21st Century Literature and Time

          I really enjoyed Phil Kaye’s collection of poetry Date & Time . As I read the poems in the second half of the book, I found myself constantly revisiting an idea that we discussed in class on Monday. When discussing the implications that arise because the book is divided into three non consecutive sections: beginning, middle, and end. In class, we discussed the idea that the majority of a person’s life is the middle: most people do not remember much of the beginning, and the end does not occur until immediately before a person’s death. Thus, even though a person spends the majority of time in the middle of their life, it is the period in which the greatest amount of events will be forgotten.  I was strongly reminded of this concept as I read Kaye’s poem titled “Roller Coaster.” In the second half of this poem, Kaye recounts a trip that he took with his family to Disneyland. Kaye describes that instead of his memories being centered on th...

     Both of the recent works we have read have had a strong emphasis on memory. More specifically, the relationship between them. Memory transcends time and time often alters memory. The two are interconnected yet constantly sabotaging each other. In Brown Girl Dreaming Woodson creates a collection of memories that are equal parts in-depth yet minuscule. Compared to the entirely of her life, the memoir captures so little. In class, we discussed the fleetingness of memory, and how we have to train ourselves to remember more. Now, as we are reading Date and Time we get this sense of how our past memories and our current reality mesh to create new conversations and new ideas in the present.     In regard to service learning, I find it hard to connect our current conversations of memory to the students at Bridges. However, I will do my best to reflect on my experience so far. Recently, I've been helping middle school students with their math homework. A concept lon...

  Victoria Sabatino  November 2, 2022  Date and Time Reflection  As a speech major, I feel as though it would be a waste if I did not write about the poem ‘repetition’ in Date and Time, specifically the second half where Kaye talks about his stutter. To discuss a bit more about this fluency disorder, I turned to ASHA- the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. There are three main kinds of grouping stuttering falls into. First, is repetition, which is the kind of stutter Kaye had. A person showing this would sound like “I w-w-w-want to go to the park.” or “Go-go-go away.”  Secondly, prolonging sounds such as “Ssssssam is mean.” Lastly, unnatural pauses or stops in a person’s speaking I want a (pause) sandwich.” The only thing that I was unaware of, or perhaps it is Kaye’s lack of knowledge about stuttering, is that it is usually biological or a brain difference that causes the stuttering, so he most likely always had it. However, his parent's divorce ...

  In Phil Kaye’s Date and Time he uses poems in different forms to talk about his own life in the past, present, and future – though in no particular chronological order. He starts the collection with a quote from Jean-Luc Godard: “a story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end – but not necessarily in that order” (1). He starts with a section titled “end,” goes onto the middle section titled “beginning,” and ends with “middle.” Despite these section titles, the poems are in no chronological order within them, either. The section “beginning,” has stories from his childhood (“Ruby’s,” 46-47), high school (“Strength, in Four Parts,” 43-45), adulthood (“The Patriot,” 49-50), the past (“Teeth,” 51-54), the present (“Phantom Limb,” 55), and those that could fit in any time period (“Depression,” 42). Though not listed above, each of the poems can fit in one of these sections. By providing an assortment of poem forms from a wide range of time periods, he carefully (yet seemingly ...

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          I found the second half of Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming extremely interesting. One aspect that stood out to me was the relationship that Woodson creates between the Civil Rights Movement and time in the final few poems of the novel. I found this relationship most notable in the poem “what i believe.” In this poem, Woodson lists the things that she believes in, ranging from religious concepts to human rights. More specifically, I believe this relationship is established most strongly in the final two lines of the poem, as Woodson writes, “I believe in one day and someday and this / perfect moment called Now ”(318). In this phrase, Woodson highlights the fact that when one maintains hope for the future, they are still able to acknowledge the positive aspects of the present moment. Even though social change may not occur immediately, each action taken in the present is necessary in establishing a future based on equality and justice....

