Today’s Group Assignment for English II – What is LOVE?

From my experience, poetry in general can be a little intimidating to non-English majors/self-described non-writers. It ranges from having archaic and overly developed vocabulary that requires a dictionary to understand every line to deeply metaphoric description and symbolism that “makes no sense” without doing a mini-history lesson.

So what do you do? You address one of its most popular topics of the ages – LOVE! It has toppled empires, caused wars, heightened family feuds, severed  relationships and marriages, enraged gods, empowered  lonely starlets and their fans to want more from life, and changed the social class of fair maidens everywhere.

• Why would people go through so much destruction, pain, and frustration in their pursuit of LOVE?
•  What is the reward? What do people get in return?
•  Is there an age requirement for being in love? Are adults the ONLY people who can REALLY fall in love? Why?
• What other emotions do you experience when you are in love?

We are going to explore that today with today’s group assignment.

Take a look below at the collage I created on this post.  Notice the pictures, listen to the music lyrics playing and read the quotations. Then, in a group of three, you will brainstorm on the definition of love in your journal/separate sheet of paper.  EVERYONE needs to have his/her own completed assignment (10 ideas at least) to get full credit for classwork today.

You have 20 minutes to complete this assignment.  I will need some brave volunteers to share what your group came up with using the Promethean Board. Be prepared!

A New Adventure: Reflecting on Destiny and Stanley Ann Dunham

It’s a bright and sunny Sunday morning – my favorite time of day.

Despite it being Easter Sunday (which is sacred in itself for spiritual rebirth and family fellowship), this time of day offers my favorite reading material of the week – the Sunday Edition. Today, I was lucky enough to be given today’s New York Times paper with an interesting magazine cover on top of the piling. The cover was a vintage picture of a young white mother with black shorts with her adorable son dressed up as a pirate in brown sandals for Halloween with the title “Why She Went: When Barry Obama was 6 years old, his mother moved him to Indonesia. It was a decision that would define his life and hers.” That adorable pirate and that Barry Obama are one in the same – he would later become our President Barack Obama.

His life story is the stuff of folklore almost – absent father, caring and supportive grandparents and mother raising him, having to figure out where he belongs as a teenager and young adult, finding his footing to go to Columbia for undergrad, law school, working as a community organizer only to ascend even higher and higher as a senator and finally, the President of the United States. If you haven’t read his memoir, it is definitely a requirement for any educated person. But little is known about his mother, the woman who fell in love with and married a charismatic and articulate Kenyan from the University of Hawaii, producing a baby boy that would be “king” so to speak.

After the divorce, she met and married a grad student named Lolo Soetoro from the Indonesian island of Java. She later moved to Indonesia with her young son in tow to begin her international adventure of raising children, working, and travelling the world. It’s kind of incredible to have a mother like that.

All the while, she was instilling in her six-year-old son the manners, morals, and widened, world perspective that would be his signature persona as an adult. The new Mrs. Soetoro had her son reading from workbooks, encouraging him to be “a combination of Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, and Harry Belafonte.” High standards for sure but somehow I think she succeeded in her task.

What internal strength it must have taken to move away from everyone and everything you know to submerge yourself in a completely new culture and country to marry the man you love. Bravery and courage almost seem too simple to use in describing such a feat. It was something steely and powerful inside of this “mild-mannered” Kansas native – almost like Clark Kent with the heart and soul of Superman.

I reflect on this chapter of her life with relief, relief to know that my new adventure has been travelled by one of the most influential people in American history. Okay, this is just MY OPINION but the mother of President Barack Obama was the person that shaped him to be the man, leader, father, husband, brother, and human being that we all have the privilege to know and respect. Therefore, she is a part of American history, one of the many stories from the American Dream.

