Dear Ms Lorna Dee Cervantes,
I am writing to thank you for coming to speak at Pitzer College earlier this month. I am so glad that I was able to attend the event. Until recently, I had never identified myself as Chicana and, although I am an English major, I had never really been exposed to Chicano literature. So, I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be exposed to your writing. Because I had never read your poetry prior to hearing you speak, I did not know what to expect. However, I was surprised to see how energetic and engaging you were and I really enjoyed listening to you recite some of your poems. Although it’s been a while since I went to see you speak, your poetry has left a great impression on me.
One of the things you talked about that I found really interesting was your new collection of poems your working on, 100 love Poems to Strangers. The project of writing love poems to people you have never met is very appealing to me because I think that writing poetry is one of the most difficult things to do. I can imagine it being especially difficult when you do not have anybody to write to or write about. It was difficult enough, for me, to try to figure out whom I would want you to write a poem to. However, what interested me the most about this project is the idea of selling the poems to people. I think that selling poems is fantastic because it adds another dimension to the project. Selling the poems does not only allow people to be involved in an exchange, I think that it also encourages them to take interest in and be involved with the project. I was a little disappointed that I could not buy a poem and that I could not figure out whom I wanted you to write the love poem to, but hopefully I can buy one next time. Nevertheless, even if I cannot have a poem included in the collection I am definitely going to check out your new collection when it comes out.
Although I really enjoyed hearing all of your poems, I was very excited to hear you recite “Poem for the Young White Man…” I will also be reading this poem for my American Literature Survey course later in the semester. So, I am glad that I got to hear your own thoughts on the poem before I read it for class, especially since racism is such a difficult topic to address and even harder to analyze and discuss in a classroom setting. You said that you were once told that the poem was not a political poem because it did not offer a solution and that your response was that the poem was not meant to be political because it was about the experience and emotions that accompany racism. That statement really impacted the way that I interpreted the poem because it made the words more personal to me and allowed me to interpret it by thinking back on what I have experienced.
There were several lines throughout the poem that really stuck out to me because I think that they were really good at showing how complex the topic and the experience of racism are. One line, in the poem, that I thought was very interesting was “they are not shooting at you” in response the people’s belief that stating that there is “a war between races” is an “exaggeration”. To me, that line addresses the fact that although racism is projected to a certain group of people, being a victim of racism is an individual experience. I think this idea is also emphasized because that line also implies the idea of being isolated; the person that experiences racism is literally singled out like a target. That line also really stuck out to me because it made me think about the response that I have had to other people’s response to racism. Racism is something that cannot be fully understood and sometimes ignored by a person who is not being specifically targeted. Although I can identify with the poem as a person who has had to deal with racism at some point in my life, your poem also calls for me to put myself in the position of the “young white man,” the poem addresses, and rethink the way I perceive discrimination when I am not the person being targeted. However, the one line that I think really resonated with your statement that the poem is not meant to be political is, “Racism is not intellectual.” That line emphasizes how complex racism is and how hard it is to explain. It is difficult to find a solution to racism because at times it is hard enough to determine the cause of racism and to explain it because it exists in so many different forms and affects people in so many different ways. I really loved this poem because it is a poem that I could relate to in a way and interpret it based on my own experience, but it also made me think about how I perceive the problem of racism.
Again, thank you so much for coming to speak at Pitzer. You were amazing. My friends and I were talking about your poetry reading for days. As I said before, you were very energetic and engaging and I really enjoyed hearing you speak. I look forward to hearing you speak again in the future and I am very excited to read some of your other poems.
Sincerely,
Helen Veyna
Scripps College 2011
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Response to "Book of Longing"
Dear Mr. Cohen and Mr. Glass,
I’m a student at Scripps Women’s College and I saw a performance of Book of Longing in Claremont last month. I was very impressed by this joint work. At first, I didn’t know what to expect. I had seen posters all over campus advertising the event so when my friend asked if I’d like to go, I said yes. Although I had heard both of your names before, I wasn’t familiar enough with your work to be able to picture what a fusion of your styles might entail. I thought maybe a performer would recite poetry accompanied by music and changing images. However, I could not have prepared myself for the seamless synthesis of music, poetry, and artwork that was presented during the performance.
One of the things that surprised me the most was that there were multiple vocalists. To me, this was very effective because they were able to highlight different emotions in the text. Also, when they all sang in unison, the effect was extremely powerful. I was also grateful that they were singing because I expected them to simply speak the text but their singing definitely brought out a deeper level of meaning in the text. The performers illuminated the subtleties of Mr. Cohen’s poetry through their intonation and body language. The staging was effective as well. I liked the relaxed and almost nonchalant manner in which musicians and singers entered and exited the stage. No one made a grand entrance and sometimes I didn’t even notice a performer had come onstage until he or she started singing.
I also appreciated the vast range of moods in the poetry and the way that was expressed through the music and accompanying illustrations. My favorite pieces were “You Go Your Way” and “You came to me This Morning.” I loved the nostalgia and love struck stupor invoked by the reading of “You Go Your Way.” At the same time, “You came to me This Morning,” which contains many darker elements, seemed to fit into the performance too. The coherence of the performance seemed to stem from the idea of the poems reflecting a journey through a person’s emotions and the continuously winding path that journey can take.
I think you found the perfect balance between playfulness and somberness. The artwork, music, and vocals helped give the words more life. These theatrical elements enhanced and complicated the poetry while providing a stable backdrop for the ever-shifting mood of the words. Thank you for creating such an intricate and valuable example of the relationship between words, music, and art. This performance had a haunting quality to it and definitely had a lasting effect on me.
Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Natalie Gutzler
I’m a student at Scripps Women’s College and I saw a performance of Book of Longing in Claremont last month. I was very impressed by this joint work. At first, I didn’t know what to expect. I had seen posters all over campus advertising the event so when my friend asked if I’d like to go, I said yes. Although I had heard both of your names before, I wasn’t familiar enough with your work to be able to picture what a fusion of your styles might entail. I thought maybe a performer would recite poetry accompanied by music and changing images. However, I could not have prepared myself for the seamless synthesis of music, poetry, and artwork that was presented during the performance.
One of the things that surprised me the most was that there were multiple vocalists. To me, this was very effective because they were able to highlight different emotions in the text. Also, when they all sang in unison, the effect was extremely powerful. I was also grateful that they were singing because I expected them to simply speak the text but their singing definitely brought out a deeper level of meaning in the text. The performers illuminated the subtleties of Mr. Cohen’s poetry through their intonation and body language. The staging was effective as well. I liked the relaxed and almost nonchalant manner in which musicians and singers entered and exited the stage. No one made a grand entrance and sometimes I didn’t even notice a performer had come onstage until he or she started singing.
I also appreciated the vast range of moods in the poetry and the way that was expressed through the music and accompanying illustrations. My favorite pieces were “You Go Your Way” and “You came to me This Morning.” I loved the nostalgia and love struck stupor invoked by the reading of “You Go Your Way.” At the same time, “You came to me This Morning,” which contains many darker elements, seemed to fit into the performance too. The coherence of the performance seemed to stem from the idea of the poems reflecting a journey through a person’s emotions and the continuously winding path that journey can take.
I think you found the perfect balance between playfulness and somberness. The artwork, music, and vocals helped give the words more life. These theatrical elements enhanced and complicated the poetry while providing a stable backdrop for the ever-shifting mood of the words. Thank you for creating such an intricate and valuable example of the relationship between words, music, and art. This performance had a haunting quality to it and definitely had a lasting effect on me.
Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Natalie Gutzler
Monday, March 30, 2009
Response to Elaine Showalter's lecture on "Women Writers and American Literature"
Dear Ms. Elaine Showalter,
My name is Margot Buermann and I'm currently a student attending Scripps College. I was fortunate enough to hear you speak about your anthology of American female writers at the Pomona College campus on March 24.