  Will Pikus 10/26/22 EN-497-01             Woodson’s poetry is absolutely eye-opening. Her book paints us a picture of what is was like growing up in Greenville, SC. In the first half of the book, we witnessed her move from Ohio to South Carolina. In the second half, Woodson makes it obvious that there are still obstacles for her to overcome. Eventually, she moves to New York.              Woodson says that when she goes to Brooklyn, she has a friend. This friend goes to stay with “rich white people” in Upstate New York and comes back talking about fresh air. Woodson writes “When Maria returns she is tanned and wearing a new short set. Everything about her seems different. I stayed with white people she tells me. Rich white people. The air upstate is different. It doesn’t smell like anything! She hands me a piece of bubble gum with bubble yum in bright lette...

 On Monday we touched briefly on a child's perception of social justice and the movements around them that are speaking out for change. As a child I was shielded from the ill reality of the world, and coincidentally was lucky enough to grow up with privileges that allowed me to remain ignorant for the entirety of my childhood. I didn't understand much about race beyond what was taught at school, and to my young understanding concepts of racism were historical, moments in the past that we as a society had learned and moved on from. I think that's why (among other things) I still feel so absolutely dumbfounded by some of the asinine and disgusting realities of how social justice works today. The child in me doesn't understand how we haven't moved forward from such beliefs that we so obviously wrong decades ago, even centuries ago, and that there could possibly be people that can support these ideals. I try now to recall the moment that my adolescent self finally under...

  Victoria Sabatino  Brown Girl Dreaming Reflection  I want to discuss the relationship between the passage of time in Brown Girl Dreaming and Woodson’s Daddy’s health. Throughout the book, from when we first meet Daddy, he is described by Woodson as tall and very handsome (page 51) and a boss at the printing press in their town (pg 53). However, one of the last times we hear from Daddy, he is on his deathbed and unfortunately passes away due to his smoking habit.  There is no linear idea of time that Woodson sets up in the book. Stories are not announced to be chronological, so you need to look for details that time has, in fact, passed. One way I believe Woodson does this is through Daddy’s declining health. Since we are first introduced to him as a healthy man, we assume he will be with her for years and years. But even in Woodson’s younger years, she remembers lying sleepless hearing her grandfather cough at night. It made her nervous and scared for the next day...

          While reading through the last parts of the novel, I began to notice more references to what I would call “ancestral” or “family time”. The novel follows Woodson’s childhood, which obviously includes her family. However, her family seems to be the center of the story—friends, culture, and writing remain important but perhaps not as central. In the poem “what’s left behind”, following her grandfather’s death, Woodson examines memory and how it intertwines with reality. Although her grandfather has passed, he hasn’t truly left the family. Woodson’s grandmother says to her: “ You’ve got your daddy’s easy way…I watch you with/ your friends and see him all over again ”   (288). This poem struck me as an exploration of time and how it might distort or continue, carrying on those for whom time should’ve stopped. For Woodson’s grandfather, his time hasn’t truly stopped—he lives on, semi-eternally in his grandchildren, his daughter, and the other peop...

     Jacqueline Woodson's memoir explores her earliest days of storytelling. She writes about how she felt  as though storytelling came naturally to her, but that most of the adults in her life tried to dissuade her  from pursuing this gift. Her Uncle Robert and her Daddy are two people that appreciated her stories, and  their support seems to have been monumental to Woodson. In the poem "when i tell my family," she  writes, " It's a good hobby, we see how quiet it keeps you./ They say,/ But maybe you should be a teacher,/  a lawyer,/ do hair..." (229). Her mother even equates her storytelling to lying, whereas Uncle Robert calls  it what it is. Woodson clearly had a very active imagination as a child, and it is important that imagination  and wonder, like we have been discussing in class, do not get stifled by the school system or unsupportive  adults. We will only be able to realize justice with imaginations like Woodson's....

  Katie Roessel 21st Century Lit. and Time Oct. 25th 2022 Woodson, Literature, and Social Justice Jacqueline Woodson’s “brown girl dreaming” is a memoir written entirely in poems, describing her life as a black Jehovah’s Witness growing up in the south during the 1960s and 1970s. In the beginning of the novel, in the poem “the beginning,” she writes of the beginning of her literacy journey. It was then when she asked her sister “Will the words end.” Her sister replies “Nope,” promising Woodson “infinity.” Woodson, through the description of her own life, portrays the idea that the whole world can be found through written words.           This idea of the infinite world of literature brings to my mind the written works of social justice figures throughout modern history. I think about the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. I think about the written speeches of Malcolm X. I think about Nelson Mandela’s various essays. I...

