Revisiting This Bridge Called My Back

Recently, I have been revisiting the foundational woman of color feminist text This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga.  This collection of essays, poems, stories, and artwork shifted my consciousness and ideas many years ago in grad school and I have been marveling at its impact ever since.

What does it mean to be changed by a book, or any publication or production?  And what must it have meant to many people years ago when it was published in 1981, and in the years since?  Moraga and Anzaldúa compiled this text against numerous odds and the collection has undergone publication issues over the years (a commentary not only on the content, but what happens to smaller presses - often ones created by and for women of color). Thankfully, This Bridge Called My Back is back in print.

At a glimpse, the collection contains work by the Combahee River Collective, Mitsuye Yamada, Barbara Cameron, doris davenport, Merle Woo, Norma Alarcón, Audre Lorde, Amalia Mesa-Bains, and many, many more.  In an age when "feminist" is a negative term (the "f word") and feminisms in general are misunderstood by people of all ages and identities, the importance of a compilation such as this seems necessary and vitally important to conversations and activism related to racial identity, gender, sexuality, class, ageism, oppression, power, etc.

Going back to this text will push me to (re)consider other important collections and their lasting impact.

Student Creativity

Student depiction of Nina Simone for the Multi-Media Project

What does student creativity look like and how can we change our assignments to include students' creative work?

In a recent conversation with my colleague, Dr. Brenda Bryant, we shared different assignments from past classes that incorporated ways to encourage students to think outside of the typical box for English courses.  She mentioned taking her classes to view the artistic productions of students, faculty, staff, and professional artists in our Fine Arts Building and Gallery.  What an idea!  Not only is she getting students out of the classroom environment and moving around campus, but Professor Bryant is encouraging her scholars to consider the ways that images and artwork can tell a story or excite our minds.

Another colleague, Dr. Gemini Wahaj, is the force behind the Cat 5 Review, an online and print publication that includes art work, photography, essays, and poems by students.  It is meaningful for student artists to see their work published and for folks around campus to know that there is an important, creative outlet for our community.

I ask students to complete Multi-Media Projects in my literature classes.  Instead of ending the course with a paper, I ask that they venture into a creative assignment that connects something we have learned and discussed throughout the semester - examining a character, an author, a thematic element, identities, anything - and produce some form of 'text' (artwork, poem, video, song, clothing, anything) that connects to their topic.  The image at the top was for an Introduction to African American Literature course and the student connected Black poetry to the music and life of Nina Simone. Below is a student's portrayal of a monster from an ancient Anglo Saxon text.

What kind of amazing work could students produce if we did more to offer them creative options? 

Why British Literature?

In our British Literature courses a while back, I asked students to consider why they chose to take this particular class - it is the first section of a series and covers Anglo Saxon readings up to the 18th Century.  Wanting more than a generic response, I urged the scholars in my class to think beyond the typical, "it's a requirement!" answer (some folks are dual credit high schoolers and the course is part of their curriculum).  In order for students to get the most out of the class, we need consider our time together as more than solely a requirement.

Below are some of their responses:

"I want to try and get back into reading and gain...general knowledge.  I hope to learn more about the 18th century and why we need to learn about it."

"I hope that by taking this class my writing will be at its best."

"I want to learn more about Old English."

To add to our discussion and thinking, we watched Chimamanda Adichie's TedTalk on "The Danger of a Single Story," in which Adichie describes how we suffer from narrow views of the world, of different people, of places, and more.  Her talk helped us consider the semester ahead, and how we do have certain goals in mind, but one key aspect of the course should be that we think beyond a single story of British Literature - whose voices are not included in our course text?  Why?  Why, in various spaces, is British Literature privileged over others?  Who had the power to write and publish way back when?  What happened socially and politically that led to these voices and publications?

The Impact of Slavery

By Dana Rose

The tragedy of slavery was not only a travesty for the slaves, but it was also a corruption against the slaveholders.  As Frederick Douglass looked back upon his life, he finds that slavery changed otherwise good people, into harsh, unfeeling individuals.  Slavery was an evil that could make a kind person, unkind.

This is not to take away from the horror of the enslaved, but to show that it affected all individuals involved.  How could the act of owning a person change the psyche of someone who would have otherwise been a good and loving person?  Douglass describes his owner Hugh Auld’s wife, Sophia,. as a warm, caring and kind woman; this would soon change.

Sophia decides to teach Douglass how to read.  When Mr. Auld finds this out, he becomes extremely angry and explains that if you teach a slave to read, you give him knowledge. According to vicious slave owners, slaves must be kept ignorant and fearful in order to perform their duties.

How can a person change their entire attitude in such a short amount of time?  How can a human whose first instinct is to be kind, transform into an unfeeling person?  Douglass blames the entire travesty of slavery rather than the individual slaveholders themselves.

The fact that a seemingly loving person, one who is welcoming and accepting of all people can change so quickly is a testament to the evils of slavery.  Douglass gives the example of slave owners that were not born owning slaves to show the corruptness and vileness of slavery.  Even the nicest person can be changed when given power over another human being.   

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Dana Rose is a former student at North Harris College who is currently pursuing her degree at the University of Houston Downtown.

Playlist: Student Work

Below is a list of entries authored by students at North Harris College:

Student Blogs about Frederick Douglass -
From Slave to American Icon by Mario Providence
The Relationship Between Frederick Douglass and Mrs. Auld by Iriana Cossio
Douglass: Learning to Read by Cameka Ben
The Impact of Slavery by Dana Rose


Language: A Student's Perspective by Wilfred Harold
Black Women's Spoken Word by Melissa Panayeta
Black Culture and Resistance: A Student's Experiences at the AASS by Lena K. Al Abbasi
Amazing Grace by Diamunn Chism
The Power of Music by Breanna Polk


Additionally, our students here have the opportunity to submit their work to an online publication, curated by my colleagues, Professor Gemini Wahaj and Professor David Puller.  In its two issues, the Cat 5 Review has included art, poetry, fiction, and academic essays.

DuBois and Science Fiction

W. E. B. DuBois wrote science fiction?  It is clear that this shocks folks when they learn that the legendary figure, who was an author, scholar, historian, and activist, also wrote a science fiction text. Entitled "The Comet" and published in 1920, DuBois's story addresses racism, gender relations, and racial identity.

DuBois utilizes the form of the short story, and the tropes of science fiction, to employ his theory of double consciousness in a thought-provoking way.  The text follows Jim, an African American man who works at a bank in New York.  After a passing comet's deadly gas trail seems to leave most of the world dead, Jim struggles to find another living soul in the city.  He stumbles upon a white woman, Julia, who accompanies him on the journey to find survivors.

Over the course of the afternoon and evening, Jim and Julia are forced to consider the possibility that their loved ones are gone, as is the rest of humanity.  In the US in the early 20th century, what will become of this new Adam and Eve?

DuBois establishes the distance between the characters based on race and class - Jim is a working class Black man who was only saved from the comet's gases because he was accidentally locked within the safe of the bank, a place that "was too dangerous for more valuable men." The white woman is working in her darkroom, developing photos when she realizes the staff of her household is dead.  Jim notes that the day before she "would scarcely have looked at him twice" while the woman, as DuBois writes, considers Jim an other who "dwelt in a world so far from hers."

After a fruitless search of the city, the characters begin to accept their fate and forced companionship. DuBois writes, about Jim, that the "shackles seemed to rattle and fall from his soul.  Up from the crass and crushing and cringing of his caste leaped the lone majesty of kings long dead."  This moment is short-lived for Jim, for seemingly out of nowhere arrives the woman's father and friend, who immediately re-establish the boundaries of race and class.  Still, DuBois ends the story with Jim and Julia embracing after their torturous day.

What does it mean to consider DuBois a "science fiction author" in addition to all of his other myriad accomplishments?  The genre has certainly been a space for authors to address societal issues in creative ways, and DuBois utilizes the notion of a deadly comet to uniquely explore race and racism.

DuBois's short story is one of many in the incredible collection Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, which also includes works by Octavia Butler, Evie Shockley, Samuel R. Delaney, Walter Mosely, Derrick Bell, and Nisi Shawl.

Coates on Writing and Education

Okay, okay.  I realize that Te-Nehisi Coates's book, Between the World and Me, has been the focus of  conversations for months now.  He won the National Book Award for this text and has received high praise for his writing.  But there are various points in the text, written as a missive to his son, that are particularly useful to me as a professor and scholar.  I hope to work through some of those ideas in future entries, but the topics of writing and education seem a relevant place to start.

Coates notes that his mother made him write about issues at school and how these were important moments in his life because “these were the earliest acts of interrogation, of drawing myself into consciousness” (29).  I’m especially interested in what he is developing here because in teaching composition, it’s important for students to find meaning and importance in their own work, and Coates is talking about writing as both a useful, everyday activity, but also a revolutionary one.

His early experiences about writing become a transition into describing his father, and his father’s dedication to reading and keeping texts written by, about, and for Black people.  As a leader in Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party, his father raised awareness not only through his work in the Party, but also as a librarian and archivist for those varied publications.  Earlier, Coates offers a scathing indictment of schools and the educational system for its inability to address the difficulties experienced by the Black students in Baltimore when he grew up.  He turns the indictment of institutional education into a discussion about the necessity of community education and knowledge, with his father as a key educator.

Coates addresses myriad important topics and issues within his book, and I look forward to continuing my own "acts of interrogation" as I read.