As someone who is learning about American literature and female writers in two separate classes, I found your lecture to be fascinating in terms of looking at how women fit into the list of "great literary works" from American history. I especially admire that you took the time to research these female authors because they belong to a group that has been continuously stifled and/or misconstrued over time. As you said, female American writers are so interesting to study because of the journey they collectively endured to establish respectable positions within the literary world. Even if they enjoyed relative success with the publishing of their works, they were still unable to match the "genius" of struggling male artists. Despite the hardships they faced, I found it inspiring that, even when social restraints discouraged them from publishing their works, they still chose to express themselves--regardless of what their husbands or neighbors thought. I was actually surprised to learn that most women didn't use pseudonyms when they wrote. Probably the most studied female authors in American literature are the three Bronte sisters, who all wrote under false names. It made me realize that there is so much more to learn about other female authors and how they formed their own career paths.
Also, thank you for introducing me to the wonderful poet Julia Ward Howe. The selection you chose "The Heart's Astronomy" from Passion-Flowers is so undeniably beautiful, that it makes me wonder how anyone wouldn't want to look at it from an artistic viewpoint--as opposed to the more political analysis that most female writers received in the public sphere. You placed a picture of Howe next to one of Walt Whitman. The differences between how male and female writers were viewed in their time jump right out at you: Whitman, standing casually but with an upfront appearance with his shirt unbuttoned, and then Howe, sunken in her chair with black, modest clothing. It was sad to hear the story of Howe and how her husband didn't support her writing at all--instead, he made her choose between motherhood and having a career, a choice that isn't unfamiliar to women during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But, I'm glad that at least she was able to share some of her work with us.
You mentioned that Toni Morrison commented on a new generation of women who are no longer restricted by family or society to publish their works. I believe that it is the strength of these women you discussed in your lecture that lead modern women to have more freedom in their artistic expression. I thank you so much for introducing me to these women, like Howe, and I look forward to learning even more about them.
Sincerely,
Margot Buermann
Saturday, March 28, 2009
A Response to "Islam Beyond Patriarchy"
Dear Dr. Amina Wadud,
On Wednesday night (the 25th), I had the opportunity to attend your lecture, “Islam Beyond Patriarchy,” and today I’d like to share with you the ways in which your lecture impacted me. Your lecture, to me, illustrated powerfully the potential uses and importance of language. While language can limit or distort the understanding of the metaphysical, it also, through metaphor, creates the possibility of transcending those limitations and materially re-forming the realities in which we live. I think recognizing this dual nature (that language both creates the tension and has the ability to solve, or dissolve, that tension) within the discourse on Islam was important for me.
In my own faith as a Christian woman, I have encountered many of the difficulties you mentioned in your lecture. How can one conceive of Allah beyond gender in a language that insists on gendering everything? God must be referred to and, to those people eager to view God through the lens of patriarchy, “He” is naturally the privileged pronoun, despite the theological belief that Allah is neither he nor she and despite the possibility of the occasionally employed “We” who, you mentioned, appears in the Qur'an. Patriarchy also uses this binary to maintain the originary status of (an assumed to be) Adam which in turn creates and maintains the supplementarity of (an assumed to be) Eve. In these ways language, through its binary nature, allows for patriarchy to impose itself in Islam. It also allows patriarchy to instate the male between the female and Allah in the vertical, hierarchical model you counter with your Tawhidic Paradigm.
Your Tawhidic Paradigm helped to impress upon me the power of metaphor in confronting the limitations of the binary. You stated that the goal of your lecture was to examine root metaphors and sacred postulates of Islam in order to discover their manifest potentialities. By looking directly at the text, it seems to me, you found a point of access to a truth and to Allah not clouded by the doctrine of adversarial secularists or of neo-conservative Islamists and, most of all, not clouded by the lens of patriarchy. Rather than imaging a static Islam, to be viewed either as an ideal to return to, or as an obsolete belief system to reject, the text of the Koran allows for the recognition of a dynamic Islam that can manifest justice and our foundational ontological equality in our lived realities.
I find this inspiring, this opportunity you see for Islam to contribute its voice to the debate on international human rights. On a more personal level, I find inspiring the possibility of reclaiming agency within religion as well as our God-given equality. This ability and responsibility to materialize religion within the world, I think, requires walking the Wasatiyyah you mentioned; approaching the relationship between the metaphysical and the empirical with both faith and critical analysis.
Again, thank you for your lecture.
Sincerely,
Alayna Fisher
Scripps College ’11
On Wednesday night (the 25th), I had the opportunity to attend your lecture, “Islam Beyond Patriarchy,” and today I’d like to share with you the ways in which your lecture impacted me. Your lecture, to me, illustrated powerfully the potential uses and importance of language. While language can limit or distort the understanding of the metaphysical, it also, through metaphor, creates the possibility of transcending those limitations and materially re-forming the realities in which we live. I think recognizing this dual nature (that language both creates the tension and has the ability to solve, or dissolve, that tension) within the discourse on Islam was important for me.
In my own faith as a Christian woman, I have encountered many of the difficulties you mentioned in your lecture. How can one conceive of Allah beyond gender in a language that insists on gendering everything? God must be referred to and, to those people eager to view God through the lens of patriarchy, “He” is naturally the privileged pronoun, despite the theological belief that Allah is neither he nor she and despite the possibility of the occasionally employed “We” who, you mentioned, appears in the Qur'an. Patriarchy also uses this binary to maintain the originary status of (an assumed to be) Adam which in turn creates and maintains the supplementarity of (an assumed to be) Eve. In these ways language, through its binary nature, allows for patriarchy to impose itself in Islam. It also allows patriarchy to instate the male between the female and Allah in the vertical, hierarchical model you counter with your Tawhidic Paradigm.
Your Tawhidic Paradigm helped to impress upon me the power of metaphor in confronting the limitations of the binary. You stated that the goal of your lecture was to examine root metaphors and sacred postulates of Islam in order to discover their manifest potentialities. By looking directly at the text, it seems to me, you found a point of access to a truth and to Allah not clouded by the doctrine of adversarial secularists or of neo-conservative Islamists and, most of all, not clouded by the lens of patriarchy. Rather than imaging a static Islam, to be viewed either as an ideal to return to, or as an obsolete belief system to reject, the text of the Koran allows for the recognition of a dynamic Islam that can manifest justice and our foundational ontological equality in our lived realities.
I find this inspiring, this opportunity you see for Islam to contribute its voice to the debate on international human rights. On a more personal level, I find inspiring the possibility of reclaiming agency within religion as well as our God-given equality. This ability and responsibility to materialize religion within the world, I think, requires walking the Wasatiyyah you mentioned; approaching the relationship between the metaphysical and the empirical with both faith and critical analysis.
Again, thank you for your lecture.
Sincerely,
Alayna Fisher
Scripps College ’11
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Book of Longing
Dear Mr. Cohen and Mr. Glass,
I attended your collaborative work Book of Longing in February at Scripps College. I intended to write much earlier, but better late than never. I am glad I wrote down my thoughts after seeing the program.
Book of Longing left me in an odd, sympathetic, somewhat depressing somberness. It was the sort of mood that lends itself to brilliant thoughts such as “the state of my dusty post-it notes leaves me in despair.” I considered my identity and myself during and after the program (I recalled that I’m a creative writer/choreographer often at odds with the population). Hearing such individualistic work drew me closer to Mr. Cohen and to myself.
I must confess that I was ignorant going into the theater. Leonard Cohen…how do I know that name? Didn’t he write that song from Shrek? Wasn’t he from the 1960’s? Always open-minded to new things, I thought “I’m probably too young for this. It’ll probably be depressing. I won’t even get it. I’ve only had twenty years on earth to experience angst, what would I know about this?” I didn’t even know what the program was, exactly. I felt pretty awkward picking up my ticket wondering “what am I going to see?” (By the way, I did figure it out once I sat down with the program.)
I read the libretto ten minutes before the program started. Nothing really struck me (of course, a few minutes isn’t adequate time for literary digestion). The words washed over me as stylistic musings from before my time.
