Advice from Kofi Awoonor

Nearly a month ago, NPR reported that Ghanaian poet  Kofi Awoonor was among those killed during the attack at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.

Melissa Block interviewed someone who said she was in the audience of a festival in Kenya at which Mr. Awoonor encouraged young writers.

I was struck by what the woman said Mr. Awoonor told them:

"When you want to write, look back at how your ancestors used to speak. Go back and listen to the stories of your people, and then you will know what to write about."

“Urban Fiction and Multicultural Literature as Transformative Tools..." by Marcelle Haddix and Detra Price-Dennis

The best article I read this week is “Urban Fiction and Multicultural Literature

as Transformative Tools for Preparing English Teachers for Diverse Classrooms” by Marcelle Haddix and Detra Price-Dennis (English Education, 45(3), April 2013). I usually talk about what I read on my other blog, KaaVonia’s Learning, but I’m mentioning this one here because not only is it smart, it’s well- written.

What's notable about the way it's written?

 

I like the way Haddix and Price-Dennis braid their research findings together and share two case studies that speak to a similar point: teaching diverse literature. The first  case is based on Haddix’s work with preservice teachers who viewed the possibility of using The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Push in the classroom differently. Haddix says some students pointed out that both novels dealt with tough topics such as sex and drugs, but the “themes were viewed under greater scrutiny and with more tentativeness for Push” (p. 263).

The question is why.

 Price-Dennis focused on a student teacher, Sam, who “created a multicultural text set that included political cartoons, historical documents, poems, picture books, realistic fiction, newspaper and magazine articles, and cable news reports related to the topic of immigration” (p. 267) to provide a wider view of immigration that students could talk back to, question, and learn from.  

 The piece offers a model for collaborative writing. How can writers work together to tell a story that might inform pedagogy? If you get a chance, enjoy the writing choices Haddix and Price-Dennis made in order to provide a glimpse into how diverse literature is being considered for inclusion in classrooms.

 

 Books Mentioned

 

Literary Theories: A Reader & Guide “by Tony”

 

I wasn’t really looking for it. I was digging around for Moore or Soter, or even Appleman. Once I found books by those authors, I needed something else, so I picked up Literary Theories: A Reader & Guide. When I attempted to open it to see the table of contents, it landed on the title page instead. To my surprise, “Edited by Julian Wolfreys” had been marked through in a dark orangy yellow. Beneath it was “by Tony.” When did he do this I wondered as I looked at the script of probably a first or second grader?

I laughed at my son’s bold act and was reminded of Milner & Milner’s chapter in Bridging English titled “Enabling Writing.” Toward the end, the authors discuss apprenticeship, mentor texts, and imitating writers as a way to boost students’ confidence when they set pen to paper.  As soon as he could scribble, Tony was told he was a writer; I like to think he just took the notion of imitation to a new level.*

 

*Of course I do not condone plagiarism, and that is not what I’m suggesting here. I’m musing about what happens when at an early age we get the notion that we can be writers. For some of us, we always believe this; we’re confident; we’re determined. Others decide otherwise, perhaps due to too many red marks on their papers or too many rejection letters.  

Books/Authors I mention:
 

Nothing Ever Happens on My Street

Today I *walked around my neighborhood. The sun was shining and there was a slight breeze.

A beautiful day!

My mind drifted to class, as it often does.  We’re going to study picture books next week, and I’m excited about pulling my favorites from my shelves and borrowing others from the library. Invariably I bring in Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street and we talk about using picture books as springboards for writing. 

As I walked, I looked around and shared the main character, Eva’s feelings-- nothing worth writing about is happening in my neighborhood.

Then, I looked at the houses and remembered a few stories that have the ingredients that make most people cling to a book:

·         There is **Mr. Stump. His house was abandoned, but now it looks like someone has moved in. I haven’t seen him since he "took up with" a youngish mocha-colored woman a few streets over.  I can still see this elderly man with a deliberate gait walking down the street carrying homegrown squash to his new love. Curious, (OK, nosy) I stopped to chat with him each time we passed each other. He didn’t give too many details about his new love, but the way his face reddened and his grey eyes brightened was enough to make my imagination wander.

·         Speaking of love. Gloria has a new one. As I pass her house, I watch as this tall, walnut-colored man is building a storage shed for her. I mean board by board, from the ground up.  Um. There has got to be a story there.

 ·   Bill is outside when I pass by. He has the neatest little house and yard on the street. We chat while walking too. We discuss the renovations at the high school. We speculate about the whereabouts of former neighbors. We talk home repairs and yard work. I don’t really know Bill, but I make up stories about what his life might be like. Is he lonely? Is he retired military? Where is his partner? Does he even have one? Does he update his status on Facebook?  Who knows? But Bill might make a good character in a story. Maybe something Kafkaesque.

 ·   Then, as I’m rounding the corner to go into my own yard, I remember Daniel. Daniel and I talked about his late father who used to hit on me (not with the cane he used either) when he brought my mail over (Somehow my mail was always in his box.).  Watching Daniel care for his aging father is a story. Watching Daniel cross the street to come over to tell me his father was gone and then seeing his father's body leave the house taught me something I never knew about men before that moment. Thinking of this, conjures up questions ripe for narratives:  What did it feel like when Daniel's wife gave birth to a biracial daughter by another man?  What went through his mind as he decided to keep the child while the wife was in prison? How did he handle single parenthood under these circumstances? How does one adequately describe via story the love he has for his daughter? For his wife?