I’m not going to say that I am not afraid of this new adventure that I am on in a week but I will say that I am more calm and even resolute to this new chapter. I think I have that travelling spirit of Stanley Ann Dunham, ready to meet my destiny no matter where it takes me. I pray that God will lead my heart to that destination and that I will trust in His plan for me.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Top 30 Things You Should Know About This Blogger

So I realized something about this amazing blog and equally extraordinary audience – if you are new to my blog, you probably don’t a great deal about me.  And I further realized that my life has been a testimony to chapters of extraordinarily interesting and fascinating life experiences (yes, I just got a little wordy but it’s for a point).  Here is an ironic list  numbering 30 items  that offer some more insight into who I am as a person, more than just an educator.

#30:I love Christmas music during the holidays!
#29:I love Eggnog! No one in my fam likes it but I get it every year! Then I know it’s Xmas!
#28:I have a special reverence for The Nutcracker – I was a toy soldier and rat (not in the same production) in my dance school’s production when I was a kid. Yes, I was a ballet dancer and I still miss it!

#27: When I got into DC, a strange feeling comes over. I feel this sense of pride and awe being in the region where major decisions in our country are made. And I am THAT CLOSE to meeting the Obamas! Hey, it could happen!

#26: I am so proud of my younger brother! He is my rock (even if he doesn’t know it and gets on my nerves sometimes)!

#25: I hate the smell of chitterlings! When I was younger, my parents would love to cook it on the stove and the entire house had its disgusting smell. To this day, I will never eat a bite of it!

#24: I learned how to type so fast from the Mavis Beacon computer program. When I graduated from middle school, my dad put me on this schedule to work on the program every day, almost all summer. To this day, I rarely have to look down at the keys (really just for the numbers because I don’t use them as much as letters).

#23: I used to be really jealous of my brother when we were little. When he was a toddler and my mom was filming him with the video camera, when she wasn’t looking, I would knock him down softly. LOL! But eventually, I got over it.

#22: In middle school, I used to like this boy but he wouldn’t be honest if he liked me or some other girl. He called me up at home and I got so tired of his crap that I played the chorus in Janet Jackson’s song “If” and hung up the phone. Look it up, kiddies. Boy, did I have some guts as a kid!

#21: My cousin let me ride with him on his motorcycle when I was a teenager. We went REALLY fast! It was so much fun but my mom was so afraid for me. I couldn’t stop laughing!

#20: My mother has an obsession for all things Ralph Lauren, especially when she was pregnant with me. She named me after her favorite designer and perfume.

#19: I am the oldest sibling in my immediate family. My younger brother is my new roommate.

#18: Initially, I attended college in hopes of being a doctor. I took an internship in HS with an orthopedic surgeon and fell in love with the practice. But once I started taking the required math and science courses (and started failing those classes even with all help in the world), I quickly switched to English.

#17: I worked in the Human Resources Department in the University Library when I was a sophomore at UF. I learned a great deal about the inner workings of payroll (like library staff gets really agitated when their checks aren’t correct).

#16: No, I have never been married (and I have no kids) but I would like to be someday.

#15: For a school trip in HS, I went to Europe. The class and I went to Italy (Venice and Verona), Germany and Switzerland. Talk about a great Spring Break!

#14: I am a chronic bibliophile. Currently, I’m reading Think Like A Man, Act Like A Lady by Steve Harvey and I just got uploaded Grimm’s Fairy Tales (you got to know the classics, right?),  a lot of Oscar Wilde, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, and W.E.B. DuBois on my E-reader application on my laptop!

#13: I love Spoken Word Poetry. I have two locations in Miami that I used to when work wasn’t too hectic. I have yet to find a new place in the DMV area.  Any suggestions?

#12: If I had to choose a TV character that was the most like me, I would say either Brenda Lee Johnson from TNT’s The Closer or Kate Reed from USA’s Fairly Legal. Their mix of strength and vulnerability is something I can DEFINITELY identify with.

#11: I met Hill Harper at Yale where he held a luncheon for young people for his book Letters to a Young Brother. He is incredibly nice and well-spoken. My HS students were trying to hook me up with him. How embarrassing (but he did call me “exquisite”)! Not bad for a HS teacher!