Then I watched Book of Longing and found (shockingly) that art cuts across time.
The collaboration with Mr. Glass radically changed my interaction with Mr. Cohen’s poetry. Listening to the text forced me to take in each word and gain a better understanding of the poems. I can skim words with my eyes, but ears don’t work that way. Furthermore, each singer’s performance and expressions gave the text a life that I could not find on my own. The lighting, the musical score, and the singers gave me clues that kept me from getting lost in words. I think seeing a face with the poems kept alienation at bay.
The music also reassured me that my limited understanding of the poetry wasn’t completely off. For example, whenever the music shifted in tone, I thought, “I wasn’t crazy then—that poem did completely change direction.” There were also several lines that weren’t humorous on paper but funny when sung. The program left me with a longing (pun intended) to reread the libretto. This time, I didn’t feel too young to read it. I realized that Mr. Cohen’s poetic tone is far more grounded than I originally thought—he does not take himself so seriously, after all. His work contains more than longing and sorrow, but also humor and triumph.
I’m glad I had the chance to see Book of Longing. I also appreciate the lesson I learned (or relearned)—assumptions get in the way of experience.
Sincerely,
J. Lindsay Brown
I attended your collaborative work Book of Longing in February at Scripps College. I intended to write much earlier, but better late than never. I am glad I wrote down my thoughts after seeing the program.
Book of Longing left me in an odd, sympathetic, somewhat depressing somberness. It was the sort of mood that lends itself to brilliant thoughts such as “the state of my dusty post-it notes leaves me in despair.” I considered my identity and myself during and after the program (I recalled that I’m a creative writer/choreographer often at odds with the population). Hearing such individualistic work drew me closer to Mr. Cohen and to myself.
I must confess that I was ignorant going into the theater. Leonard Cohen…how do I know that name? Didn’t he write that song from Shrek? Wasn’t he from the 1960’s? Always open-minded to new things, I thought “I’m probably too young for this. It’ll probably be depressing. I won’t even get it. I’ve only had twenty years on earth to experience angst, what would I know about this?” I didn’t even know what the program was, exactly. I felt pretty awkward picking up my ticket wondering “what am I going to see?” (By the way, I did figure it out once I sat down with the program.)
I read the libretto ten minutes before the program started. Nothing really struck me (of course, a few minutes isn’t adequate time for literary digestion). The words washed over me as stylistic musings from before my time.
Then I watched Book of Longing and found (shockingly) that art cuts across time.
The collaboration with Mr. Glass radically changed my interaction with Mr. Cohen’s poetry. Listening to the text forced me to take in each word and gain a better understanding of the poems. I can skim words with my eyes, but ears don’t work that way. Furthermore, each singer’s performance and expressions gave the text a life that I could not find on my own. The lighting, the musical score, and the singers gave me clues that kept me from getting lost in words. I think seeing a face with the poems kept alienation at bay.
The music also reassured me that my limited understanding of the poetry wasn’t completely off. For example, whenever the music shifted in tone, I thought, “I wasn’t crazy then—that poem did completely change direction.” There were also several lines that weren’t humorous on paper but funny when sung. The program left me with a longing (pun intended) to reread the libretto. This time, I didn’t feel too young to read it. I realized that Mr. Cohen’s poetic tone is far more grounded than I originally thought—he does not take himself so seriously, after all. His work contains more than longing and sorrow, but also humor and triumph.
I’m glad I had the chance to see Book of Longing. I also appreciate the lesson I learned (or relearned)—assumptions get in the way of experience.
Sincerely,
J. Lindsay Brown
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Coming of Age in a Small Place
Dear Jamaica Kincaid,
I was able to go to your "Coming of Age in a Small Place" talk at the CMC Ath and loved it. To be honest, I wasn’t very familiar with your work and wasn't sure what to expect. But the things you said really captured me completely.
In particular, I loved the way you described your childhood. As a young adult, I have recently been preoccupied with capturing a period of my life that is in many ways intangible. I liked how you were able to talk about your childhood as a very distinct but also a very universal experience. When you transitioned into talking about Manhattan, I loved the description of mornings, and very early mornings at that. To me, these things seemed very simple but the more and more you went into detail I came to realize how complex and very beautiful they were. Thank you for allowing me to see this.
I also especially loved Your Talk Town Story, which I thought was thoughtful and innovative. It was comical how to tallied the Friedman’s up, adding them to your evaluations.
When you spoke of your Father you said that he “talked about himself as if he was a person he used to know well.” I liked how you said that and this line has stuck with me since. I also liked how you were able to also capture the child’s sense that no, parents did not and could not have possibly existed before our own existence.
Lastly, your story about your brother meant a lot to me. I think it is hard to be truthful, especially when you are writing something that many others will read. You described him as someone “I had not wanted to love.” This also really resonated with me.
Thank you for your talk. This was a first time I was able to hear an author read from their work live and I felt that this made what you were saying both very intimate and universal. Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Laura Nolan
Scripps College 2011
I was able to go to your "Coming of Age in a Small Place" talk at the CMC Ath and loved it. To be honest, I wasn’t very familiar with your work and wasn't sure what to expect. But the things you said really captured me completely.
In particular, I loved the way you described your childhood. As a young adult, I have recently been preoccupied with capturing a period of my life that is in many ways intangible. I liked how you were able to talk about your childhood as a very distinct but also a very universal experience. When you transitioned into talking about Manhattan, I loved the description of mornings, and very early mornings at that. To me, these things seemed very simple but the more and more you went into detail I came to realize how complex and very beautiful they were. Thank you for allowing me to see this.
I also especially loved Your Talk Town Story, which I thought was thoughtful and innovative. It was comical how to tallied the Friedman’s up, adding them to your evaluations.
When you spoke of your Father you said that he “talked about himself as if he was a person he used to know well.” I liked how you said that and this line has stuck with me since. I also liked how you were able to also capture the child’s sense that no, parents did not and could not have possibly existed before our own existence.
Lastly, your story about your brother meant a lot to me. I think it is hard to be truthful, especially when you are writing something that many others will read. You described him as someone “I had not wanted to love.” This also really resonated with me.
Thank you for your talk. This was a first time I was able to hear an author read from their work live and I felt that this made what you were saying both very intimate and universal. Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Laura Nolan
Scripps College 2011
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard's Whore: Another look at history
Dear Dr. Stevens,
Reading the title of your recent piece “Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore,” I had little idea of what to expect. Of course, I had read the description of the event, which described it as “an interactive piece...[with] enchanting visual representations...[and an] imaginative score,” but I still entered Garrison Theater this past Thursday night with few concrete ideas as to what to anticipate. The performance sounded like an intriguing and unconventional event - a true “one of a kind” that tends to leave a memorable impression on its audience members. Thus, I was drawn in - eager to experience a break in the monotony of a predictable week.
Much to my delight, that is exactly what “Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” was. It was at once a visual, musical, and literary performance in which all of the distinctive performance devices were inseparable from each other. Different types of verbal, tonal, and visual repetition cued each other and tied together the many personas, settings, and types of audiences to which each character presented itself.
First, the audience was introduced to Claudia Stevens - a contemporary paleontologist delivering a presentation about the deceased and revered (though historically unrecognized and under-appreciated) paleontologist Mary Anning. To me, Dr. Stevens, this role was a dual representation of not only you as the author and performer of this piece (making it more “interactive”), but also as a representation of a modern female in the field of science. The latter was particularly important as a contrast to the character of Mary Anning - a female scientist in the early and middle 19th century.
Claudia Stevens came forth as a learned and respected woman who did not have waste time appeasing or sweet talking her audience feigning delicacy and docility. First off - I want to remark that I loved the sense of improvisation that was present in this initial scene. I do not now how much of the introduction had been written and rehearsed, but I admired your humor in commenting that many of us “paleontologists” had obviously “left the convention early.” It seems the majority of people on campus were content with their more predictable Thursday nights.