I could go on and on because I haven’t written very much about the stories the women around me could spark.  Soon I’ll take the time to do that, to record the things I notice about the people around me and how they react.

I don’t have to know the whole story, I can use my imagination to fill that in. My job would be to get the feelings right. That job is tough enough.

**All names are pseudonyms.

**Natalie Goldberg writes about walking meditation. I think that’s what I experienced today.

Writing Biography

I want to write biographies. Not the cradle to the grave texts I’ve written (see my MLK book) or the scholarly ones I’ve done (see Embracing Literacy and Poetic Prose). I want to do this new (at least it’s new to me) stuff I’ve noticed in first adult biography and recently in young adult biography. It’s Malcolm Gladwell meets James Haskins. You have to have an angle.

Maybe an example will explain. I’m listening to Charles and Emma. The author could have written all about Charles Darwin and his important contributions to science and travel writing.

Well, guess what? She does, but she doesn’t take the traditional route.

Instead, she tells the story of Charles’ inchoate love for Emma, their subsequent marriage, and their strong bond until what I am guessing is death (I’m not quite done with the book.). This approach reels someone like me in. I’m a sucker for a good love story, so if you use relationships as your bait to teach me about science, I just might learn something! More importantly, I’m learning about technique.

I am nothing if I’m not a student, and if I have any gift at all, it is the gift of imitation.  Cynthia describes what I mean by this in her excellent post.

How does Deborah Heiligman do it? What if I reread the novel looking for disciplinary literacy? I’d look at the structure, her inclusion of letters, her description of Charles’ pro and con list about whether to get married, and, of course, voice. Books like this hold clues to help me see 1) what made the book grab my attention and 2) how I can compose an interesting biography of my own. Taking another look at Kim Nielsen’s piece might prove helpful too.

I have a subject I’d like to explore. I guess I’d better get back to the project I’m working on, so I can begin the new one sparked by Charles and Emma.

Call for Proposals

Please see the full call on KaaVonia's Learning.
I'm not sure if time will permit me to submit, but I sure hope you do.

Book Doctor

From Google Images

I wonder if I’d like to be a book doctor. Book doctors are those folks who try to whip a manuscript into shape after the author has done all she could. It’s the stage before submission to an editor or agent. When I first got out of college, a woman came to me with such a request. She had an interesting book idea: She was the first woman, according to her, in Virginia who had had a paternity test done for her baby. I helped her but lost touch with her when I left Virginia. I don’t know if she found a publisher. My guess is that she did because she was determined to tell her story.

The question for me is why on earth didn’t I pursue other opportunities to do that work? I bet it was lack of knowledge about freelance writing, about establishing a business around something I enjoyed. Being interested in pursuing a doctorate at Ohio State had something to do with it, too.

Oh, well. I hope aspiring writers today will go for it, even if they agree with Nick Flynn's statement about how writers are perceived.

Interviews I’d love to get.

I’ve been thinking about who I might want to interview next, so I decided to aim high. I usually interview black women writers, mostly young adult. My dream interviews would be with three authors:

1.       Maya Angelou—I have always admired her versatility in art. I still remember the first time I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. I couldn’t, wouldn’t stop until I had read Angelou’s entire series. I think that’s when the desire to write budded for me.  In my dreams, my interview with Maya would last over a weekend; I would need time to ask all of the things I’ve wanted to know for years.

2.       Mildred D. Taylor—In eighth grade, my teacher required us to read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. I knew those people. In fact, it was the first time I had read a book with people like the ones I loved in it. I’ve written many times about that experience because in many ways it helped shaped me academically.

3.       Tonya Bolden— I’m blown away by Bolden’s work, and could ask one thousand questions about her writing and research processes.

What if teachers went the way of grocery store checkers?

I was a grocery store cashier during high school. I worked at Farm Fresh. I loved it. I knew my customers and could clock when they’d be coming in. Did you know that back then some people went to the grocery store daily? It was mostly men. Someone at home would  always forget something. My customers would try to make me laugh and I’d return the favor. Before I went to college, a few of them gave me gifts even though they only knew me as their grocery store checker. One lady brought me a basket of school supplies.

Nowadays, I do not know the clerks, and in some cases I can avoid them all together. I can zip through one of those self-checkout lanes and never have to look anyone in the eye and smile. What happened to all of the checkers?

*When I read about classrooms where the image of books are displayed on the Smartboard and an automaton reads the text, I can’t help but  ask, are teachers going to go the way of the grocery store checker?

I can see it now. One teacher, multiple screens like the ones we use when we go to concerts and have bad seats, fifty students, and maybe some security guards.

Sounds like the threads of a science fiction story…

*Please do not misunderstand me; technology is important and appreciated.

One Place to Find Writing Topics

Can’t Figure out What to Write About? 

Read the Ten Commandments.

J. California Cooper says, “You have to watch those Ten Commandments. You can take one of the Ten Commandments and write thousands of stories.”

~~J. California Cooper qtd. in “How I Write” by Kathy Pohl, The Writer, Sept. 2011.

I recommend Cooper's books because of voice and good storytelling. When I read her work, I feel like I'm in her character's kitchen getting all of the scoop.