Women's voices have dominated my brain waves this week
1. bell hooks
2. Audre Lorde
3. Students in discussion
1. When I was in graduate school at Earlham, my two program coordinators, Becky and Randy, told us one winter afternoon, that we should all ask our mentor teachers to be excused from teaching class on a certain Wednesday in the near future, because bell hooks was speaking on Earlham's campus and this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I had never heard of bell hooks, but I took their word for it and skidaddled after third period tenth grade to Earlham's auditorium.
Tangent to say that being a sola audience member has enormous benefits, including a) getting unbelievably good seats at the last minute, because there are always awkward seats between parties left in the good seating sections; b) getting to read unapologetically during intermission because no one expects you to be social; c) never worrying whether your companion is enjoying the show, and d) if you are not enjoying the show, leaving at the interval with no explanations to make or embarrassed negotiations to endure.
I enjoyed benefit a) on the day of bell hooks' speech, because when I arrived they said there was no room left in the auditorium. However, from the doorway I could see that there was a seat in the very first row that someone had heaved a backpack into. I strode quickly down the aisle and asked the person to move it (hooks was already speaking) and I sat in the best seat in the house, looking straight up into her face, for the rest of the talk.
What struck me most about her was that she did not apologize or try to conform at all. She said unpopular things (as well as popular ones) she was openly critical of some people, even people close to her (why is it that women can never do this?) and she was funny, in ways that strained decorum.
2. An apparent indifference to the pressure of social norms is also a trademark of Audre Lorde's work and words. When I was in graduate school at Bread Loaf (graduate school really did its job, in the off hours!) a fellow student mentioned a memorably-named essay, "Poetry is not a luxury" by a memorably named poet, Audre Lorde. This week I read it and assigned it to my students for weekend homework. Lorde says that poetry is the language we use to imagine realities different from our current reality, and it is through uttering these words that we begin to bring the next, improved reality into existence.
I listened to a talk she gave in 1990 at UCLA. She said that when she acknowledged her position in the communities of a) black Women, and b) lesbian women, she was placing herself so far out of the mainstream that she noticed a new disregard for how others perceived her. If she was so clearly not part of the "normal" crowd, then she didn't have to work so hard to appear to be "normal".
This self-produced sense of freedom really struck me. I wonder if I, too, could decide "Well, I'm not like most of those folks, so let me lean into that and stop trying to seem like most of those folks, or trying to be good at what they want me to be good at, or look the way they want me to look." It seems so tantalizing.
Today I watched Litany to Survival, a documentary about Lorde's life and work. She so boldly embodies the challenges that she put to the establishment, but she is also so warm and human that it is impossible to be offended. One can only look inward and consider how I might better myself along the lines she has identified as unjust.
3. Friday's class involved a circle discussion of the poem "Ways of Talking" by Ha Jin. Here it is.
Students said things which had me beaming, nodding, nearly falling out of my chair at the insight and thoughtfulness of their comments. I think they said some of the most profound things they've said all year, including their knock-your-socks-off comments about key parts of Othello. I will not try to recreate their ideas here, but take your own stab at thinking about what is going on for the "we" speaking in this poem.
1. bell hooks
2. Audre Lorde
3. Students in discussion
 |
| bell hooks |
Tangent to say that being a sola audience member has enormous benefits, including a) getting unbelievably good seats at the last minute, because there are always awkward seats between parties left in the good seating sections; b) getting to read unapologetically during intermission because no one expects you to be social; c) never worrying whether your companion is enjoying the show, and d) if you are not enjoying the show, leaving at the interval with no explanations to make or embarrassed negotiations to endure.
I enjoyed benefit a) on the day of bell hooks' speech, because when I arrived they said there was no room left in the auditorium. However, from the doorway I could see that there was a seat in the very first row that someone had heaved a backpack into. I strode quickly down the aisle and asked the person to move it (hooks was already speaking) and I sat in the best seat in the house, looking straight up into her face, for the rest of the talk.
What struck me most about her was that she did not apologize or try to conform at all. She said unpopular things (as well as popular ones) she was openly critical of some people, even people close to her (why is it that women can never do this?) and she was funny, in ways that strained decorum.
2. An apparent indifference to the pressure of social norms is also a trademark of Audre Lorde's work and words. When I was in graduate school at Bread Loaf (graduate school really did its job, in the off hours!) a fellow student mentioned a memorably-named essay, "Poetry is not a luxury" by a memorably named poet, Audre Lorde. This week I read it and assigned it to my students for weekend homework. Lorde says that poetry is the language we use to imagine realities different from our current reality, and it is through uttering these words that we begin to bring the next, improved reality into existence.
I listened to a talk she gave in 1990 at UCLA. She said that when she acknowledged her position in the communities of a) black Women, and b) lesbian women, she was placing herself so far out of the mainstream that she noticed a new disregard for how others perceived her. If she was so clearly not part of the "normal" crowd, then she didn't have to work so hard to appear to be "normal".
 |
| Audre Lorde |
Today I watched Litany to Survival, a documentary about Lorde's life and work. She so boldly embodies the challenges that she put to the establishment, but she is also so warm and human that it is impossible to be offended. One can only look inward and consider how I might better myself along the lines she has identified as unjust.
3. Friday's class involved a circle discussion of the poem "Ways of Talking" by Ha Jin. Here it is.
Students said things which had me beaming, nodding, nearly falling out of my chair at the insight and thoughtfulness of their comments. I think they said some of the most profound things they've said all year, including their knock-your-socks-off comments about key parts of Othello. I will not try to recreate their ideas here, but take your own stab at thinking about what is going on for the "we" speaking in this poem.
Ways of Talking
BY HA JIN
We used to like talking about grief
Our journals and letters were packed
with losses, complaints, and sorrows.
Even if there was no grief
we wouldn’t stop lamenting
as though longing for the charm
of a distressed face.
Then we couldn’t help expressing grief
So many things descended without warning:
labor wasted, loves lost, houses gone,
marriages broken, friends estranged,
ambitions worn away by immediate needs.
Words lined up in our throats
for a good whining.
Grief seemed like an endless river—
the only immortal flow of life.
After losing a land and then giving up a tongue,
we stopped talking of grief
Smiles began to brighten our faces.
We laugh a lot, at our own mess.
Things become beautiful,
even hailstones in the strawberry fields.
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