Below is a PDF of my writing assignment (for formatting’s sake):

Week 6 – Writing Assignment

In particular, I found the Long Soldier readings rather striking due to the ways in which the pieces maintained a sense of consistency and fluidity while remaining, from a certain perspective, disjointed. Like Chloe H., I felt that the legalistic text felt fragmented and detached, creating this interesting binary effect. One the one hand, Long Soldier presents this apology, but it is presented in conjunction with the “whereas” threads. These threads are less detached and less emotionally fragmented. For me, the effect that Whereas creates is sort of montage-adjacent. The author presents these bits and pieces in such a way that, instead of creating a distinct, albeit fragmented, picture, they suggest an essence or an aura for each side: that of Long Soldier and that of the United States Government. The physical form of the poems, whether shaped as a box or scattered across a page, also increases that sense of fragmentation and montage because at no point do I come to expect a specific visual presentation for any of these works. Although these formal elements do have some bearing on my understanding of the works (for example, the poem presented on pages 94 through 96), they do not dominate nor hinder my process of comprehension. While I’m not getting any kind of crystal clear image per se, I’m certainly sensing something about each of the dominant voices that informs my understanding of each. In a lot of ways, I find this creation of essence even more powerful than distinct imagery due to the room that it provides for interpretation and perceptual effort. It also engages multiple senses for me as opposed to just that of mental sight, something that I don’t often notice when reading poetry.

Dana Hall. Dana Hell.

Did you know they call us the dana call girls–What’s a call girl? The girl ya call when ya lonely, gurl.

Tradition. Extraditions.

Did you see Alicia’s Facebook post–of her suspension holiday in France? Rich white girls can enjoy anything. What was it for? I dunno, to show off and get likes right. I mean the suspension? Oh she brought a guy into the dorms.

Traditions play an important role in life at Dana Hall School, serving not only as symbols of the past, but also staples in the present.

Have you heard someone was trafficked into prostitution right behind Wheeler, like in the 80s? That’s insane. Someone was raped on the stairs in Wheeler too, like around that time. Yeah that one right by the proctor’s room. Everyone could hear it and nobody did anything.

Harbor cruise. Harbor Bruise.

Are they checking dress-code for Harbor Cruise? Yeah, before we get on the bus. It’s so unfair my arms are long. Anything summery is “shorter than my longest finger”.

I hear they’re lenient on seniors tho. we’ve earned it. Umm but Zoe’s skirt flew up when she was doing the ring tap.

Why do we have dress codes anyways? Like it’s all girls, who are we here to offend? Some of the male faculty say they are uncomfortable. Uncomfortable.

Have you seen Mr. Cook running in his shorts? Ewww. Men shouldn’t wear shorts that short.

Senior-Sophomore. See who can spend more.

Kat spent 200 dollars on candies. WTF. Isn’t there a limit to how much you can spend? That’s just for the poster candies. You can stuff as much candy into the locker as you want.

Mr. Eric Goodson:

“You guys have no idea what senior sophomore means–

when there was 10-12th grade only the sopho-mores are the youngest.

The girls are away from home for

the first time they see older,

smart, talented, beautiful, athletic,

seniors they write letter of affection

and seniors write back if they reciprocate

feeling on one weekend they sneak into the room of the younger girl and

cover it in candies.”

Revels. Rebels

I’m stealing as many crystal centerpieces as possible.

Midwinter, or S.P.R.E.A.D.  

Meredith’s mother, Ms. Julian: “What? You don’t even know how to kneel? During my time, they have the girls kneel on the floor like this if they recited the song wrong. I had to kneel like this all the way to lunch.”

shhhhhhhhhh

shhhhhhhhhhhh

shhhhhhhhh

The lacrosse team seniors took all the juniors on a car and drove them around campus last night. And nobody stopped them? Well yeah cuz they’re white day students. Didn’t they suspend the Korean girls? What did they do again? They told juniors to stand outside Whiteway until they can recite all the songs.

I’m taking this one to the grave.

Dancing in the moonlight

Chloe is watching.

