Citizen: An American Lyric

I read this book last semester for Professor Marshall's intermediate poetry class and after seeing some of the texts for this class, and the topic of this class, I was surprised that we have not read it, although I think it would not have necessarily fit in with the other works we have read this semester, as those have created a character that fits this class that I don't think "Citizen" necessarily would have.
This book recounts racial aggression that the narrator goes through, a new sort of "racism", a soft racism, and encounters around this topic, like slips of tongue, and place of everyday life, some intentional, some seemingly not. It also speaks on some of the bigger, more televised area of this with Serena Williams and Zinedine Zidane anecdotes.
This brings into question the narrators place in American society, what it means to be a person in America, a black person, someone who still in today's American society, which sells itself as a place anyone can come to and be treated fairly and make their own living, and meet a harsh, different reality. Rankine often mixes the two main topics that we talk about in class together, race and sex, together in this book, which is why I think this book would have been a great fit for this class. The book flows more as a story, and is pretty much all prose poetry, but still carries the poetic feel throughout the book. It is a great read and kept me wanting to read more. It combines lyric poems or essays as well as pictures as well, which also bring another dimension to her book. It is also the only poetry novel to ever be nominated for two genres in the National Book Critics Circle Award (nominated for poetry & criticism).

The Film "Dope"

I just recently finished this film last night (this morning) and wow I was blown away. This film reminded me of a piece of literature in motion. First and foremost, I would highly recommend you watch this film if you haven't. I also do not want to ruin the film in this blog post if you haven't seen it yet either, and I don't think what I am about to discuss will.
What this movie got me thinking of, relating to this class of multicultural women, was the role played by Kiersey Clemons, Diggy. Within the first moments of the audience being introduced to her, we find out that she is one, a woman, and two, a lesbian, and then are directly thrown into how her family every Sunday, has some short of ritual prayer at Church to "pray the gay out of her". The reason I bring this up, is because the audience, without this blatant notification of the narrator telling us who Diggy is, the audience mainly would have assumed that Diggy was just the third boy in the group of the three because of how she dress and acts. This film speaks to many contemporary movemtns that are happening today, and how black men and women are stereotypically seen, especially those growing up is less fortunate neighborhoods where the easy choice is to turn to drugs and the only way to go to college is if you are playing ball. Well, these three friends do not fit these stereotypes. Diggy is a black woman who is a lesbian but we would not have known otherwise, Malcolm is a black teen who reminisces of 90s dress and hip hop, and is the "nerd" to all. Jib is the third member of the group and is latino. The three spends their days getting good grade, jamming out in their rock-type band, and dream of getting with girls.
The three are forced into one large learning experience, and fall down a slippery slope, a common theme throughout the movie, that one things leads to another, when riding home from school once, taking an alternate route to not run into a gang filming a youtube hype video. They run into Dom, A$AP Rocky, and things go for a wild turn from there.
I think this film speaks on levels to what we have been discussing in class, even though the main character and this film shows the coming of age of Malcolm, it most definitely still relates to class. Ziggy is a boyish lesbian of the hard inner city, but smart, sensitive, while still being unapologetic and witty. She shatters the stereotypes of women and black women in her role in "Dope". This film at heart and within each of the three characters, also to others, break the stereotypes of inner city, while introducing the audience to the many facets of inner city life, and show us reasons why and what more there is to less fortunate who are often overlooked and almost always stereotyped.

Back at it Again With English 310

Just like Riley, I am a member of Rosenberg's class, My Three Novels and a Film. Since I have already introduced you guys to my topic of our English 360 final with my oral presentations, I wanted to express my idea for my English 310 final. In the film The Godfather part I&II and novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, two of the main characters, Michael Corleone (Godfather) and Sammy Klayman (Kavalier & Clay) ended up alone at the conclusion of these works. I will be analyzing the similarities like being exposed on national television and differences like killing as opposed to abandoning your family and how being an unjust man/father make an individual end up alone in life.
To relate this topic to our class, I believe that Michael and Sammy have done the opposite in life compared to what the poets that we have studied have done. These two have gone through life lying and in denial, hoping for something that isn't there. The poets from this class have gone through their own individual struggle whether its ethnicity, cultural, or home issues. As a result, in my opinion, their lives have been fairly rewarding. They are established writers in society. I understand that I am comparing characters to real life people, but maybe there is something to be seen here. Men, like Michael and Sammy, are ones who typically take leadership roles. The causes of their actions include people, including family to be most effected. This leads to the suggestion that men under pressure making harsh and irrational decisions. The woman in our poems have kind of taken a back seat, non-leadership role (perhaps influence/inequality of society), letting things around them develop as opposed to trying to make them happen. I do not really know what to make of these findings, whether woman are better decision makers than men, being a follower is better than being a leader, or if I can even compare characters to humans. But anyways, there is the comparison .

