I really think this ESEM course has really made me grow as a writer and thinking. I really enjoyed the discussions we had in class where we really reached out of our comfort zone to tackle and discuss issues of society addressed readings and in current events. The space was always open and comfortable and I felt free to express myself and people felt comfortable to challenge each other. I really enjoyed the readings as they were thought provoking and relevent to current day issues. They were challenging but readable. I was not able to complete most readings because I am a slow reader and it takes me a while to fully grasp material. Also there were times where I felt that there were too many readings given at once that were overwhelming in both length and complexity.

I handed this in to Anne on time and worked myself up to posting this. I am anxiously going to leave this here for public record/ a beginning to getting some closure from this experience. Have a great break everybody! Hydrate, rest easy, listen to the music you love, dance, love fearlessly. 

-Liv 

       Dear Anne,

            Many organisms on Earth have dealt with pain. But what exactly is pain? The definition of Pain is “physical suffering or distress, as due to injury or illness”. Humans associate pain with organisms that have a conscious or can experience emotions. For example, animals feel scared when they are to be eaten by other predators. What about the other organisms on Earth? What about the plants? Do plants feel scared when they are to be cut off from their roots in order to be eaten or made into other products? Many people don’t associate plants having a conscious because they are supposedly “emotion-less”. But they grow and reproduce like many species and eventually die due to consumption.

i've been avoiding this.

where you were when we began this 360° process, where you are now, and what’s been happening in between. How-and-what have you been learning? Where do you think that the edges of your learning now lie? In what ways has your understanding been expanded, challenged, or complexified in this 360°? Be sure to include reflections on the degree of your critical, active engagement with the portion of the cluster devoted to the creation of our exhibit. 

this zine will always be a work in progress because identity is always a work in progress.

do you think

calling me ‘angry’

is an insult.

every time you call me ‘angry’

i hear your voice salt with guilt

and

i laugh.

look how easy it is to reveal you.

--- anger is a healthy and natural response to oppression

salt. by nayyirah waheed.

As I bid my family members goodbye at my going away party, I was reminded rather universal by my family that the first semester of college is the hardest part and making it through those few months is true stamina. Well, if you did not know, I am alway eager for a challenge and so I  told them brazenly that my mind was sharp and I would go bold into the unknown. This pretense set me up to have many disastrous expectations. However, I am pleased to say, Esem was not one of these mishaps.

Interring Black Humanity

What does a grave give to a body? Perhaps not to a body, but to the survivors. To the loved ones. To those who remember. To history. They say you die twice: once when you stop breathing, and a second time when somebody says your name for the last time. But what if the subject experiences systemic dehumanization, social death, before they reach their last breath? In this essay, I will focus on Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Getting Mother’s Body, and Alice Walker’s search for Hurston’s graveto highlight how the burial of Black bodies is significant to the construction of humanity in a White supremacist society.