Aging

(The original image for the 'Zine. I attempted to represent as many identities as possible in as little visual space as possible, combining influences from pop-art and anatomical drawings. )

Written Work

Due to popular demand, I'm sharing the link to the store for my non-profit with hand-made, fair trade goods. 100% of the profits go toward community development.

http://profugomarket.storenvy.com/

Love and warmth,

Rebca

I watched a Spoken Word performance called "God is Gay." It is a poem about the hypocrisy of religious people who say hateful things about gay people. The person who wrote the poem is a white cis male christian gay man. I'd be interested in looking closely at this poem along with an essay from "Queer Religion" which is a book written by Donald Boisvert. I'm hoping to find an essay that features somebody not as privileged, in order to talk about how power and privilege (probably drawing from the essay that Riva ewrote to talk about power) change how people deal with intersectional identities. 

For my intersectionality paper, I am strongly compelled to discuss the relationship between disability, class, and representation, specifically focusing on the story of Mary from the Mutter museum.

Mary was a little person of low income, as we can assume from that fact that she was found in a house of prostitution. Not only was Mary's body was taken and put on display without consent, but her baby's body as well. Mary's low status and physical abnormality somehow allows the Mutter and its audience to view her as an object unworthy of respect.

#lasthurrah

For my intersectionality essay, I’d like to do a close reading of a couple episodes of The L Word, in order to look at how the character of Bette grapples with her many, complicated identities—and, in turn, how the media represents intersectional characters. Bette is a very proud and vocal lesbian, as well as a biracial (often white-passing), upper-class, able-bodied individual. The relationship between these identities really come into play when she and her partner, Tina (who is white), decide to have a child. The couple argue over whether or not it makes sense to use an African-American donor, if Tina is carrying the child (Bette argues that it is, because that way, the baby would look like both of them).

Like smalina, I found myself most struck by Ken's letter at the end of Anna's memoir. I was left wondering about Ken's voice and feelings through all of this. ndifrank mentioned wondering about how you, Anna, coped with Ken's emotions when they lingered past his understanding of their cause. This is also something I'd like to know, and I'm curious: are there or have there been techniques that Ken has used to cope with feeling emotions past memory of their cause?
From Margie, I'd love to know what it's like to see your mother as a caregiver (throughout her life) and to then take on the role of caregiver yourself-- something you mentioned in your editor's note. What have you learned from your mother about caregiving and what do you feel you're inventing yourself?

I would love to know more about the role that societal pressures played in Annie's difficulty in communication with Ken in the beginning. Did you not discuss your feelings with him because you didn't think he wanted to or because you didn't think it was right?

I would also like to know more about your and Ken's sense of spirituality. You said several times that it is very important to both you and him, and it would be nice to know how it manifests and how it has aided you on this journey.

Lastly, I'd love to share with you some of the things we discussed about sharing feelings in the Two Women Talking workshop. What do you think? How have your feelings influenced your writing?

“Who Cares” provided me with a lot of insight into my personal life. This memoir had such a richness and personal touch that as I was reading I felt the emotions of Anna and her family members. The use of personal images, in my opinion, was one of the best aspects of the memoir. It allowed me as the reader to imagine more than a name in a story. It gave personality and texture to the memoir that made it so much more enjoyable to read.

I thought it was interesting that Anna wrote that Ken's dementia wasn't "natural." I was wondering if that was intentional, becasue I consider diseases natural.