#10: I am a closet romantic. I hate to say it but it’s true. I love listening to my fave love songs (mostly from MJJ) to go to sleep to.

#9: I buy at least two new fashion/celebrity gossip magazines every other Friday. I am also a loyal follower of The Young, Black, and Fabulous celebrity blog since 2003. A lady has to stay current on ALL kinds of news!

#8: I secretly want to be a DJ. I actually tried it out at a friend’s party and I was terrible (but I loved every minute of it!). I have this secret talent of creating the most amazing mixed tapes/playlists for every mood. My iPod and Blackberry are full of them.

#7: My parents raised my brother and me to appreciate the rich history of African-American music and film. We listened to all the Motown greats (The Temptations, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Jackson 5/The Jacksons), Sam Cooke, James Brown, 70′s and 80′s Soul/R&B singers (Earth, Wind, and Fire, The Emotions, The Pointer Sisters, Phyllis Hyman, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson, The Commodores, Lionel Ritchie, Donny Hathaway), and 90′s R&B (Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Janet Jackson, Anita Baker, Vanessa Williams, Tevin Campbell, Boyz II Men, Usher, TLC, En Vogue).  I tend to gravitate to those greats and compare everyone else on the music scene to them – sorry, new artists!

#6: I was not popular in HS. I was/still am really tall (almost as tall as the teacher), a tomboy (I played volleyball and preferred jeans and Chapstick to dresses and lipstick to wear to class), was a novice writer (I wrote a vampire novel for fun and it became a Freshman sensation) and liked to listening to SKA and rock music (long live No Doubt, Prince, and Lenny Kravitz!).

#5: After not having an “exit strategy” for graduating college, my parents moved me to CT in hopes that I would go to grad school at Yale. Yale didn’t work out (I worked full-time in a bookstore and in retail for a year instead) but Columbia eventually did. Not bad for a runner-up.

#4: I lived in NYC for two years. While at Columbia, I stayed in Harlem with my great uncle. It was wonderful and I miss it terribly.

#3: I saw the musical The Color Purple two times: once on my own dime in NYC and once when my parents came to NYC. As far as the rest of my family goes, I have become an adopted New Yorker.

#2: As a result of #4, I am a huge fan of  Sex and the City. Yes, I have seen the entire set of the series and yes, I own the movie (and I have seen it at least three times so far).  Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with its sequel – Carrie, you married the love of your life! Work stuff out TOGETHER! You don’t need to go OUTSIDE your marriage to feel complete in your marriage! I’m just sayin’.

#1: I have fallen love in with New Orleans a year ago at a conference and hopefully, I will be able to spend my summer there for some volunteer work that can beef up my resume.

DuBois’ “Double Consciousness” – Black History Month and Beyond

After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, — a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world.  It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of  a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.

- W.E.B. DuBois in “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” from The Souls of Black Folk 

When I was a student in college, I remember taking a class on the Harlem Renaissance where I read from an anthology of works from Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and many others.  One of the writers that I remember the most was W.E.B. DuBois.  My professor classified him as the first black academician in the United States at that time, gaining the first Ph.D. by an African-American from Harvard University.  Something struck in me about his history and ideology. 

As a natural intellectual, DuBois challenged young people to raise above their circumstance to achieve greatness.  While the debate between Booker T. Washington and himself was challenging (because both sides are very valuable points), I remember feeling empowered to answer that call.  I knew I wanted to be more than my skin color, age,  and gender.  Whatever my career would be, I wanted to be the best – not the best BLACK FEMALE professional, but the BEST professional!

Sometimes in class, I have to catch myself when selecting supplementary materials for my class.  I tend to be unconsciously drawn to traditional black film (you probably can tell from my new pictures on my blog’s homepage) and literature.  But to be the BEST, I need to diversify (and ultimately challenge) my selections, reflecting the multicultural fabric that is the American experience.  In other words, there are many other people besides white and black, right?