  In her memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming , Jacqeline Woodson talks a lot about her struggle with reading and how she was constantly compared to her sister who was always at a higher reading level than her. Woodson is told that she reads too slowly and child-like. She cannot escape the comparison to her sister regardless of her assertion, “I am not my sister” (Woodson, 226).  Woodson is able to momentarily escape this comparison when her mom takes her to the library. Woodson is able to pick out the books she wants to read, not what other people believe she should read. Woodson reflects that “those days, no one tells me to read faster/to read harder books/to read like Dell” (Woodson, 227). When Woodson has freedom in what she reads, she picks a picture book. The characters in this book are people of color and Woodson is drawn to this aspect. She says that if she had not read that book she would not believe “that someone like [her]/ had a story” (Woodson, 228). This stood out to me b...

  Emma Straus   21 st Century Literature and Time   Brown Girl Dreaming   October 2022       In Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson, there is a skillfully crafted and detailed narrative that walks through Woodson’s own childhood. In juxtaposition to Aguon's book in the way the readings have been organized, we already know how powerful a personal narrative can be. Childhood memories and stories have been a potent theme throughout the course, so it is something to pay close attention to. I also was struck by the quote, “When there are many worlds / you can choose the one / you walk into each day.” Like Aguon and some of the other authors we’ve discussed, poems as a form of self-expression and protest resurface again in Woodson’s own words.   Woodson uses free-verse poetry to reflect on her life in the 60s and 70s. The poetry is also used as a source of strength and an act of facing oneself. So much of Woodson’s story is about facing ours...

  Jacqueline Woodson’s brown girl dreaming is a beautiful coming of age story explored through crafted short poems. Together, the poems build upon one another to tell the story of a young black girl in the 1960s-1970s. The piece “the beginning,” captures the moment Woodson was given the best gift she could ever imagine: words. With the gift of words and the knowledge of how to use them, she shows us how we are able to create new worlds, how we can understand the past better, improve the present, and hope for the future. Or, as she says, with words we have infinity in our hands. This particular piece (the beginning, 62-63), and the entire book, emphasize the vastness of time. Woodson talks about the lives of her ancestors as they were enslaved and faced unimaginable trauma, the courageousness of activists like MLK jr and Malcolm X, changemakers like Ruby Bridges and Rosa Parks, her own living family, and her friends. All of these people seem to exist at the same time when Woodso...

  The Properties of Perpetual Light is a hauntingly provocative collection. Aguon writes from the perspective of a Guam citizen, often illuminating some aspects of life between world powers that we don’t think about. He also reflects on his writings on life, love, and loss perspectives. What I found most interesting about The Properties of Perpetual Light, however; are his haunting reflections upon loss.  Call me nihilistic or pessimistic or whatever, but Aguon writes so elegantly about his experience with life and loss. Especially about the loss of his father. As someone who has experienced a lot of loss and has seen the effects of it on others, I find his reflections incredibly comforting. He doesn’t reflect on his time with cynicism or guilt. Instead, he seems to reflect almost amicably on his past. As though his past self and present self are working together to create a complete picture. When he writes about his father’s death, He writes about pain: “That when we are in...

  Properties of Perpetual Light  I enjoyed the first half of the book, Properties of Perpetual Light by Julian Aguon, and I was most drawn to the commencement address he gave in 2009. In this speech, he selected three lessons he learns from the story of the women fishermen.  First, he argues that no offering is too small and that no matter what we do in life, we are all qualified to save the world. However, in order to save the world, we all need to contribute. We are all qualified to do it, but it does not mean we can do it by ourselves. Saving the world is difficult, and we all need to do our part to make it a better world. This will not come easy though, as many of us, Aguon argues, have not experienced enough magic to see a world worth saving. I agree with this thought, as so much of the news and media is focused on the bad, sometimes we can feel as though there is nothing worth saving. But when we are able to put ourselves in other people’s experiences and lives,...