The fact that our “presenter” was dressed in pants, a floral top, and a slim necktie showed the disintegration of the divisive lines that exist between gender and professionalism. Your outfit was a visual blurring of the stereotypes and rules regarding gender that are often enforced in clothing attire.
Mary Anning on the other hand, was clothed in a long cloak and hat, showing that a progressive and unorthodox woman was still restricted to the social norms of her time. As opposed to Dr. Steven’s energetic, humorous, and assertive presentation, Miss Mary Anning was careful to speak politely and gracefully as she practiced her acceptance of the small award bestowed to her by the “gentlemen” of the scientific society after all this time.
I really enjoyed how you integrated both language and music to signal scene and time shifts as well as stress important themes throughout the play. The initial three or four notes struck on the autoharp as well as the striking of the hammer were reiterated again and again - both literally by the instruments themselves, but also in your vocal impressions of them. Little Mary Anning was described as being “struck” by lightening, the youthful Mary Anning was constantly “striking” the dirt and sand in hopes of uncovering something unknown, and the older Mary Anning was often attempting to “strike” down the preconceptions and prejudices that she faced being an academic woman. The repetition of the phrase “look up” was used to snap Mary Anning out of her dreamy recollections and to force her back into a more “appropriate” state of delivery. I loved the play on these phrases because they were so contrary to the immediate connotations of “up” and “down.” In this production, “up” was restrictive; it was the direction that society demands be followed in the majority of circumstances. “Down,” on the other hand, often allowed for extra space to and reconstruction of the “norms.”
“Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” is the type of the production that could be viewed multiple times and still hold more jewels to interpret. But then again, as Mary Anning relates, “happiness exists in being misunderstood.” As long as a few questions remain, there will always be something to dig up from under the surface, thus allowing for the congealed standards to be undone and refitted.
Thank you for sharing this production with us Dr. Stevens. Your production was, just as Scripps College requested, provocative, insightful, and artistic. I hope I will be lucky enough to see another one of your pieces in the coming years. I can’t imagine what’s coming next!
Sincerely,
Julie McAleer
Pitzer College ‘12
Reading the title of your recent piece “Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore,” I had little idea of what to expect. Of course, I had read the description of the event, which described it as “an interactive piece...[with] enchanting visual representations...[and an] imaginative score,” but I still entered Garrison Theater this past Thursday night with few concrete ideas as to what to anticipate. The performance sounded like an intriguing and unconventional event - a true “one of a kind” that tends to leave a memorable impression on its audience members. Thus, I was drawn in - eager to experience a break in the monotony of a predictable week.
Much to my delight, that is exactly what “Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” was. It was at once a visual, musical, and literary performance in which all of the distinctive performance devices were inseparable from each other. Different types of verbal, tonal, and visual repetition cued each other and tied together the many personas, settings, and types of audiences to which each character presented itself.
First, the audience was introduced to Claudia Stevens - a contemporary paleontologist delivering a presentation about the deceased and revered (though historically unrecognized and under-appreciated) paleontologist Mary Anning. To me, Dr. Stevens, this role was a dual representation of not only you as the author and performer of this piece (making it more “interactive”), but also as a representation of a modern female in the field of science. The latter was particularly important as a contrast to the character of Mary Anning - a female scientist in the early and middle 19th century.
Claudia Stevens came forth as a learned and respected woman who did not have waste time appeasing or sweet talking her audience feigning delicacy and docility. First off - I want to remark that I loved the sense of improvisation that was present in this initial scene. I do not now how much of the introduction had been written and rehearsed, but I admired your humor in commenting that many of us “paleontologists” had obviously “left the convention early.” It seems the majority of people on campus were content with their more predictable Thursday nights.
The fact that our “presenter” was dressed in pants, a floral top, and a slim necktie showed the disintegration of the divisive lines that exist between gender and professionalism. Your outfit was a visual blurring of the stereotypes and rules regarding gender that are often enforced in clothing attire.
Mary Anning on the other hand, was clothed in a long cloak and hat, showing that a progressive and unorthodox woman was still restricted to the social norms of her time. As opposed to Dr. Steven’s energetic, humorous, and assertive presentation, Miss Mary Anning was careful to speak politely and gracefully as she practiced her acceptance of the small award bestowed to her by the “gentlemen” of the scientific society after all this time.
I really enjoyed how you integrated both language and music to signal scene and time shifts as well as stress important themes throughout the play. The initial three or four notes struck on the autoharp as well as the striking of the hammer were reiterated again and again - both literally by the instruments themselves, but also in your vocal impressions of them. Little Mary Anning was described as being “struck” by lightening, the youthful Mary Anning was constantly “striking” the dirt and sand in hopes of uncovering something unknown, and the older Mary Anning was often attempting to “strike” down the preconceptions and prejudices that she faced being an academic woman. The repetition of the phrase “look up” was used to snap Mary Anning out of her dreamy recollections and to force her back into a more “appropriate” state of delivery. I loved the play on these phrases because they were so contrary to the immediate connotations of “up” and “down.” In this production, “up” was restrictive; it was the direction that society demands be followed in the majority of circumstances. “Down,” on the other hand, often allowed for extra space to and reconstruction of the “norms.”
“Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” is the type of the production that could be viewed multiple times and still hold more jewels to interpret. But then again, as Mary Anning relates, “happiness exists in being misunderstood.” As long as a few questions remain, there will always be something to dig up from under the surface, thus allowing for the congealed standards to be undone and refitted.
Thank you for sharing this production with us Dr. Stevens. Your production was, just as Scripps College requested, provocative, insightful, and artistic. I hope I will be lucky enough to see another one of your pieces in the coming years. I can’t imagine what’s coming next!
Sincerely,
Julie McAleer
Pitzer College ‘12
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Jamaica Kincaid
March 10, 2009
Dear Ms. Kincaid,
I recently had the pleasure of attending your speech “Coming of Age in a Small Place” at Claremont McKenna College’s Athenaeum on March 4. First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to come and speak at the Claremont Colleges. I’ve been a fan of your work ever since I read Annie John as a freshman in high school. It truly was an honor to hear you read passages of your writing, and discuss some of your experiences as a fresh writer at The New Yorker. Your words captivated me, and I enjoyed your presentation very much.
I have been struck by your style of writing. You are engaging, clear, and wonderfully insightful. Further, hearing your words read aloud gave them a different feel; the tone suddenly became more intimate, and psychologically or emotionally clued in. Your words not only provided a written connection into your thoughts but a verbal one as well; your memories came to life as you read. I found myself being carried away and entering your world. Your words transported me from Claremont, California to Antigua, Manhattan, a train, or wherever you happened to be in your tale. The description of your father, for example, was so meticulous, detail oriented, and well done I feel as if I know him. The specific details you incorporated in your descriptions, such as your father’s stained fingers from smoking, painted him as a tangible person not some fictional character. These clear and meticulous details I found make your style of writing incredibly empathetic and relatable. Further, your ability to express common everyday happenings allows the reader to identify with your writing; yet these occurrences are expressed in a new eloquent fashion.
Instead of feeling intrusive with the insight gained from your writings, I felt connected. The depiction of your experience of losing your brother was emotionally so painful, and yet captured so eloquently. I remember you saying, “for it is the end, yet so many things linger” I was particular struck by this. The language is simple and clear, and yet conveys much. You allowed the world to experience and feel something truly devastating through your writing, and I think that is quite an accomplishment. I felt a strong sense of connection in your discussion of death, and your state of pain; a connection that I was able to feel because of the style of your expression. Your writing connects cross-culturally. I thought your piece on your brother’s sickness and death was deeply moving and beautiful.
I was particularly fond of your comparisons and cataloging of life in Antigua compared to life in America, such as the detailed description of “early” mornings in Antigua, versus “early” mornings in Manhattan. The juxtaposition between life on these two islands was pronounced by providing the same form, allowing their differences to shine through; your writing separated the experiences as different in substance, yet united in form. The “Expense Account” piece was a prime example of the cataloging form being creative, funny and effective.