However, the concept of assimilation into a dominant culture is not new; it is an experience that is shared by people of many different genders, sexual orientations, cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities.  So how can I as an instructor tap into this issue without being superficial in my exploration through literature? Embrace the diversity!

Literature by nature is based on personal experience and who would say that this experience is uniform?!  No way! Just as we all have different connotations what love is, we have equally varied interpretations of literature and storytelling. 

So I will embrace “double consciousness” and expand it to reach every student in each of my classes.  Let’s see how this works!

What I Have Learned From Living With My Brother as an Adult: The Male Species in a Controlled Environment

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I have the luxury of being able to see the multiple sides of this contentious holiday (or Hell on Earth depending on who you ask).  While the holiday seems to be catered to the marrieds and committed relationship daters, there is a large community of singles who unfortunately get excluded from “the cool kids’ table”.

So I thought instead of sympathizing with the singles or siding with the committed, I have decided to offer an anthropological analysis on the male species using my new roommate as the controlled specimen.

As a disclaimer, this analysis is only for entertainment purposes only.  I am not a male basher.  I don’t hate men.  I’m not gay (not that there is anything wrong with that, REALLY!). I am not an official anthropologist.  I am merely the sister of a young man whose habits may offer interesting insights into the male species.  Eat your heart out, Steve Harvey! (Just kidding!)

1 – A man’s version of “clean” is A LOT different from a woman’s (or neat freak’s) version of “clean”

2 – Scolding/nagging a guy only turns you into his mom, never an equal

3 – Calling his yelling “whining” is NEVER a good thing

4 – When he gets home from work, give him a few minutes (or more) to decompress, take a shower, and chill out NO MATTER WHAT

5 – Assigning weekly “chores” makes the apartment much cleaner and more sane

6 – Making suggestions for reading material should stop at suggestion. If he decides to take it, great!  If not, no harm, no foul.

7 – Watching his sports games is a great way to bond (even if you have no idea what’s going on)

8 – Letting him talk about his favorite sports team/star can offer new insight to what personal qualities he values in a friend (or girlfriend)

9 – NEVER make fun of ANYTHING about The Sopranos

10 – Buying flowers for HIM are just as nice as buying flowers for yourself

 

“Seeking Happily Ever After”: Are We Settling for an Ideal or Redefining a Fairy Tale?

As children, we all have been read the magical and imaginative fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson and have memorized the romantic plot of every heart-warming Disney cartoon movie from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and FINALLY (for the people of color) The Princess and the Frog.

 The soft part of our childhood remains us how we all want to that “Happily Ever After.”  But what does that really look like?  Riding off into the sunset with Prince Charming or the Princess in a golden carriage?  Getting married? Finding “The One”? Where? How?

Check out a trailer for a new documentary addressing this same issue.  It is called “Seeking Happily Ever After.”  Let me know what you think!

http://seekinghappilyeverafter.com/trailer.html

Excerpt from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”

“It is required of every man,” the Ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world–oh, woe is me!–and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!”

Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain and wrung its shadowy hands.

“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?”

 ”I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?” Scrooge trembled more and more.

“Or would you know,” pursued the Ghost, “the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!”

Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty or sixty fathoms of iron cable: but he could see nothing.

“Jacob,” he said, imploringly. “Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!”

“I have none to give,” the Ghost replied. “It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more is all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house–mark me!–in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!” It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became thoughtful, to put his hands in his breeches pockets. Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he did so now, but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his knees.

“You must have been very slow about it, Jacob,” Scrooge observed, in a business-like manner, though with humility and deference. “Slow!” the Ghost repeated. “Seven years dead,” mused Scrooge. “And travelling all the time!” “The whole time,” said the Ghost. “No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse.” “You travel fast?” said Scrooge. “On the wings of the wind,” replied the Ghost. “You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years,” said Scrooge.

The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of the night, that the Ward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance.