Kay's power & her way out in The Godfather

The Godfather is an American classic, originally written by Mario Puzo and later directed by Francis Coppola  starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duval, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton (Kay), James Caan, and Talia Shire (Adrian from Rocky) to name a few.
In my class Three Novels and a Film, Professor Rosenberg's last class, we took a look at Moby-Dick, Song of Solomon, The Godfather, The Godfather Pt.II, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - all coming of age stories. But it is Kay's power, or lack of power, in the hegemonic Italian-mob family that particularly interests me.
near the end of the Pt.II, Michael is naive and not informed about his family as he is more focused on the business of the mob. There is a scene where Kay and Michael (who has been the Don of the Corleone's for a while now, since the end of Pt.I) are talking and Michael is trying to converse with go who it seems is long past their relationship. In one of the most intense scenes in the film, with spectacular acting, Michael says something alongs the lines of "i know you blame me for you miscarriage" and Kay responds "it wasn't a miscarriage, it was an abortion. an abortion michael. just like our marriage is an abortion. something that is unholy and evil. i didn't want your son micahel. i wouldn't bring another one of your sons in this world... i had it killed because this had to end" (referring to the Italian-Mob).
I was one of the few in class who sort of sided with Kay because she was trapped in this family and relationship, and before she did not know what she was getting herself into. But after reading Zami at the beginning of the year, I noticed that Kay was doing the only thing she could within her power, so she did it. This also spoke to American society of the time because Pt. II came out in '74 and Roe v. Wade happened in '73, which was a very interesting point Professor Rosenberg noted. I do not think I would have noticed Kay's reasoning behind doing this and why she did it, not only because she felt responsible for continuing on the Corleone family, but because this was the only power she had in the relationship, over her own body and to abort the baby, without reading and discussing Audre Lorde and her novel Zami in class this semester. I am always intrigued and happy when I can see the relationship between things from one class to another and did so in this case.

More Original Work

Sup guys. As the end of the semester approaches, I feel that the mood of the blog has relaxed considerably as we all become slowly more accustomed to each other's written voices and styles. I'm going to publish another piece of original work, open for criticism and revision. Again, please let me know if you feel that this inappropriate for what is technically an academic space.

DISCLAIMER: I did not actually cheat on my girlfriend. As I talked about in another post, this poem was inspired by this scenario I had in my mind wherein a man woke up in a cold sweat after dreaming he had cheated on his girlfriend.

It happened again
I dreamt I cheated on my girlfriend last night
Even worse
With her best friend.
It wasn't quite as blunt or blatant this time,
instead of full-blown pants off dirty deed,
it was simply inviting her to sleep in my bed
because she's afraid of the dark

I woke up scared, and excited, and ashamed.
The same thoughts that crossed my mind whenever I had these dreams of infidelity.
Do I really love her?
Or is it just physical?
Am I that much of a dick?
Am I going to one day realize that I'd rather live in dreams of doing sinful things with other girls -
one from France,
one from across town,
one I don't even think exists -
than in the real world?

Just An Observation I Have

One thing I have noticed in the past week is how beloved Prince was by so many people. Even after his funeral/cremation has taken place, people are still talking about him. No doubt this is because he was an artist and a character, and not just merely because he was successful in his business.

But to that point, I find it interesting from a social perspective that African American entertainers like Prince, and other black figures as well, maintain such great reverence and respect from people on both sides of the color line, and from different socio-economic backgrounds. This is in contrast to racism that is still deeply prevalent in some niches in society, especially with those who awkwardly still believe that African Americans are still not somehow equal.

My question(s) that I would pose would be: Why does this dichotomy exist? How has this gap been created and still maintained? I think that it could have something to do with economics,and where people are in terms of wealth and stability. I also think that it could be explained simply by "tradition" and an engrained sense that one race is dominant, especially that which perhaps is still prevalent in some areas of the Deep South.

If anyone has any comments or ideas on this, I would be very interested in what you'd have to say. This is just something that I've never really thought about until now.

The Benefit of a Diary

So recently, as a means to facilitate growth in my own creative abilities, I picked up journaling. This is something I do every day, writing down anything that comes to mind. A verse, a snatch of poetry, things that pissed me off that day, etc. Having a creative outlet right at my fingertips is still so fascinating to me. The fact that anything I write can become a masterpiece is the type of poetic inspiration that I feel many of the authors we've read possess. So I sought out a female poet who was a known diarist in order to tie this in to our course.

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva was a Russian Soviet poet from the early 1900s to her death in 1941. She survived the Russian Revolutions of 1917, witnessed the steady decline of Europe and growth of Nazi power, saw her husband arrested for espionage, and committed suicide shortly thereafter. The entire time, she was journaling, collecting her thoughts for poetic work. One of her poems from 1915 struck me as the sort that would come about from some physical observations she made and recorded.

I Know the Truth

I know the truth - forget all other truths!
No need for anyone on earth to struggle.
Look - it is evening, look, it is nearly night:
what will you say, poets, lovers, generals?

The wind is level now, the earth is wet with dew,
the storm of stars in the sky will turn to quiet.
And soon all of us will sleep beneath the earth, we
who never let each other sleep above it.

 In short, this poem discusses the inevitability of death and the passing of time, perhaps describing the decline of the economy and social stability of the Russian Empire. As well, the line "we/ who never let each other sleep above it" could also be referring to the combative and aggressive nature of mankind, and the inevitability of war.