Additionally, I loved your anecdotes on Wordsworth and Milton. Likewise, I recently read Paradise Lost and was utterly captivated by Lucifer. I agree, he’s definitely the most interesting and engaging character. Your memory of having to write out all of Paradise Lost and memorize Wordsworth poetry then compared to your experiences as a writer of your own words in Manhattan illustrate your growth and strength. I was thoroughly impressed by all of your experiences, and the means in which you expressed them.
Thank you so much for coming to speak at the Athenaeum. I’m truly thankful I had the opportunity to hear you speak, and I look forward to reading more of your work.
Sincerely,
Emma Lord
Scripps College Class of 2010
| to | jkincaid@fas.harvard.edu |
| cc | ssuh@scrippscollege.edu, elord@scrippscollege.edu |
| date | Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 10:34 PM |
"Blue Lias-or the Fish Lizard's Whore" by Sophia Galano
Dear Ms. Claudia Stevens,
I recently attended your performance “Blue Lias-or the Fish Lizard’s Whore,” and would like to thank you for traveling to Scripps College. I would also like to commend your incorporation of various educational fields, as you successfully blended literature, music, theatre, science and gender studies together in your play. You also addressed important questions pertaining to women’s roles in science and psychology. I was overall very impressed with the unique style and subject matter of your play.
The style and form of “Blue Lias-or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” was both unique and intriguing. First and foremost, I must applaud your acting skills, as you brilliantly performed two very different characters. I loved how you often shifted between the two characters, and changed voice and narration. It was interesting how I found myself questioning the reliability of your narrator, and if she was in fact mentally unstable or simply eccentric. The different tones, narration and voices used throughout the play brought forth questions pertaining to the central character’s emotional state and larger societal issues, such as the gender divide in the scientific world.
Along with the shift in tone and narration, I was compelled by the central character’s poetic interpersonal dialogue, diction and use of music and song. The narrator’s inner thoughts were expressed with a consistent rhyme scheme and evenly distributed intervals. The accentuation and repetition of certain words also established a specific form and emphasized themes of pain and death. Furthermore, I was absorbed by the intervals between dialogues, as they were often divided with music and song. This was a powerful tool that allowed a viewer such as myself to feel sympathy and sadness for the central character.
I found the songs and music to be a fascinating way of handling themes of sadness, grief, pain and death. You addressed these themes in non-traditional methods, as you used theatre as well as audience interaction and interpersonal dialogue. I found that a method such as audience interaction exaggerated and created irony within sadness and grief. Instead of leaving physical and emotional pain in words on a paper, you diligently chose to act, dress and show specific feelings.
One of the most important and absorbing assets of your work was its intersection of various educational fields. I was further intrigued by how the play dealt with issues of gender, psychology and the scientific experience, yet was portrayed through poetry, song and theatre. Your utilization of these different methods fully showed your talent and ability to contrast content and form. I credit you for successfully blurring the boundaries between performance and literature, while still addressing science and psychology.
Overall, I was captivated by your performance of “Blue Lias- or the Fish Lizards Whore.” The work was written in an unusual, yet compelling manner and was remarkably performed. I was also interested in the style and form as well as the themes and questions within your play. The central topic of women’s place in the scientific world was nicely incorporated into various other issues, such as mental stability. Your play addressed pertinent issues in today’s society, was historically accurate and addressed in a unique style. Thank you again for performing this intellectual and unusual work of literature.
Yours truly,
Sophia Galano
I recently attended your performance “Blue Lias-or the Fish Lizard’s Whore,” and would like to thank you for traveling to Scripps College. I would also like to commend your incorporation of various educational fields, as you successfully blended literature, music, theatre, science and gender studies together in your play. You also addressed important questions pertaining to women’s roles in science and psychology. I was overall very impressed with the unique style and subject matter of your play.
The style and form of “Blue Lias-or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” was both unique and intriguing. First and foremost, I must applaud your acting skills, as you brilliantly performed two very different characters. I loved how you often shifted between the two characters, and changed voice and narration. It was interesting how I found myself questioning the reliability of your narrator, and if she was in fact mentally unstable or simply eccentric. The different tones, narration and voices used throughout the play brought forth questions pertaining to the central character’s emotional state and larger societal issues, such as the gender divide in the scientific world.
Along with the shift in tone and narration, I was compelled by the central character’s poetic interpersonal dialogue, diction and use of music and song. The narrator’s inner thoughts were expressed with a consistent rhyme scheme and evenly distributed intervals. The accentuation and repetition of certain words also established a specific form and emphasized themes of pain and death. Furthermore, I was absorbed by the intervals between dialogues, as they were often divided with music and song. This was a powerful tool that allowed a viewer such as myself to feel sympathy and sadness for the central character.
I found the songs and music to be a fascinating way of handling themes of sadness, grief, pain and death. You addressed these themes in non-traditional methods, as you used theatre as well as audience interaction and interpersonal dialogue. I found that a method such as audience interaction exaggerated and created irony within sadness and grief. Instead of leaving physical and emotional pain in words on a paper, you diligently chose to act, dress and show specific feelings.
One of the most important and absorbing assets of your work was its intersection of various educational fields. I was further intrigued by how the play dealt with issues of gender, psychology and the scientific experience, yet was portrayed through poetry, song and theatre. Your utilization of these different methods fully showed your talent and ability to contrast content and form. I credit you for successfully blurring the boundaries between performance and literature, while still addressing science and psychology.
Overall, I was captivated by your performance of “Blue Lias- or the Fish Lizards Whore.” The work was written in an unusual, yet compelling manner and was remarkably performed. I was also interested in the style and form as well as the themes and questions within your play. The central topic of women’s place in the scientific world was nicely incorporated into various other issues, such as mental stability. Your play addressed pertinent issues in today’s society, was historically accurate and addressed in a unique style. Thank you again for performing this intellectual and unusual work of literature.
Yours truly,
Sophia Galano
Journey From the Land of No - Roya Hakakian
Dear Roya Hakakian,
I recently attended your talk, “Journey from the Land of No,” at Scripps College last Tuesday and I wanted to thank you for an engaging presentation. As a Humanities Junior Fellow this year, I have been exposed to a variety of media portraying women and Islam in contemporary society. After reading your memoir of your childhood during the Iranian Revolution, I especially appreciated your lyrical depiction of life in Iran. Through descriptive literature and personal experience, you countered preconceived Western notions of Iranian society with your own memories of beauty and tranquility.
I was struck by the compassion that permeated your descriptions of the people and geography of Iran, despite the hostility you encountered as a Jewish-Iranian from a radical regime after the revolution. Even though you have faced injustice in the ruling regime, you were not confined by your experiences to write a “harrowing” memoir like many of the autobiographical accounts of life in Iran that you referred to in your lecture. In your memoir, you described how you have kept your memories silent for so long to “begin anew” in America. To move on in your new life, you imagine yourself as “a secondhand car whose odometer has been reset to zero by exile, the craftiest of dealers…Within you is all the clanking, hissing, and racket of previous rides. But you muffle it all and press on.” Despite your reluctance to speak about your past, you were able to capture the tranquility, humor, and poetry of daily life in Iran while still giving weight to the significance of the revolution.
As a first generation immigrant with memories of leaving another life behind, I sympathize with your reluctance to relive your memories of Iran by recounting them in writing. I have also struggled with the difficulty of communicating my painful experiences to loved ones, and I understand well that literature can be a liberating outlet for emotions. I admire your courage and determination to delve into your memories and create a work that bridges cultural barriers, despite your fear of reliving traumatizing events. I hope that one day I will also be able to confront and reexamine my past to understand how it has shaped the person I have become. I admire your determination to resist the confines of a Jewish Iranian identity to assume your own identity in the midst of a culture that seeks to categorize individuals into stereotypes.
