Silence

After reading only the first page of Brothers and Keepers I could already see how silence and voice found common ground--as described in Yves-Charles Grandjeat's article--in Wideman's ability to speak to his brother in the form of letters. The distance and silence between Wideman and his brother allowed him to be hopeful that his brother might reunite with him despite the space, time, and unknowingness that existed between them-the silence. In this case voice was the unwillingness to get caught up in the "sense of urgency, of inpending disaster..." (pg5) that was plaguing those in close physical proximity to his brother's crime. This really makes me wonder about our definitions of voice and how more often than not we refer to voice in our class as the literal ability to speak out and the limitations that prevent people to do so due to race, gender, and/or class. I think that another way to understand voice is to look at it as choice: having the choice to create silence is also voice. Wideman chose to move away from home and in this action dilIberately created space and silence between him, his brother, and his family. However, it is crucial here to understand how silence as voice can also be a used as a silencing tool. For example, lately in our class, we have been discussing how choosing silence allows others to speak. I am not opposed to the sentiment behind this, however, I do realize another effect that choosing silence can have on the class in its entirety.

I found it interesting how Wideman used space, time and distance as measures of success at the beginning of the book. It seems like he really reflects on his desire to separate himself not only from his neighborhood and his relationship with brother but also from his own identity. He doesn’t seem to be proud of it, but simply acknowledge the complexity, and perhaps reason as to why his relationship with his brother is so broken.

The quote that strikes me the most is on page 27 when he said, "One measure of my success was the distance I'd put between us. Coming home was a kind of bragging...It's sure fucked up around here ain't it? But look at me, I got away." I think that this quote really exemplifies the belief that success and his home stand in direct opposition, that he must leave one in order to embrace the other, even though later on the book he complicates this idea. Although I understand that there must be a refashioning of the self in order to fit into alien spaces, I don’t think that it is absolutely necessary to choose one or the other. It seems to me that the distance and the silence can in fact point not just to the fact that him and his brother are different because of his “choice to be successful” but also to the fact that the awkwardness exists because of their history and blood, because that awkwardness and guilt would not manifest itself through silence if they were not intrinsically tied. 

In Wideman's book, I noticed that he touched on the notion of life going on "on the outside" while incarcerated people seem to stay where they are, removed from the passing of time, but unable to fit back into the world without acknowledging the time that has passed. Wideman measures the first few years of Robby's sentence by his daughter Jamila's growth, seeing that, although she is growing up in a changing world, Robby's world is centered around staying put, where Jamila's growth is a strong, and perhaps the only, reliable measurement of changes in time. This reminds me of the discussion that we had in Barb's class yesterday about time and boredom as a means of punishment. The women in the prison that she is studying have so much time on their hands, so much time to do what relatively few activities that they have, and the rest to be filled with a monotonous boredom. Given both our discussion and Wideman's thoughts, I think the passage of time without activity, motion or change is an effective punishment, but a horribly cruel one, a method by which we, once again, deny the humanity of those who are incarcerated.

...that HSBurke referenced in class today, as we were discussing what to "do" with stories of trauma:
Zimbabwe teen leaves anguish behind, starts future at Bryn Mawr (Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 2, 2012)

Hey guys, 

Here's the article I was talking about in class today (or rather a link to it from Bryn Mawr's website):

http://news.brynmawr.edu/2012/10/02/philadelphia-inquirer-tells-inspiring-story-of-bryn-mawr-student-undaunted-by-tragedy-of-her-early-life/

Something about it just rubs me the wrong way. People (even JMac!) are speaking about her with such authority, like they know her so deeply. And it's been, what? a month? I think her story's incredibly brave, but I think what I was trying to get at today is that: as a student body, do our perceptions/treatment of her change thanks to this new knowledge? What do we do with her story? 

among HSBurke -- “Showing each other our cracks and admitting that we don’t have it all together is, in my opinion, something our group needed. Thank you for your honesty--

Michaela --I'm grateful that… you all don't "have it all together" in the way I feared--that everyone else had some intstruction manual for getting through life that I just never picked up on--

and Sara --I think most students at Bryn Mawr feel that everyone else around them is doing better then them… I realized last semester that everyone else felt exactly as I did- behind… like everyone else was flourishing but them. I began to wonder, in this environment that is supposed to be so empowering, why so many students felt so helpless and inadequate…maybe …we are constantly measuring ourselves up to impossible standards; grades that we have imagined for the people that seem to be flourishing --->

A number of possible venues for activism have been emerging from our conversations (giving feedback to the Mural Arts Program, and/or offering an alternative form of art-making in some of the neighborhoods we visited on our tour? working with YASP on a door-to-door campaign? advocating for the future of Perry House? what other activism is likely to emerge during the next 6 weeks, as we spend time inside The Cannery?).

We would like you to 1) structure your final work in this 360°around one of these actions and also 2) find some way to present those projects to the larger bi-co community (or beyond it). A number of these will need advance work (especially if we are to co-ordinate w/ others outside the bi-co), so we'd like to begin brainstorming together the directions in which we might go, both individually and collectively.

By 5 p.m.on  Sun, Oct. 21 (the day we return from break): please post AS A COMMENT TO THIS POST a short description of the sort of activism which interests you, and any ideas you have about what particular form this action might take.

We will then begin having shared conversations about when and how to move forward ….

Hi everyone- this is the link to the This American Life podcast I was talking about earlier in Voice class about the law passed in Alabama:  http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/456/reap-what-you-sow

I also found another one that looked interesting while looking through the archives: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent

I haven't fully listened yet but sounds like it might be relevant to our silence class!

After today's carousel activity, I'm finding myself resisting the urge to relate to the texts we're reading. This whole conversation about empathy shook me up a little because I feel like the best way I learn is by trying to relate the texts to my own life. I try to find connections that I can make to others because too much theory can overwhelm me.

I still don't really know if I agree with Sommer's idea that we shouldn't try to look at things in a more universalist lense. I understand what she's saying and agree with her to some extent, but I don't know if I'm willing to change the way I learn and think about things because it's problematic (in her eyes). I feel like in my last post for this class where I was making a connection (or empathizing as Sommer would probably say), I wasn't necessarily trying to relate to my experiences of hardship to Rigoberta or the Quiché. Or maybe I was. I don't know. I was trying to connect my experiences to my mom, who could probably relate more to Rigoberta's stories or horror and hardship than I ever could. I suppose my mom's life story (or any story told by a refugee escaping genocide) would be more worthy of relating to Rigoberta's. I think when I posted that I was just too homesick and missed my mom... I'm so ready for Fall Break.

"I resent people who say writers write from experience. Writers don't write from experience, though many are hesitant to admit that they don't. I want to be clear about this. If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy."

-Nikki Giovanni