Ms. Hanig:”The school has trouble finding teachers to drive the students from Shipley to the tunnel because everyone is afraid they’re going to end up in court one day and testify they were part of this.”

like a bridge over troubled water

silver sisters

Snitches got snitches

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh           Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh            Shhhhhhhhhhhh

Shhhhhhhhhh close your eyes and put your hand on the shoulders in front of you. Shhhhhh hold your breath as we scream into your ear in an dark endless tunnel. Shhhh catch your name in a fishbowl of names. Shh recite the poem or sit here

Stand up. Close your eyes. Don’t trip.

Shhhhhhhhhh walk over this table. Shhhhhh someone will hug you and crown you with a garland of rose. Shh it’s impolite to ask questions at the dinner table. Now we sing and recite the poem from many years ago. You’d think it’s beautiful.

Shhhh you think this is over? Shhhhhh now pretend to watch this movie while we stare at you Shhh walk to Bardwell following my dark dress and clinky heel. Be faced with your “friend” who pretends to not know you and recite! recite that poem written many years ago and have your eyes be blindfold.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Open your eyes, accept your rose and then close it again.

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Open your eyes and see your senior kneeling in front of you with a box and in it your class ring glitter like gold because it is 200 dollars of gold.

She put the ring on your fingers and embrace you and you sit next to each other  watch a play she falls asleep on your shoulders

Now walk to the gym together sing on the way lie next to each other but not too close

Welcome to the sisterhood.

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Can’t I opt-out of this? Nah, you can’t just do anything after getting into college.

shhhhhhhhh it’s your time to shhhhhhhhhh

You might not want it but your Junior has been waiting for it! I know Sophia. She’s too smart for this. Okay let’s be real we gotta do it cuz we went through it too.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

As a senior, you’re allowed to use the archives now. Mr. Goodson can guide you through it.

Mr. Eric Goodson:

“SPREAD stands for Seniors Present

Rings, Entertainment, And Dinner.

When the younger girl grow no longer too young

In the middle of the winter

before spring comes and one must graduate and share a ring

with a man, the seniors abduct the younger girl

off-campus with bottles of alcohol and

kneel with a ring and a rose

while the singles

will put on a not so lady-like show and cook

for the first time in their lifetime:

that’s why your dinner had to be pasta and tomato sauce.”

All guests must be hosted by a current student and they are expected to observe all Dana Hall rules, including rules prohibiting sexual activity of any kind on campus. We acknowledge that

same gender relationships that go beyond friendship exist,

and we place a certain degree of trust in our students. Any failure to respect these guidelines may result in disciplinary action.

https://www.danahall.org/student-life/traditions

Notes:

In all earnest, I chose this topic because I am short on time. Allison’s post inspired me. Even though much of my interest in social justice is shaped by high school, there’s an insistence on not examining, especially not writing about it. I also felt comfortable writing on this tradition because I’ve done research during high school, and feel more comfortable writing about something I lived through myself.

My biggest frustration is to make this piece coherent rather than a jumbled string of pieces. There are two things I am trying to achieve at the same time, namely recounting my experience and reinterpreting the language of official school website, as well as the student handbook. Now I realize perhaps I do want to write a traditional exposè that a friend of mine once planned to draft and send to her “contacts at the NYTimes”, to throw a grenade of vengeance belatedly detonated.

In Solmaz Sharif and Layli Long Soldier’s poetry, I was struck by the juxtaposition of legalistic, detached text with text that was emotional and personal. This happened not just in the use of “whereas” as a rhetorical device, but also in the content of the stanzas. For example, on page 72, Layli Long Soldier both discusses a text that reads, “the establishment of permanent European settlements” and also writes, “I wished most to kick the legs of that man’s chair.” The “whereas” structure allowed Layli Long Soldier, and also Solmaz Sharif to quickly jump around topics without having the piece feel entirely fragmented, but still the right amount of disjointed. In part II of Sharif’s poetry, when he has definitions on the left side of the page and interpretations on the right, the juxtaposition set up is literally just a divide down the middle of the page. I think these juxtapositions highlight the contrast between the text drawn from official documents, and the text that comes from the poets, thereby emphasizing their differences. This also made me focused on the individual words of the official government documents. I had trouble putting myself in the minds of a reader of the official documents; I would also like to know what the reaction to these poems would be from someone who both appreciates the poetry, but also deals with these types of documents on a regular basis.