Your work alerts us to the misconceptions of Iran in the West. The media promotes stereotypes of Iran as a mysterious and backward country where women are silenced and modern technology doesn’t exist. Therefore, Westerners may assume a condescending attitude toward women in the Middle East that essentializes all Muslim women as veiled, silent, and oppressed. In your memoir, you depict the individual experiences of Iranian women such as Farah, who was forced by tradition into an unhappy marriage, and Bibi, who fought actively against the Shah and was imprisoned by the Islamic regime. You paint a humorous caricature of Mrs. Moghadam, the radical Islamist principal of your school who neglected intellectualism. At the same time, you introduce us to Mrs. Arman, a former university professor who encouraged your curiosity and love for words. Through literature, you bring a myriad of perspectives from Iranian women that defy the narrow perceptions of them as powerless beings in need of Western salvation. Instead, there are women who hold strong convictions and act on their beliefs despite the barriers they encounter from society and the state. I was inspired by the beauty of your prose and how you conveyed the hope and courage that persists in an atmosphere of repression and uncertainty.
In difficult times, it may be comforting to lose oneself in another world crafted by words. Literature serves as both a means to understand one’s reality and to escape reality by sympathizing with characters in a book. Your stories of resistance through words showed the central role literature plays in engaging citizens with politics and society. Literature can serve as a subversive medium to communicate secret messages and galvanize a group of people to rise up against injustice. Your description of the symbolic story “The Little Black Fish” especially captured the power metaphors may exert over citizens. Even though “The Little Black Fish” seems like an innocuous children’s story, the government banned the book for its message of grassroots disobedience. While some may view literature as an escapist avenue, you show the ways literature can build community and empower the powerless.
Thank you again for speaking at Scripps College and participating in the Humanities Institute program. In so many ways, your work has been incredibly inspirational for me as a writer and an individual.
Sincerely,
Heidi Hong SC’12
I recently attended your talk, “Journey from the Land of No,” at Scripps College last Tuesday and I wanted to thank you for an engaging presentation. As a Humanities Junior Fellow this year, I have been exposed to a variety of media portraying women and Islam in contemporary society. After reading your memoir of your childhood during the Iranian Revolution, I especially appreciated your lyrical depiction of life in Iran. Through descriptive literature and personal experience, you countered preconceived Western notions of Iranian society with your own memories of beauty and tranquility.
I was struck by the compassion that permeated your descriptions of the people and geography of Iran, despite the hostility you encountered as a Jewish-Iranian from a radical regime after the revolution. Even though you have faced injustice in the ruling regime, you were not confined by your experiences to write a “harrowing” memoir like many of the autobiographical accounts of life in Iran that you referred to in your lecture. In your memoir, you described how you have kept your memories silent for so long to “begin anew” in America. To move on in your new life, you imagine yourself as “a secondhand car whose odometer has been reset to zero by exile, the craftiest of dealers…Within you is all the clanking, hissing, and racket of previous rides. But you muffle it all and press on.” Despite your reluctance to speak about your past, you were able to capture the tranquility, humor, and poetry of daily life in Iran while still giving weight to the significance of the revolution.
As a first generation immigrant with memories of leaving another life behind, I sympathize with your reluctance to relive your memories of Iran by recounting them in writing. I have also struggled with the difficulty of communicating my painful experiences to loved ones, and I understand well that literature can be a liberating outlet for emotions. I admire your courage and determination to delve into your memories and create a work that bridges cultural barriers, despite your fear of reliving traumatizing events. I hope that one day I will also be able to confront and reexamine my past to understand how it has shaped the person I have become. I admire your determination to resist the confines of a Jewish Iranian identity to assume your own identity in the midst of a culture that seeks to categorize individuals into stereotypes.
Your work alerts us to the misconceptions of Iran in the West. The media promotes stereotypes of Iran as a mysterious and backward country where women are silenced and modern technology doesn’t exist. Therefore, Westerners may assume a condescending attitude toward women in the Middle East that essentializes all Muslim women as veiled, silent, and oppressed. In your memoir, you depict the individual experiences of Iranian women such as Farah, who was forced by tradition into an unhappy marriage, and Bibi, who fought actively against the Shah and was imprisoned by the Islamic regime. You paint a humorous caricature of Mrs. Moghadam, the radical Islamist principal of your school who neglected intellectualism. At the same time, you introduce us to Mrs. Arman, a former university professor who encouraged your curiosity and love for words. Through literature, you bring a myriad of perspectives from Iranian women that defy the narrow perceptions of them as powerless beings in need of Western salvation. Instead, there are women who hold strong convictions and act on their beliefs despite the barriers they encounter from society and the state. I was inspired by the beauty of your prose and how you conveyed the hope and courage that persists in an atmosphere of repression and uncertainty.
In difficult times, it may be comforting to lose oneself in another world crafted by words. Literature serves as both a means to understand one’s reality and to escape reality by sympathizing with characters in a book. Your stories of resistance through words showed the central role literature plays in engaging citizens with politics and society. Literature can serve as a subversive medium to communicate secret messages and galvanize a group of people to rise up against injustice. Your description of the symbolic story “The Little Black Fish” especially captured the power metaphors may exert over citizens. Even though “The Little Black Fish” seems like an innocuous children’s story, the government banned the book for its message of grassroots disobedience. While some may view literature as an escapist avenue, you show the ways literature can build community and empower the powerless.
Thank you again for speaking at Scripps College and participating in the Humanities Institute program. In so many ways, your work has been incredibly inspirational for me as a writer and an individual.
Sincerely,
Heidi Hong SC’12
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Reclaiming Texts: Maysoon Zayid, "Little American Whore"
Dear Maysoon Zayid,
Thank you for performing your comedy show, “Little American Whore,” along with some extra standup, at the Scripps College Humanities Institute on March 5. I attended your performance and I had a wonderful time! Your material is hilarious and your delivery is assertive and spunky. Your stories about marriage, relationships, and the accompanying anxieties and disasters were very personal, and I admired your candor. I find your work very inspirational, and I feel that you are participating a necessary and often overlooked dialogue about Palestine by using your comedy as a medium for advocacy and social change. I wanted to talk to you about your show as a contribution to the dialogue between cultural texts in our society.
I enjoyed the ways in which your show emphasized the lack of perspective that you have encountered in various settings throughout your career. Your anecdotes about the women at your shows who were worried about what would happen “if your family found out” and the A-list actress who told you, in tears, that your show was “so much better than ‘Life is Beautiful’” showed how people extrapolate media stereotypes and superimpose them onto new situations and people they encounter. The ostensibly “objective” gaze of the news media often blinds us to the highly subjective cultural texts with which we are presented. When the basic visual codes of these texts don’t “match up,” we often react by assuming that they still do and falling back on the assumptions of the texts. Hence, as you portrayed in your act, the “Muslim woman” becomes the “headscarf-wearing woman” or the “woman in danger of being honor-killed”; the Palestinian American becomes the “terrorist” or simply “foreign”; the woman with cerebral palsy is visually identified as “drunk”; the person with a disability is assumed “not to be able to walk” and so on. I feel that your work is combating and indeed reclaiming power over cultural texts that purport to be able to define the identities of entire populations rather than respecting individual agency.
American culture, especially in recent years, seems to have created a thick cloud of misinformation, violence, and, most importantly, fear around all things Middle Eastern. This cloud is made up of extrapolations of the most disturbing kinds, and somehow, they rapidly become the primary modes we use to relate to everything that falls under the cloud. We carry the texts of newspaper headlines, cable news stories, daytime specials, and New York Times bestsellers with us when we go to work, go to the grocery store, or get on an airplane. Your show is a new text that can remind us to question where our texts are coming from, what values they are rooted in; it reminds us that it is unacceptable to equate a child in a refugee camp with a terrorist on the basis of religion or nationality. It reminds us of the danger the world faces as extrapolations like these find their way into government and military policy.
I wanted to thank you for your work; even your website uses humor to make people more conscious of the effects societal texts have on our daily lives! Good luck in all of your upcoming shows, your film work, and with Maysoon’s Kids. I wholly admire your ability to reach people through comedy and your commitment to use that talent to make a difference in the world.
Sincerely,
Jessica Burrus
Thank you for performing your comedy show, “Little American Whore,” along with some extra standup, at the Scripps College Humanities Institute on March 5. I attended your performance and I had a wonderful time! Your material is hilarious and your delivery is assertive and spunky. Your stories about marriage, relationships, and the accompanying anxieties and disasters were very personal, and I admired your candor. I find your work very inspirational, and I feel that you are participating a necessary and often overlooked dialogue about Palestine by using your comedy as a medium for advocacy and social change. I wanted to talk to you about your show as a contribution to the dialogue between cultural texts in our society.
I enjoyed the ways in which your show emphasized the lack of perspective that you have encountered in various settings throughout your career. Your anecdotes about the women at your shows who were worried about what would happen “if your family found out” and the A-list actress who told you, in tears, that your show was “so much better than ‘Life is Beautiful’” showed how people extrapolate media stereotypes and superimpose them onto new situations and people they encounter. The ostensibly “objective” gaze of the news media often blinds us to the highly subjective cultural texts with which we are presented. When the basic visual codes of these texts don’t “match up,” we often react by assuming that they still do and falling back on the assumptions of the texts. Hence, as you portrayed in your act, the “Muslim woman” becomes the “headscarf-wearing woman” or the “woman in danger of being honor-killed”; the Palestinian American becomes the “terrorist” or simply “foreign”; the woman with cerebral palsy is visually identified as “drunk”; the person with a disability is assumed “not to be able to walk” and so on. I feel that your work is combating and indeed reclaiming power over cultural texts that purport to be able to define the identities of entire populations rather than respecting individual agency.
American culture, especially in recent years, seems to have created a thick cloud of misinformation, violence, and, most importantly, fear around all things Middle Eastern. This cloud is made up of extrapolations of the most disturbing kinds, and somehow, they rapidly become the primary modes we use to relate to everything that falls under the cloud. We carry the texts of newspaper headlines, cable news stories, daytime specials, and New York Times bestsellers with us when we go to work, go to the grocery store, or get on an airplane. Your show is a new text that can remind us to question where our texts are coming from, what values they are rooted in; it reminds us that it is unacceptable to equate a child in a refugee camp with a terrorist on the basis of religion or nationality. It reminds us of the danger the world faces as extrapolations like these find their way into government and military policy.
I wanted to thank you for your work; even your website uses humor to make people more conscious of the effects societal texts have on our daily lives! Good luck in all of your upcoming shows, your film work, and with Maysoon’s Kids. I wholly admire your ability to reach people through comedy and your commitment to use that talent to make a difference in the world.
Sincerely,
Jessica Burrus
Friday, March 6, 2009
Jamaica Kincaid shares her writing at the Athenaeum
Dear Ms. Kincaid,
I recently had the opportunity to attend your “Growing Up in a Small Place” lecture at the Claremont McKenna College Athenaeum. Your presentation was enthralling and I was really impressed with your ability to recompose scenes and memories into beautifully crafted words. I was particularly struck by the way you depicted simple scenes, yet were able to bring forth entire trains of memory beneath the surface of the images, like your descriptions of your childhood home and your family.
Since you have made your career as a writer in the United States, but grew up in the Tropics, it was particularly interesting to hear your descriptions of your homeland as it compares to a Manhattan apartment. The scene of an entire country waking up before dawn in order to work and make a living seems so foreign to someone like me who grew up in a suburban town in the U.S.A. While your descriptions seem so down to earth, they simultaneously are able to say so much about your home and childhood. You explained that in the Tropics Mr. Jarvas woke you up every morning as he took his goats to pasture at half past five. Somehow, you were able to present an idea that seemed so remote to my experience as a simple fact of daily existence. When I heard your words, I felt as if you were relaying all your most intimate thoughts to the world and I noticed that you inserted even the most minor details into your descriptions. This made me feel as if I was listening to a storyteller in the ancient tradition of great storytellers. While the stories were deeply personal, I felt as if I was invited to experience the emotions as a listener and to really get a deeper understanding of the significance of these particular stories. For example, when you spoke about your brother’s death I was amazed at how open you could be with an audience while retelling a memory in which, at the time, you were unable to share your emotions with the surrounding world.
I thought it was particularly apt when you wrote that the only thing Manhattan seems to have in common with where you grew up is its “geographical location.” I really liked how you were able subtly to set such contrasting images between the two places, without relying on the most obvious distinctions. I would have never considered how waking up to the bustle of people getting ready to go to market before sunrise could be such a “romantic” vision, while waking up in Manhattan at the same time would be so lonely. I’ve seen the three businessmen, identically dressed, walking quickly to work, but I’ve never imagined that there could be something more romantic and tender in the early morning. This contrast seemed like a very apt description of an aspect of American culture that lacks any strong form of community.
While your childhood descriptions do not in any way resemble the writing skill of a child, I felt as if entering this magical world of early memory allowed your childhood voice to ring through the text. There seemed to be lightness to the story derived from the innocence of childhood thoughts and misunderstandings. Although the stories were factual accounts of your past, I could feel some wry humor in the writing and, especially since you described yourself as always in trouble as a young girl, this sense of playful, defiant, humor seemed fitting. For example, when you said you fell in love with Lucifer after being forced to copy Paradise Lost, I could really get a feel for your childhood mischievousness and independence.
The blunt way you describe events, with an acceptance for the past, which I feel many people do not hold, made me really able to trust your words. I was impressed with the way your emotional life seemed to be completely and naturally replicated in your writing. Although I know you were only reading passages, I found it curious how your stories didn’t seem to have an end. Even though you stopped speaking and moved on to another passage, I felt as if the story had been somehow cut off in the middle, as if the actual story of your life is never complete and, therefore, cannot really have an ending, as if an ongoing journey through life is more important than having a specific destination. Instead, I was able to get short snippets of your life story from which I could only infer a small, by enticing, amount of your background.
I was struck by how personal all of your writing seemed to be as well. At least with the passages you chose to read, you never seemed to have the need to screen your stories behind a narrator or fictional characters. Instead, I felt as if you were opening a window to your life so that the audience might be able to connect and understand what brought you to where you are today. The story about your brother was especially striking and tragic and I was especially touched when you described how he died without ever letting the world fully know who he was. While that truth is something that is connected to your past, I feel as if it is something that everyone fears and wonders about. I felt this passage particularly was able to provoke the audience to question their own relationship with life and death through the honest lens of your own experience.
I want to thank you again for coming to speak at Claremont McKenna and I look forward to reading more of your books over my spring break. You opened a door to so many possibilities for my own development as a writer.
Sincerely,
Jamie Goldberg
Pomona College '11
I recently had the opportunity to attend your “Growing Up in a Small Place” lecture at the Claremont McKenna College Athenaeum. Your presentation was enthralling and I was really impressed with your ability to recompose scenes and memories into beautifully crafted words. I was particularly struck by the way you depicted simple scenes, yet were able to bring forth entire trains of memory beneath the surface of the images, like your descriptions of your childhood home and your family.
Since you have made your career as a writer in the United States, but grew up in the Tropics, it was particularly interesting to hear your descriptions of your homeland as it compares to a Manhattan apartment. The scene of an entire country waking up before dawn in order to work and make a living seems so foreign to someone like me who grew up in a suburban town in the U.S.A. While your descriptions seem so down to earth, they simultaneously are able to say so much about your home and childhood. You explained that in the Tropics Mr. Jarvas woke you up every morning as he took his goats to pasture at half past five. Somehow, you were able to present an idea that seemed so remote to my experience as a simple fact of daily existence. When I heard your words, I felt as if you were relaying all your most intimate thoughts to the world and I noticed that you inserted even the most minor details into your descriptions. This made me feel as if I was listening to a storyteller in the ancient tradition of great storytellers. While the stories were deeply personal, I felt as if I was invited to experience the emotions as a listener and to really get a deeper understanding of the significance of these particular stories. For example, when you spoke about your brother’s death I was amazed at how open you could be with an audience while retelling a memory in which, at the time, you were unable to share your emotions with the surrounding world.
