Voice

I thought I would share this story as a reflection on how sometimes finding voice in an environment that is not yet ready to listen can be more turbulant than silence. And only through the death (or the infinite silence) of an individual do we appreciate just how precious that voice was. 

Jenni Rivera, a famous Mexican-American singer known for her work in Mexican banda and norteno music, passed away in a horrible plane crash. She was infamous among her female fans (including myself and my mother) for speaking out about the violence she experienced in her relationships with men through her music. She was also named spokeswoman for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She however, was judged a lot by many of her "enemies", as she would call them, because they did not necessarily agree with her strong and effervescent personality. She was constantly mediatized as loud and obnoxious.

Her story complicated silence for me, and reminds me of Icouldn'tthinkofanoriginalname's post: /exchange/procrastination-turns-productivity-and-deep-reflection-incarceratedlifers#comment-139771 in that it is through her death/eternal silence that she is glorified and heard.

Last week we were talking a lot about "play" in class and this ended up seeping into another conversation in one of my other classes outside the 360 with Anne. Here's a link to that conversation if any is interested/wanted to further our conversations about the links between play and learning: /exchange/divergent-thinking#comment-139691

I think some of these comments are relevant to our voice discussion about what play means or does not mean!

My initial interest was the “rules” of Bryn Mawr Campus and ways in which students either resisted or followed these rules. I eventually narrowed my focus to smoking on campus, after coming across a series of correspondences through student publications in regards to Student Government Association’s involvement in determining the social regulations of students’ lives. More specifically, these “correspondences” focused on campus drinking and smoking amongst students. In the Spring of 1944, the Lantern, one of Bryn Mawr’s student literary magazines, issued an aggressive editorial calling upon the student’s radical abolition of the Student Government Association. Students who crafted this editorial were tired of staying “silent” when it came to rule breaking, writing that, “Rules are being broken. Those who find the rules unreasonable to maintain soon find that the risk of being caught is considerably reduced by discreet silence.” They claimed that Student’s obvious resistance to the rules was indicative of unfair policy and too-strict rules. Without restrictive policy governing their conduct, student would no longer have to remain silent or risk categorization as “rule-breakers.” 

On Saturday, the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) organized a Day of Action made up of 16 different actions at PNC Banks across 6 sates in the region, part of their campaign agains PNC's investments in companies that practice mountaintop removal coal mining. Bryn Mawr College had a very large role in this event, as the Bryn Mawr Earth Justice League's action was one of the largest with over 25 people attending. In our own little group (EJL) it sometimes feels like we're the only ones on campus doing this kind of activism, that Bryn Mawr as an institution, in its propoganda about fostering desire to make a meaningful contribution to the world, does not inspire in us while we are in college. We get the sense that, for the majority of the campus, academia far outweighs activism in importance, and we can put time into making the world a better place once we've graduated.

I’ve really enjoyed reading through everyone’s papers/projects, and while I know that for much of the class, their projects for Jody are leading into their final activism for the class, I wish that there was more of a link. In particular, I think that it would be GREAT if Chandrea and Esty’s tour (if they’re interested in this) could be incorporated into the final presentation, as a way for the larger campus community to be exposed to what we have been talking about in a very visceral, real way. I know that many McBride students have expressed feeling both very conspicuous and invisible at the same time, so I think that somehow sharing Sharaai’s paper would also mean a lot to current McBride scholars. This is also true for HSBurke’s paper on the history (and lack of historical documentation) of maids/servants at Bryn Mawr – this is not a conversation that I hear a lot of people hearing. And Owl’s paper too. I don’t know if any of you are actually interested in publicly sharing your work, but I do think that it might be a powerful way of sharing our exploration of Bryn Mawr’s “walled community” with the rest of campus.

I managed to up the time limit for our YouTube video! Check it out here.

Forewarning: this is going to be real piecemeal and not that comprehensive.  Here's also Erin's post that talks a lot about two early east Asian students on campus.

As Erin points out, surprisingly enough, there is a deep-rooted history of East Asian, more specifically, Japanese, and then a short time later, Chinese students, on campus.  To speak of the Japanese students first, in 1893, a Quaker woman named Mrs. Wistar Morris founded what was called the Japanese Scholarship program.  I found an opening speech within the special collections archives that describes a little about the beginnings of this program:
"In 1893...Mrs. Wistar Morris...was a friend and believed in foreign missions which at that time the Quakers did not.  So after speak about it in meetings for some time with not results she decided she better go herself which she did.  Her husband accompanying her."

As the historical background for the final project, this broadcast is aim to introduce you about two excellent Asian Students at very early times in Bryn Mawr history. Since this is not the final narrative, the broadcast might vary in some perspectives.

The purpose of our final project is to explore the Asian Identity on campus and possible reasons for the absences for their voices nowadays on campus.

I will introduce two extraordinary early Asian students at very early times in Bryn Mawr campus, one Japanese student Tsuda Umeko and one Chinese student Fung Kei Liu. When digging in the past of Asian students on Bryn Mawr campus, these two especially caught my attention due to the similarities in their stories.

Asian Students has been on this campus since the very beginning. Interaction with some representative of Asian countries, China and Japan, both went back to as early as end of 19th century. Besides the conventional admission of students from these countries and Asian Americans, Bryn Mawr‘s first connection with China, oddly enough, was a results of the anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion of 1899; The formal introduction of programs for students from China, however, didn’t happen until 1917.

Since we're having trouble uploading our Virtual Tour video, we will be posting the research so you can get an idea of what the tour will look like. I'm pretty sure we'll be showing it in class.

360 VISION RESEARCH PROJECT: 1968 TOUR OF BMC/SOCIAL CLIMATE

By Esty & Chandrea

Here is where we can start to compile our information and the resources we use!

Project focus: Campus tour/map with a focus in 1968. Perry House and Batten do not exist at that time. So we could focus on the campus and social climate for the tour--it was HOT!


Areas of interest on dorm and campus life (guide questions/FAQs on tours?):

Why don’t we have sororities?
What affinity groups existed during this time period?
What were some popular activities?
What was the most common major?
What did the campus look like?
How did customs and other dorm supports function?
What historical events coincided and/or preceded--therefore, influencing--the 60s/70s
What slang was used so we look authentic?
What do students do for fun?
What religious services are available?

Information (Jotted Notes):

General/historical/big picture context: