I really enjoyed my time in the gardens despite the cold. They were interesting. I saw how contat zones were involved but also the impact that it had on the highschoolers. They were making friends and now they have an internship on their resume. It was really impressive to see how much they knew and wanted to show us.

The visit that we took to Norris Square was a very interesting one. Probably the most inspirational part of the gardens were the huge murals that were present in almost every single garden we walked in to. It was so amazing to see these amazing works of art that represented the cultural power and presence that Puerto Rico still had in the lives of the women who created these gardens. I also thought it was great that agricultural gardens were established instead of just flower gardens. That way, the gardens also have practical purpose in that they provide nourishment for the community. Norris Square is an amazing place, and will continue to be an amazing place for years to come. 

Though it was a cold day, I had a really great time getting to know more about the various cultures in Puerto Rico.  The students giving the tour were especally great because I learned so much from them about these cultures and the gradens themselves, but also about their lives.    I did not necessarily have a favorite garden but I did like the two biggest gardens best because they had a lot of replicas of the way of life (houses/huts, masks, instruments).  The murals were really breathtaking, but to know the community came together to put it together was great. I am really glad I got to go on this tour.  I was especially captured by the girls because it reminded me so much of my own experience.

Going to Norris Gardens was a really get experience and a brilliant way to learn about a culture I was unfamilar with beside the textbook descriptions I learned in highschool. I really loved how we were about to explore the gardens, following young women who had both emotional and physical attachments to the garden in that they were Puerto Rican and familiar with this area in Philly and they helped grow and maintain the gardens. I loved how the gardens were interactive in that we could taste the fresh produce and go inside the replica houses that were full of antique artifacts either from Puerto Rico or countries in Western Africa that were part of the triangular trade.

My grandmother had a garden. Every day she would work on it, piece by piece, rain or shine, and in the spring her backyard would come alive in colorful blooms, lush leaves, and rich, chocolatey brown soil. I would spend hours outside my mother’s childhood home, playing in my own private forest of textures, smells, and colors, while my grandmother and mother watched from the patio. That garden was Norma’s pride and joy, and as complicated and difficult her life was at any given time, the garden never faltered or showed weakness.

    I was truly insipred by not only the beautiful gardens, but the interns. It takes lots of courage to be able to present to a big group of students, but I think they did a great job. It felt really weird to go from Bryn Mawr's beautiful campus, to a neighborhood that did not look its best. Although, it is also inspiring how the founders made these gardens to be safe places where two cultures can come together. It was really interesting to see artifacts from both cultures and how they are similar in many ways. Additionally, eventhough we did not spend too much time in the kids center, one of the interns described it was a safe place. That inspires to me want to open a place like that where kids can express themselves either through art or music and feel safe doing it.

For my first reflection on The Book of Salt, I want to talk about some biblical salt. First, the title of Truong's novel replicates the style of the titles of each Biblical "Book:" Book of Esther, Book of Job, Book of Genesis, etc. 

I like that there is music for the songs in Getting Mother's Body. And not just music that someone wrote so that they could sing them, but music that the songs were originally meant for. It was such a joy to hear Suzan-Lori Parks sing; it brought Willa Mae more to life. And it was an even greater joy to hear Suzan-Lori Parks speak. I loved her sense of humor, and the casual way in which she described her writing and the writing process. I'm not surprised that she talks to her characters as though they were real people. That must be how she was able to tell the story of Getting Mother's Body from the perspective of so many different characters: They were telling her their stories.

this is connected to the work we will be doing with our exhibit and conversations that we've had about language in jody's class. after doing the exercise in class today with the poem, and talking about associations, and then reading more in the book of salt i became interested in how associations in different languages play out. so in the book of salt i saw the french word poulet which means chicken, but my first association in french is pull, which means sweater, but in english my first association with chicken is den. but also because i have a crude understanding of french when i think of pull and then automatically translate it to sweater but then my association is pulls in a sweater.

Today I decide to use The Book of Salt for our next paper. I don't plan for papers as effectively as I could, but during our close reading I started thinking about different ways to talk across intersectionalities. Our current model under the tone of "radical social justice work" seems to undermine to practicality of discussing identities intersectionally. It isnt a practice designed by occaisional use, it is an continuous state we rarely name outloud. Discussing intersections between class, race, gender and sexuality through food is a great way to discuss the "meat" of your position using a sensation that can resonate with the reader in ways that pertain to them. There isnt one way to discuss our identities; even in relation to formulaic institutions.