I thought it was particularly apt when you wrote that the only thing Manhattan seems to have in common with where you grew up is its “geographical location.” I really liked how you were able subtly to set such contrasting images between the two places, without relying on the most obvious distinctions. I would have never considered how waking up to the bustle of people getting ready to go to market before sunrise could be such a “romantic” vision, while waking up in Manhattan at the same time would be so lonely. I’ve seen the three businessmen, identically dressed, walking quickly to work, but I’ve never imagined that there could be something more romantic and tender in the early morning. This contrast seemed like a very apt description of an aspect of American culture that lacks any strong form of community.
While your childhood descriptions do not in any way resemble the writing skill of a child, I felt as if entering this magical world of early memory allowed your childhood voice to ring through the text. There seemed to be lightness to the story derived from the innocence of childhood thoughts and misunderstandings. Although the stories were factual accounts of your past, I could feel some wry humor in the writing and, especially since you described yourself as always in trouble as a young girl, this sense of playful, defiant, humor seemed fitting. For example, when you said you fell in love with Lucifer after being forced to copy Paradise Lost, I could really get a feel for your childhood mischievousness and independence.
The blunt way you describe events, with an acceptance for the past, which I feel many people do not hold, made me really able to trust your words. I was impressed with the way your emotional life seemed to be completely and naturally replicated in your writing. Although I know you were only reading passages, I found it curious how your stories didn’t seem to have an end. Even though you stopped speaking and moved on to another passage, I felt as if the story had been somehow cut off in the middle, as if the actual story of your life is never complete and, therefore, cannot really have an ending, as if an ongoing journey through life is more important than having a specific destination. Instead, I was able to get short snippets of your life story from which I could only infer a small, by enticing, amount of your background.
I was struck by how personal all of your writing seemed to be as well. At least with the passages you chose to read, you never seemed to have the need to screen your stories behind a narrator or fictional characters. Instead, I felt as if you were opening a window to your life so that the audience might be able to connect and understand what brought you to where you are today. The story about your brother was especially striking and tragic and I was especially touched when you described how he died without ever letting the world fully know who he was. While that truth is something that is connected to your past, I feel as if it is something that everyone fears and wonders about. I felt this passage particularly was able to provoke the audience to question their own relationship with life and death through the honest lens of your own experience.
I want to thank you again for coming to speak at Claremont McKenna and I look forward to reading more of your books over my spring break. You opened a door to so many possibilities for my own development as a writer.
Sincerely,
Jamie Goldberg
Pomona College '11
Response to your Presentation at Claremont McKenna College
| From: | Jamie Goldberg (jbg02007@mymail.pomona.edu) |
| Sent: | Fri 3/06/09 1:00 PM |
| To: | jkincaid@fas.harvard.edu |
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
“But What If Someone Sees Me’ Women, Risk and the Aftershocks of Iran’s Sexual Revolution”: A Letter to Professor Mahdavi
Dear Professor Mahdavi,
I had the chance to attend your lecture, “But What If Someone Sees Me’ Women, Risk and the Aftershocks of Iran’s Sexual Revolution”, and I wanted to thank you for sharing your research with the Scripps College community. Your presentation on Iranian women’s rights and the ‘Sexual Revolution’ was truly thought provoking. Although I was aware of the fact that pre-marital sex in Iran was frowned upon, I was oblivious to the fact that it could result in jail time, lashings and severe public humiliation.
As an American woman, I take for granted my ability to buy condoms without the threat of arrest and to obtain accurate sexual health information from my healthcare provider. It was shocking to me and, judging by the reaction of those who were sitting around me, to other members of the audience as well, that some of the young women you interviewed were more concerned about being caught having pre-marital sex with their boyfriends then contracting the HIV virus. It was also interesting to learn that, on average, Iranian girls have their first sexual encounter when they are fourteen years old, but do not receive sexual education until a few weeks before they are married around the age of twenty-four. The fact that some sexually active young women are spending ten or more years of their lives almost completely ignorant of the dangers of unprotected sex, is not only detrimental to their personal health, but also to that of the community as a whole, because it increases the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
I was also moved by your story about the ‘Summer of Cockroaches’ and the picture of the young woman wearing the traditional hijab with bright red lipstick. As you mentioned in your lecture, the fact that these women are “…speaking to the [government] regime through their bodies”, is extremely courageous. As an American child of the 90’s, I grew up in a period where my mother’s generation and previous generations before her had already waged many of the battles for women’s equality in America. Although today’s group of young American women are far from complacent in regards to gender issues, I highly doubt that we are united enough to stage a mass protest against the government via text message organization, as Iranian women did in the summer of 2002.
The ‘Sexual Revolution’ in Iran is a very important issue, and one that seems to be largely ignored by world news syndicates. As a citizen of a country where Iran is mostly talked about in terms of nuclear proliferation, it was refreshing to hear a more humanist perspective. The current ‘Sexual Revolution’ in Iran is an inherently messy subject because it pushes the boundaries of both the Iranian government regime and the state’s interpretation of Sharia Law. Even though it is impossible to determine right from wrong when examining fundamental belief systems, I believe that sexual education and the right to practice safe sex are basic human rights that all women should possess.
Once again, I would like to thank you for sharing your research on the ‘Sexual Revolution’ in Iran and I look forward to reading you book, Passionate Uprisings, over summer break.
Sincerely,
Perris Fiori
I had the chance to attend your lecture, “But What If Someone Sees Me’ Women, Risk and the Aftershocks of Iran’s Sexual Revolution”, and I wanted to thank you for sharing your research with the Scripps College community. Your presentation on Iranian women’s rights and the ‘Sexual Revolution’ was truly thought provoking. Although I was aware of the fact that pre-marital sex in Iran was frowned upon, I was oblivious to the fact that it could result in jail time, lashings and severe public humiliation.
As an American woman, I take for granted my ability to buy condoms without the threat of arrest and to obtain accurate sexual health information from my healthcare provider. It was shocking to me and, judging by the reaction of those who were sitting around me, to other members of the audience as well, that some of the young women you interviewed were more concerned about being caught having pre-marital sex with their boyfriends then contracting the HIV virus. It was also interesting to learn that, on average, Iranian girls have their first sexual encounter when they are fourteen years old, but do not receive sexual education until a few weeks before they are married around the age of twenty-four. The fact that some sexually active young women are spending ten or more years of their lives almost completely ignorant of the dangers of unprotected sex, is not only detrimental to their personal health, but also to that of the community as a whole, because it increases the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
I was also moved by your story about the ‘Summer of Cockroaches’ and the picture of the young woman wearing the traditional hijab with bright red lipstick. As you mentioned in your lecture, the fact that these women are “…speaking to the [government] regime through their bodies”, is extremely courageous. As an American child of the 90’s, I grew up in a period where my mother’s generation and previous generations before her had already waged many of the battles for women’s equality in America. Although today’s group of young American women are far from complacent in regards to gender issues, I highly doubt that we are united enough to stage a mass protest against the government via text message organization, as Iranian women did in the summer of 2002.
The ‘Sexual Revolution’ in Iran is a very important issue, and one that seems to be largely ignored by world news syndicates. As a citizen of a country where Iran is mostly talked about in terms of nuclear proliferation, it was refreshing to hear a more humanist perspective. The current ‘Sexual Revolution’ in Iran is an inherently messy subject because it pushes the boundaries of both the Iranian government regime and the state’s interpretation of Sharia Law. Even though it is impossible to determine right from wrong when examining fundamental belief systems, I believe that sexual education and the right to practice safe sex are basic human rights that all women should possess.
Once again, I would like to thank you for sharing your research on the ‘Sexual Revolution’ in Iran and I look forward to reading you book, Passionate Uprisings, over summer break.
Sincerely,
Perris Fiori
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