 ”Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed,” cried the phantom, “not to know, that ages of incessant labour by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!”

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. “Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Rainy Day and Wednesdays

Well, I just woke up. Did you know that in the ATL, the sun doesn’t come out until 8AM? It’s really weird.  My doctor cousin is so used to it.  She leaves her condo at 7AM and gets home at 7PM (in constant darkness).  I hope she gets a lot of vacation time because I don’t think I could maintain that lifestyle all the time.  Actually, I know I wouldn’t.  That’s why I’m on vacation right now!

So I got up late yesterday because of this strange morning phenomenon (and I didn’t mind it at all).  I did 30 minutes of cardio on my cousin’s elliptical machine (my personal trainer was so proud of me), watched a rerun of Gilmore Girls (I love that show so much!) and got ready to go exploring.

Here in Atlanta, there is a subway system called the MARTA that everyone takes to get around. It’s wonderful! So I walked along Peachtree to the North Ave Station to go to the CNN Center. 

Aside from being filmed in NYC with Wolf Blitzer, CNN is also located in Atlanta. It was cool! The center is like a huge atrium with a food court and all of the departments of CNN you can think of.  Check out the pictures!

Because I started my day late, I couldn’t get tickets for the studio tour (which was okay because I was only exploring).  I will go get a ticket today. 

After browsing some books at the Waldenbooks store (that is strangely closing) and looked around, I was ready to head back (at least get back to Peachtree). 

As I promised my dad, I started reading Steve Harvey’s Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man and I’m actually liking it.  He writes straightforwardly and with great humor. 

But I had a thought (sorry I think too much) . . . Even if I absorb all of his teachings and advice about men like understanding Man’s DNA, will that guarantee that the seas will part, the heavens will open and the perfect man (or a grouping of pretty good men) will appear to date??  I’m just saying!  My demographic outnumbers African-American men everywhere so is it really fair to idealize my chances when statistics don’t lie?  What do you think?

I’ll keep reading . . . stay tuned!

P.S. Don’t be shy! Leave me a comment!

Pursuits of Academia: ‘New’ and ‘Fresh’

When I asked my students what their first impressions were of me as a college professor, I was met with a couple interesting reactions.  At first, most students were surprised to see how young I was and assumed that my thinking may also “new” and “fresh.”  Secondly, the female students seemed to be impressed with my wardrobe, commenting that they were surprised to have a “fashionable” professor “in high heels” instead of being an older, “fifty-ish” professor “wearing a suit and tie” or dressed down. 

I think in some way, my appearance is an extension of my pedagogy because I love the class material to be fresh and relevant to me and my students.  One way I accomplished that was including a supplementary text from Peggy McIntosh that fit nicely with the issues of difference and conformity found in Richard Rodriguez’s essay “The Achievement of Desire.”  I also included current news articles from the campus newspaper to that supplementary material to offer a pragmatic application of McIntosh, Rodriguez and even Freire readings. 

I tend to think outside the box a little more readily than most professors is because of my age and experience in academia.  I see such academicians as Dr. Cornell West, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, President Barack H. Obama, and Tavis Smiley as my intellectual role models and I aspire to create work that straddles the line between academia and the real world because I exist in both worlds. 

 These figures seem to balance both arenas very easily without losing their integrity or poise and I challenge myself to follow their examples. Dr. Cornell West, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, and President Obama are academicians who are professors in their discipline at their perspective universities but are often asked to comment and participate in current events panels concerning issues of race, gender, vernacular, social and economic justice, music and the arts.  By being a part of such discussions as reader or viewer of such conversations, I feel that they create a window of their discipline to the general public to observe.  They can show how their work is relevant to society at large through their commentary.  I am also impressed by Dr. Dyson’s ability to “switch” between the vernacular of academia and that of the hip hop culture as eloquently as Shakespeare without misunderstandings in meaning. 

Who are your role models? Why do you admire them? How does your life pattern this admiration?