Layli Long Soldier’s “Whereas” carefully examines language and what it could do. The book even starts with the sentence “No word has any special hierarchy over any other” by Arthur Sze. Throughout the book, Long Soldier explores how words, sentence structures or even commas could convey meaning. As a person writing in a second language right now, I could relate to being “language poor” and losing meaning in translation. Replacing words of one language to words of another language often takes away the poetic beauty of what I meant to write, or even worse, makes what I am trying to say incomprehensible. Her meticulous analysis of the meaning, sound, and nuance of words reminded me of Italo Calvino’s “Exactitude”- selection of precise words matter in expressing the exact meaning.

This examination at the first part of the book lays the groundwork for Long Soldier’s response to “the Apology’s delivery… language, crafting, and arrangement.” Instead of focusing solely on the content of the apology, Long Soldier disintegrates the language of it. With her “Whereas” poems, Long Soldier explores the double meaning of the word “whereas” by using the legal term to document her inner life, and converses directly with the apology. Moreover, the way she dwells on the usage of certain words or phrases, such as “opened a new chapter” or “both” exposes how certain word choices could shadow the violence of a historical fact.

Throughout the text, Long Soldier also comments on the naivety of people who are unaware of the Dakota 38, or the existence of the apology. Her note on the Fourteen-Year-Old Girl’s comment on the online article, and her explanation of the Dakota 38 in “38” presupposes that the audience, or the listener, is completely ignorant about this issue. It is disturbing how this is probably true- I did not know about the Dakota 38 prior to reading this text as well. “Whereas” exposes that past occurrences continue to influence the present, and that ignorance could contribute to the violence as well.

The reading from this week that most spoke to me was Walt Whitman’s “Starting From Paumanok.” The title itself is a fairly radical statement – it even would be one today for a white poet – commanding the reader to start in our exploration of America from a Native American viewpoint, the name of Whitman’s home of Long Island in the Native language of Renneiu. The most striking part of the poem to me is his use of Native location names in sections 1, 3, 14, and 16 in order to show the version of America he attempts to convey. In doing so, he reminds the reader of the roots of everywhere he goes; this defamiliarizing of common words and names is a way of writing with purpose that I believe is extremely effective in order to encourage social change, especially in poetry.

    This use of commonly recognized words to invoke a different meaning is also present in Whereas by Layli Long Soldier. The use of the phrase “if they are hungry, let them eat grass” by Andrew Myrick, conveyed by the poet on page 53, invokes the story of Marie Antoinette and causes a sense of the evil, uncaring overlord

Week 6 Writing and Reading

Note: my piece is posted as a pdf in order to conserve formatting, especially strikethrough. This piece is entitled “Code of Conduct.”

Layli Long Solider’s Whereas is probably my favorite text that I’ve read for this course so far. Her personal stories of being from Lakota tribe ancestry were made so much more vivid, complex, and were completely turned around by her addition and elimination of certain words. The addition of the single word “whereas,” to which she derives the title of the entire book from, has this effect. Each whereas statement seems to be a response to the apology to Native Americans that was signed in 2009. In the introduction to her whereas statements, Long Solider writes, “I am a citizen of the United States and an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, meaning I am a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation–and in this citizenship, I must work, I must eat, I must art, I must mother, I must friend, I must listen, I must observe, constantly I must live” (Long Soldier, 57). While the apology issued by the government seems to act as a way to clear their conscience and demonstrate a pro-Native American stance, Long Solider’s whereas statements interject this, exposing the many difficulties she faced and still faces as a Native American woman. To me, this really orchestrated the power one word can have when transmitting language.

