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Showing posts from September, 2017

Exploring Nayyirah Waheed

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I came across Nayyirah Waheed perhaps a year ago while scrolling through the explore page on Instagram. Her work immediately spoke to me. Something about her short poignant poems and how she is able to capture the essence of anything in but a few lines captured my soul and I've been intrigued ever since. The first poem I am looking at today is perhaps one of my favorite works. Ever. The poem speaks of the natural fear anxiety womxn experience when encountering men because of the violences practiced upon our bodies. When that "feminine presence" is in his eyes it is perhaps an indication that that he has unlearned (or is in the process of unlearning) toxic masculinity. It is also a relief (as the next few lines indicate) because it means that the womxn does not have to perform undue emotional and intellectual labor to make him understand but a fraction of her experience. For Waheed of course this sexism practiced upon her body is often racialized as well and the fear ...

Getting creative with "Resurrection"

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Koleka Putuma, whose poems I have been engaging with over the last series of posts, came to visit our class today and facilitated a lesson where we had to creatively engage with one of her poems. Our group chose her poem "Resurrection", especially the lines "There is enough blood lost for us to die  There is enough blood left for us to live"  Here are some of the responses we had: This photo features my reflection in the glass of a framed photo of a floating person clothed in red and white flowing material. The red reminded me of the blood spoken of in the poem and the water the person is floating in reminded me of the water used to wash this blood off of the victims body. In this photo the lines from the poem is written on a torn piece of paper that has soap and water splashed on it. Once again the photo refers to the "washing" of (off) the blood that Putuma refers to. This video clip perhaps represents the two lines most....