English

Throughout this semester, so many memorable things happened that stood out to me about the topics of dehumanization, critical reflection on personal narratives, the importance of multidimensional understandings about social issues. However, I want to reflect on our experience of final evaluation in the last lesson and talk about a major concern that has been becoming more and more obvious for me.

Abby, Han, Julia, and I put together our posters and arranged them on easels. Our opening reception was a great opportunity to engage with our audience. I enjoyed discussing our weekly visits to RCF with a friend from my Arabic class. We shared some of our experiences and I talked about my project and what I learned. I also enjoyed a conversation with a professor and was inspired to make some changes to the website. It was exciting to see everyone’s projects, to discuss mine and show the website, to talk with others in the 360, including the professors. The food situation was great—Meera and Tong helped me pick it up from Wyndam (Tong took care of ordering and arranging it). I think the exhibit reached a large audience and people enjoyed and learned from it.

Visual representation of my work:

http://artsofresistance.wix.com/criminals#!the-good-in-others/jbcwo

During one of those whatthefuckamidoing (???) moments, I emailed Jody asking how much I should put on the website, what is the quantity of content I should have? She answered:

For my final silence, I decided to have a self determined quiet time. I explained that during our finals weeks we often prioritize the needs of others over our own and d not get to value alone time, so I encouraged people to pass the fifteen minutes however they would most like. This meant they could leave the room, leave the building, read, write, use their laptops, meditate, whatever. I did not include a reflection at the end because I think there is too much reporting that happens in the last few weeks of school. Essentially I planned a private free time.

“My Name is Mikael”:

Intersectional Truth Expressed Through Silence in Tomboy

Introduction

“Mikael is the new kid in town. Mikael is making friends. Mikael has a secret.”

I don't know what you can do with this, but I was thinking it and I want to share:

Have you ever been to a religious conference? When I went to the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial, it was packed with panels and plenaries and sessions. But it was also--in true Jewish fashion--filled with noshing and shmoozing and praying. It was overwhelming, but it was supposed to be complemented with reflection. I think those kinds of reflective conferences are out there and they work. Your colleagues are wrong. Redesign the conference.

Why are the conferences this way in the first place? Why is college (and many other institutional and educational spaces) structured this way. Why does our society so often shun silence? Whom does it serve?

Works Cited:

Brown, Wendy. "Chapter Five: Freedom's Silences." Edgework: Critical Essays on Knowledge and Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2005. Print.

Jones, Gayl. Eva's Man. Boston: Beacon, 1987. Print.

Rose, Abby. "Finding My Voice through Silence: Meditations on Freewriting." Serendip Studio's One World. 18 Sept. 2015. Web.

Gayl Jones places Eva in Eva’s Man in a dysfunctional family, demonstrating how the chilling experiences of sexual abuse Eva struggles with and witnesses around her, frames and influences her later relationships and interactions with men. Jones’ centers an African American womyn's exploration of her fullest and most complex definition of herself in a society that marginalizes and silences her identity and in a culture that devalues her race and gender. Jones addresses how femelle hysteria and irrationality is constructed in the first few sentient encounters a womyn has with the sexist, unjust, and repressive society and specific communities she lives in.

3 December 2015

Treason Can Be Inherited: The Dishonor of Celia’s Crush

     This past semester, Bryn Mawr’s Shakespeare Performance Troupe (SPT) put on a production of “As You Like It”, in which I played the role of Celia¹. Her character is an interesting one, strangely, not for her dialogue when she is present, but for her silent presence in many scenes. Upon reading Adrienne Rich’s piece “On Lies, Secrets, and Silence”, which argues that “[l]ying is done with words, and also with silence” (Rich 186), I came to interpret her choices in a new way. Through the lens of Adrienne Rich, Celia’s silences are a mark of dishonor, and a betrayal of the person dearest to her, Rosalind.