Additionally, I found the way she structured and formatted her poetry was very fascinating. For example, in poem 3 of “Resolutions,” she includes the official text in the forefront of the poem, while the more specific, more honest text is presented in footnotes. Therefore, the specific text is hidden and less regarded as the most important, but is still present and absolutely crucial. I found her formatting particularly interesting in poem 7 of this same chapter in which she discusses boundaries. She places “boundaries, their boundaries, etc.” (Long Soldier, 97) in a box, providing a literal visual aid of physical boundaries juxtaposed with the non-physical ones.

I also used different editing styles in my piece, and the blog didn’t appreciate my use of white text, so I have the pdf of the assignment, with process notes, attached below:

patriot act

“so-called ‘trigger warning:’” this piece discusses sexual violence

Dear Class of 2020 Student: Welcome and congratulations on your acceptance to the College at the University of Chicago. Earning a place in our community of scholars is no small achievement and we are delighted that you selected Chicago to continue your intellectual journey. Once here you will discover that one of the University of Chicago’s defining characteristics is our commitment to freedom of inquiry and expression.

It is a fine spring day, and with an utter lack of self-consciousness, I take a seat in class. The professor prods the projector as he mumbles about looking at a piece outside the assigned reading by feminist philosopher Sandra Bartky. Instantly I catch my friend’s eager eyes dart my way, these were the conversations we came to the University of Chicago to be a part of.

Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called “trigger warnings”

The words on the screen flicker into view: “It is a fine spring day, and with an utter lack of self-consciousness, I am bouncing down the street. Suddenly, I hear men’s voices. Catcalls and whistles fill the air. These noises are clearly sexual in intent and the-” I hear a man’s voice yell from the hall. Wait, did I? Focus.

You will find that we expect members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion, and even disagreement. At times this may challenge you and even cause discomfort.

You have so much you want to share about this I remind myself. F.O.C.U.S. Sandra Bartky’s work On Psychological Oppression. I continue reading the text on the screen “The body which only a moment before I inhabited with such ease now floods my consciousness. I have been made into an object—” I feel stiff. My vision begins to darken around the edges, closing in.  Then the professor’s voice: “Do you remember any personal experiences with harassment that could inform Bartky’s view?” closing in. Do you remember any personal experiences – closing in. Do you remember – closed.

Fostering the free exchange of ideas reinforces a related University priority—building a campus that welcomes people of all backgrounds. Diversity of opinion and background is a fundamental strength of our community. The members of our community must have the freedom to espouse and explore a wide range of ideas.

I remember all of it. The feeling of calloused hands along my thigh in that subway car, the smell of warm breath drenched in alcohol and threats licking the back of my neck, the sight of cracks spreading from a fist on the window of the corner store I ran to, the sound of – students gathering their things and filing out. 80 minutes – gone?

Wait. If I had known what was coming my way, I could have been prepared.

Wait! I had so much to say, but I was rendered silent!

Wait, I have been made into an object, Sandra Bartky.

Wait…so-called “academic freedom,” University of Chicago.

Again, welcome to the University of Chicago.

Process Notes:

In this writing assignment I utilized the welcome letter sent out to the class of 2020 at our university. I remember this being a particularly impactful message at the time and as I am about to post my work I see that it still is given that Helena in fact chose the same document to hack into. I selected certain passages from the letter in my assignment that inform a narrative of a student experiencing an inability to participate in the university’s proposed “freedom to espouse and explore a wide range of ideas” due to the absence of a trigger warning, which this letter deems to be limiting to academic freedom. I aimed to show how an experience such as this, which is largely based on a personal experience of my own, can display how this letter claiming to support the freedom for all to share their voices may in fact be doing the opposite and silencing some with its demands. In my opinion, a trigger warning is not a limit on freedom it is merely representative of taking a moment to make sure freedom of expression is possible for all. I also utilized a work from my gender philosophy class throughout this piece to show how when important academic conversations are finally presented about oppression for instance, if they are not addressed in the appropriate way then they can further the same oppression being discussed by silencing those directly affected. Lastly, having been inspired by Layli Long Soldier’s Whereas, I wanted to conclude the piece by reutilizing the word “so-called,” which was used in the letter to question trigger warnings, by turning it on its head and questioning the “academic freedom” this letter claims to support.