Radical Revisions: Impacting our Communities
Filed under: Lesson Plans, Post by: Sarah M, Starring Local Feminists
Breaking Boundaries of Textual Space
Before I returned to academia for my M.F.A., I worked in communications and public relations for two and a half years. Through this experience, it became exceedingly clear to me that the skills learned in the writing classroom need to be translated into “real-world” writing. I am an advocate for encouraging and assisting students in publishing their own work, because I believe this instills a sense of confidence and accomplishment even in the most inexperienced students. My hope is to help produce informed and capable global citizens. To me, this principal is at the core of feminism. These students have already begun to make a difference in their communities. They are socially aware. I am so proud of their ambition and passion. In the classroom, I strive to foster a type of character culture, because I believe that learning and writing flourish in safe, open environments. I want to be a teacher who creates a space that inspires individual creative writing and learning. I also think we should all feel responsible for offering students the necessary tools they will need to survive and succeed in the American academy and beyond.
*Disclaimer: I did not come up with this assignment. I stole it. It most likely came from some combination of my pedagogy classes, colleagues, and mentors.
The Assignment: Take one of the formal papers you’ve written this semester and turn it into something completely different! In this process you will take apart your writing and reassemble it in a new form. I want you to revise to the point that your revised text is so different from the original that you may think it is near failing. I am encouraging you to push the composing envelope. Systematically stretch your writing to the limit!
Then, you will write a story of what you learned during this revision process. This should be in a narrative essay that will accompany your final presentation to the class of your radical revision project. I believe this assignment teaches writing as a writer experiences it.
You must reach an audience OUTSIDE of this classroom. Consider the following when approaching this assignment: Audience, Meaning, Clarity, Style & Form, Development & Depth, Purpose, Organization, and Context.
Please, take a look at how these incredible students are impacting their communities!
XO Sarah
MASON SLUTWALK this Saturday
Filed under: Announcements, Resources for Women's Health, Starring Local Feminists
Fighting against sexism, homophobia, transphobia, sexual assault, partner violence, victim-blaming, slut-shaming, ableism, racism, xenophobia, hate crimes.
May 5, 2012
George Mason University
2:00 beginning in North Plaza
The protest march comes to Fairfax, Virginia. Help support keeping individuals happy and safe. Stop blaming the victim! Show your love and join us!
For more information:
http://twitter.com/masonslutwalk
http://facebook.com/MasonSlutwalk
masonslutwalk@gmail.com
Two Interesting Articles on Arab Feminism
If you are at all interested in the Arab Spring, Arab Feminism, The Blue Bra of Tahrir Square, the consistently offensive “portrayal” of the niqab and/or hijab, these two articles are for you. One appeared in Foreign Policy’s Sex Issue, and a response to it on Al Monitor.
To give a piece of my mind here, as much as I agree with ElTahawy’s rage at the treatment of women, I was, indeed, offended by the photographs of the nude, body sprayed woman. It brings to mind the annoying habit of “sensationalising” Arab and Muslim women’s issues. Why does it have to be about the hijab or niqab? Why does it even have to be about religion in the first place? Aren’t we over these offensive, cliche, and orientalist portrayals yet?
Salam,
Siwar
Honour Killings and a nine year old’s stand against it.
This pretty much made my day.
One of the most controversial topics in Jordanian (& Arab) Feminist issues is Honour Killings. Honour Killings are in no way a “religious matter” as some people try to identify them (in regards to their defense or their protest). Honour Killings is a phenomenon that is the outcome of sexism and lack of education. It is about the control over a woman’s body by her family members–often, the men. It is when a family member kills a woman if she is suspected of having soiled her family’s honour by engaging in sexual activity (or in some cases a mere nonsexual relationship) outside of marriage. What makes this social issue even more problematic is that there is a legally reduced sentence for murderes accused of Honour Killings in Jordan.
There have been numerous activist groups trying to combat Honour Killings and spread awareness in Jordan. There are petitions being signed and books written on the subject; and people have been trying to change the law, as well as the cultural view toward the moral legitimacy of Honour Killings, for years.
Now, this is the part I am excited about:
A nine year old girl, who was told she was unable to sign a petition called “Where do We Stand?” protesting Honour Killings because she is not of legal age yet, wrote this lovely letter : (translation from Arabic is my own, & am afraid so much of the cuteness and brilliance of this is lost between languages)
I am Raneem Abdullah.
I am a nine year old girl, and I cannot sign the “Where do we stand?” petition. But I am a girl, and I am against Honour Killings committed against girls, because it is not anyone’s right to rob someone else of their right to live. I have to defend my rights and express my protest against killing girls, and protest this view that is not so nice toward girls in society.
I have to defend my rights and learn how to do it now.
So what if I am only nine years old?
I am going to sign anyway:
Raneem Rashad Abdullah Mohammed
14/4/2012
A reader may think: why is this so impressive?
I think it is extremely impressive that a nine-year- old has such a strong opinion. It is so impressive that she feels that she should (& can!) express her opinion. It is so impressive that she does not understand why her age would not allow her to have an opinion. The amount of awareness and defiance in this letter amazes me.
In my experience, many people in Jordan, especially women, do not feel “entitled” to a voice, or to such a strong opinion. I remember discussing Honour Killings in an undergraduate class where almost all of the 30 students did not understand the problematic logic behind a woman “representing” her family’s honour, or the horrifying logic leading to a murder justified in the name of “honour”.
Reading this Feminist statement coming from a nine year old girl restores my belief that change is possible. This feminist challenges my belief that violence against women is not as engrained in our Jordanian (or American for that matter, regarding issues of sexual violence, rights to abortion, etc) cultural psyches as I have always thought it is.
Salam,
Siwar
Fall 2012 Contributor Jill Leininger Wins BLOOM Chapbook Contest
Exciting news from our friends at BLOOM today: Jill Leininger, whose poem “Lawn Divinations” will appear in So to Speak’s Fall 2012 issue, is one of three winners of BLOOM’s 2011 Chapbook Contest.
Leininger’s collection, “The Way I’ll Leave You,” was selected by Judge Mark Doty, who wrote:
“This fresh, livewire collection introduces a distinctive new voice, a deeply ingratiating speaker who’s flirtatious, tender, knowing, tough enough to get by but not too tough to avoid getting her heart broken. In these poems love is gorgeous, slippery, and hard to live in. Here, Jill Leininger tells us, ‘More than one woman is crying. Come to the liquid edge…see our wings span the city…I bet you’ve never loved a bird like us. We’re so beautiful, it hurts’.”
A 2011 Lambda Literary Fellow, Jill Leininger’s poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in cream city review, Poetry International, and the Harvard Review Online. “Roof Picnic Skies, New York,” a chapbook of prose poems, was also published by dancing girl press in February 2012.
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