Reunion

I was thrilled to run into a former student, Jerry, in the hallway this morning.  Always cheerful, he excitedly shared some incredible news with me - he was on the Huffington Post!  He explained that a call went out on Facebook for stories of long-term friends who maintained platonic relationships.  He submitted information and is now included in a story on the news site.

Jerry and his friend, Gwen, have maintained a strong friendship since high school.  We talked about the topic and marveled at the notion, perpetuated by pop culture and society, that men and women simply cannot establish and sustain friendships over time.  Clearly, their friendship defies this idea.

It is always wonderful to run into folks after a semester ends and to hear how things are developing in their lives.  Our students are so busy, but those moments in the hallways, offices, or out in the courtyard always leave me smiling.

Octavia Butler's Archives

If you are like me, you eagerly awaited the time when the Huntington Library opened the archives for Black feminist science fiction author Octavia Butler.  It took some time for those dedicated library folks to go through the collection, which initially contained "two four-drawer file cabinets and about 35 cartons." Going through such large numbers of items is certainly a daunting task, but if you've spent any time within any library's special collections, you know that archivists are dedicated to respectfully handling materials with the goal of organizing those items for interested visitors. 

Scholars of Butler now have the opportunity to spend time with her draft and other ephemera now housed at the library.  This is important because as readers, we are only hop to part of the equation – we only see the final product.  Moving through archival materials means that we can gain more insights and understanding about the choices Butler made, what influenced her writing and ideas, and we can even find pieces in the collection that reveal details about the author that lead us towards new levels of appreciation.

Draft of Butler's novel Kindred
The Huntington Library

As an instructor of both literature and composition, the above draft page is remarkable; not only is it an early page from the novel that would become Kindred, but it contains Butler's notes and edits.  Students who are able to view these kinds of materials can see clearly that producing writing is a process and not something that published authors don't create perfect drafts from the start.  Crafting a novel takes intense effort, along with the willingness to let go (delete) some of that work in order to further a story or idea.

Another benefit of archival research is that there is always the possibility of discovering an item that is remarkable.  The piece below is just that - a wonderful discovery, written on the back of a composition book by Butler and now housed at the Huntington Library.  Considering the amount of visitors who have been through the archival collection, it is my hope that more incredible discoveries are on the way.

Butler's hand-written notes
The Huntington Library

Campus Words Event - Spring 2016

Young Activism

I regularly have conversations with my literature students about the importance of identities in writing.  In our course that focuses on British works, we talk about the voices and experiences that are included, as well as those that are excluded - in our anthology,  most of the authors are white, and a majority are male.  History and context matter when we think about literary productions and why so many writers of color are not included in these collections.

With these discussions fresh on my mind, I read about a young activist who is working to ensure that books that contain the stories about young Black girls are included.  Marley Dias, who is 11 years old and lives in New Jersey, started a book drive when she noticed that all the books she was exposed to in the 5th grade were written from the perspective of white male narrators.  She was not seeing herself in any of these texts.  Her goal is to collect one thousand books that contain young Black girls as central characters.

It is encouraging to see her activism, as well as the response to Marley's project and to hear folks talking about the importance of literature that reflects identities and experiences, particularly for young kids.  It's not just the college-level British literature course that requires critiquing, but certainly children's literature as well.

#1000blackgirlbooks

Marley Dias

Baraka's "Wailers"

by Mario Providence

Amiri Baraka was, and continues to be, a very influential figure in African American history. His poems and plays are captivating and always have a strong message to deliver. One particular poem that stands out is "Wailers," and how he uses the word as play on the story Moby Dick and the legendary Bob Marley.

This poem paid a tribute to Bob Marley, and how he as a performer and musician changed the world with his ‘wailing.’ Baraka uses Marley’s lyrics as a way to symbolize his understanding for the way people live their lives. “Hail to you Bob, man! We will ask your question all our lives. Could You Be Loved? I and I understand."

Bob Marley fits into this poem in a variety of ways while Baraka plays on the words "wail" and "whale." Wailers was not only the name of his band, but it also serves as a verb, because that is exactly what they did. They wailed about oppression, love, and pain as an expression of what the common (Black) man experiences, which can be compared to the story about the whale, that “hummed”, or ‘sang’ in the sea.

On the other hand, Baraka mentions the whalers that kill whales and “… get on top of a whale and wail." This is where the connection to Bob Marley is made. He also references Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick, and his battles with “the huge mad white beast.”

This clever word play not only makes this poem a great read, but shows how two completely different things can be so similar in such a subtle way. The way the hit song from Uprising was incorporated, was perhaps the best part of the poem, in my opinion. Baraka found a way to tie in all the different components and make them one unique and meaningful poem.

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Mario Providence is a student at North Harris College.