way that pieces begin to function as questions and answers to each other. This clever formation allows for conversations between and within said traditions. The metaphor is thus rich and literary, but it also carries with it a helpful reminder: that many of the included texts are to be read aloud. To call and, to a lesser extent, to respond are verbal, audible actions that are conducted in human and animal communication. No more has the sonority of Call and Response been obvious than in the work, badman, and prison songs we read for class (3/4). One thing about the spoken word, though. It’s tricky to anthologize. When I got to “Po’ Laz’us,” I logged on to Spotify and began listening to the version from the Coen Brothers’ “O Brother Where Art Thou?” (2000). Here’s where it got tricky: it was one of many versions, all riffing and remixing the words on the page before me. Without saying one version is the right one, I would argue that something is lost when editors take songs of a particularly oral quality and pin their content down to one reading as is done in our own anthology. Accompanying my reading with sung renditions on Spotify and supplementing it with Lawrence Lessig’s thoughts on “remix culture” (another useful source from Dr. Schacht), I began to develop questions of ownership and feelings of uncertainty about interpretive possibilities. Continue reading ““Call and Response””
Where Is The Progress?
You’re all probably getting sick of my posts about repetition, but I haven’t repeated these ideas enough to be sick of them myself. So far, in The America Play, I have been intrigued by Parks’ ideas about repetition and the writing process. In class today, we talked about Parks’ obsession with repetition and her idea of “Rep & Rev” which reflects what I have been thinking about in my posts. I have been struggling to find something to blog about that interests me and I was hesitant to bring repetition up again. That was until I read Molly’s post “Healing is not linear.” Continue reading “Where Is The Progress?”
Thinking about the Bible
In this post I’m going to attempt to thread some of my thoughts together from class on Friday, March 1 during our discussion about Big Machine. For reference at later dates, we have read up to the end of Part 2, or 24 chapters, at this point. What am I going to thread together? I’m going to explore how similar the story of Abram / Abraham is to what we know of Ricky Rice. This post doesn’t follow much of a chronology, so my apologies for that, I just have a lot of thoughts about the Bible at this point for reasons I also don’t understand, as I haven’t been consistently to church since high school. Again, for reference, the Abrahamic stories are contained in Genesis 12-25. Continue reading “Thinking about the Bible”
Whose Story is it Anyway?
When thinking about ownership in the context of literature, I can honestly say that I am at a crossroads. While I would agree that the author should maintain ownership over their ideas and the ways that they are interpreted, I also feel like the reader deserves some creative room for interpretation. In other words, I don’t think it’s entirely on the part of the author to dictate how their story is understood, because that limits the creativity of the reader, however the author wrote the story with a purpose, which they also deserve to maintain. I would equally agree that it is the job of both the reader and the author to meet in the middle to develop an understanding of how a story should be interpreted. Which brings me to the philosophical question, does the reader read for the author or does the author write for the reader? Continue reading “Whose Story is it Anyway?”
What Do You Mean by “Authentic”?
Within the paratextual preface to Jupiter Hammon’s works, it mentions his familiarity with his own “ethnic past” and how a view of ancient history provides a “source of pride and identity for African Americans.” Immediately after this, however, the preface’s author/s note that this connection with ancient history “has been an impetus for a recurring quest for authentic African history and culture.” At first, I wasn’t sure why the idea of “authentic” African history and culture resonated with me, and then I remembered Ron Eglash in African Fractals mentions this idea of authenticity amid a problematic natural-artificial struggle. What does “authentic,” in terms of African American, African, or any culture, mean?
Intersectionality 2.0
Joan Morgan’s interview for the Annual Hip Hop Symposium was genuine, organic, and a breath of fresh air. What was an extra credit opportunity for many turned out to be a moment of reassurance for me because I was able to hear myself represented on a platform that isn’t frequently offered here on campus. I have always been aware that the community and culture black people share inevitably leads to connections being made, but something about this intimate exchange of conversation and welcoming energy reached a new level of comfort for me. Continue reading “Intersectionality 2.0”
“Healing is not linear.”
Walking into the library this morning, I decided to start crafting a new blog post. Unlike last semester, I’ve noticed that ideas for blogs haven’t been popping into my mind as easily for posts, yet I’ve remained calm and hopeful that I will find my groove soon enough. Walking past the CIT desk, I noticed a new table on the main floor of the library. The table was covered with markers, small pieces of printer paper, and pieces of card stock with pre-printed positive quotes on them. One of these quotes specifically caught my attention. The quote read, “Healing is not linear.” Continue reading ““Healing is not linear.””
Power and Consent Between Teachers and Students in the Classroom
During class on Monday February 25th, each member of the class took a turn reading a couplet from “A Cabin Tale” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Several students (myself included) admitted that they found it difficult to comprehend what exactly was happening within the poem because they were focused on trying to find the lines they were to read aloud and how to pronounce them according to how Dunbar wrote it. Continue reading “Power and Consent Between Teachers and Students in the Classroom”
What Makes a Creature?
I would like to start this post by asking a question:
“What makes a creature?”