InaDWriMo: Success!

Success!

InaDWriMo is over and I can officially say I hit my goal of 20,000 words and then some. I didn't even bother to count because with several fellowship and grant applications in, at about 8000 words each, there was no point. I smashed InaDWriMo!!!!

::bowing to roaring aplauso::

Of course, I'm not really a success because of the special month. It is a recession, I need funding, and the applications just needed to get done. InaDWriMo did get me started though. And setting a monthly goal was a good way to get research done, get reading, and get writing at the same time. Public accountability is the spice of life.

So I'm going to try to keep it going. I'm going to call it Kismet's Push It, because "Push It" is the word I think in my head whenever I want to stop reading what I'm reading and watch Tivo'd re-runs of True Blood instead.

Push it.

Push it I will.

My Push it goal for the month of December--20,000 words again. Several new applications are due the coming months. And same deal as before: follow the progress (or lack of) at Nunez Daughter.

As an aside, I'm going for three blog posts a week here at W2S. I think I leave you guys alone too long. Gotta feed the people.

Feel free to knock on my door and remind me that I owe you goodness: kismetfour[nospam]@gmail.com.

And CONGRATULATIONS to K.Iris for finishing the first draft of her novel! She did her own NanoWriMo and didn't even try :) Yay!!!!!!!!!!!

Survival, Violence and Fear

Early in the course I presented “A Litany for Survival” to the students and slowly but surely they began writing their own poems, testifying to and hoping for their own survival in the face of violence. I realized that teaching on a campus that condoned and ignored sexual violence enacted upon and by its students made the act of standing to lead a lecture or sitting to lead a seminar discussion even more scary than my fear of public speaking provided for. And though Audre Lorde’s poetry and essays are often read in isolation (like the rest of literature in the academy) as brilliant products of a brilliant mind, it changed everything for me when I realized that while Audre Lorde was writing the poems that I needed about violence and difference and survival and fear she was a teacher. And she wasn’t teaching just anyone. Audre Lorde was the first black teacher in the English department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the City University of New York from 1970-1979. This meant she was teaching police officers in full uniform including loaded guns during the most visible period of racist police violence in the history of New York City. No wonder she was an expert in the permutations of fear. Reading Audre Lorde and teaching about trauma at Duke University during the lacrosse “scandal” taught me that teaching, being accountable to a volatile and vulnerable audience of students changes everything. Honesty in that setting requires a poetic act of faith every single time.

UBUNTU focused a large amount of energy on nurturing the stories of women and especially women of color at the colleges in our areas. After all, this entire movement was sparked by the bravery of a black college student who was brave enough to speak out against the violence she had experienced. At the same time, it was very clear to us, that while college classrooms and programming could make a difference in the lives of individual women, the college campus was not a non-violent space nor was it conducive to sustained healing.

Read ALL of it (please!) here.

InaDWriMo 2008

I, Kismet, will be participating in InaDWriMo 2008. It actually started November 1st, which makes me a couple of days late on this post but not on starting because...well...not much was accomplished the last two days. At least not in the realm of academic writing.

Participate by registering here (which basically means leaving a comment). Or cheer me on as I go. I will leave occasional updates at W2S but for quality writing/procrastination updates, hop on over to Nuñez Daughter and RSS/email subscribe.

If you aren't comfortable joining in on the fun after the party has started, leave a comment here or there. We can support each other!

My goal is 20,000 words.

::twirling:: Ok, so here we go!

ps. In case you want to nurse your literary side instead of your academic side, Tayari's got links to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and her custom creation NaFinWriNoMo. So no excuses! Get to writing--whichever way fits you best!

Class: What I Learned This Year

I found this in my mail stack this afternoon:

Dear [Kismet],

Congratulations on earning a distinctive academic honor. By placing in the top 15% of your class at University of [Hard Knocks], you are invited to join [Privilege, Status, and Class] Honour Society...

[PSC Honour Society] members are entitled to exclusive career and recruiting opportunities at a global level. Your one-time $70 student membership fee includes...

Hmm. (emphasis mine)

So if I can't pay the $70 fee, does that now mean my "outstanding academic achievement" is bullocks? Or just "this distinct honor"?

(Sorry, I've been watching BBC America lately)

Class privilege is an amazing--and invisible--thing. I never would have seen this five years ago, or even one year ago.

Interesting.

And let's not forget....

"It is important for you to accept this invitation by November 21, 2008 as we cannot guarantee this invitation will remain open after the deadline."

Nice to know I am outstanding, distinctive and honored--but only for a limited time.

Emerging Voices for Africa @ HU

The Department of African Studies at Howard University is pleased to announce the first African Studies Graduate Students Symposium to be held on October 3, 2008 at Howard University, Washington DC. The theme of this year’s symposium is “Emerging Voices for Africa: Scholarship and Activism for Social Transformation.” The purpose of this symposium is to create a space where graduate students, faculty, activists and persons interested in Africa can come together to discuss research that sheds light on and provides an in-depth analysis of possibilities for transformation, healing and revitalization in Africa along the following sub-themes:

(1) Africa in World Affairs,
(2) Development & Public Policy, and
(3) Literature and the Arts in Africa.

We also encourage students working on issues related to the Diaspora that touch on the above sub-themes to submit their proposals for inclusion at this conference.
! !
Students are encouraged to submit their proposals to the Organizing Committee on or before July 31, 2008. Each submission should include the author’s name, address, institutional affiliation, email address, and phone number.
All submissions should be sent via email to: african.palaver@hotmail.co

m
Or, to the following address:
African Studies Graduate Students Symposium
Department of African Studies, Howard University
2225 Georgia Ave, NW
Room 405
Washington DC 20059

For more information, contact Mutheu Maitha at (202) 238-2354 or african.palaver@hotmail.com

Passed.

I'm happy. Here's some happy for you:



Never say die.

WaPo: U-Md. Weighs Creating Latino Studies Minor

A 10-year campaign to establish a Latino studies program at the University of Maryland at College Park will hit a milestone today when a University Senate committee considers allowing students to minor in the field.

At a time when Latinos are the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group, students and professors said approval would be only a first step toward meeting their academic needs.

"This has been extremely frustrating," said Ana Patricia Rodriguez, an assistant professor and longtime activist on the issue. "You can see the great need in our local area to have people who know about Latinos who can provide attention, services, et cetera. It is important for our students to graduate with this background, yet our hands are tied because we don't have a structure at the school."

University officials said they are making progress. About $120,000 was provided in 2006 by the then-provost to write a proposal for a minor in U.S. Latino Studies. Within the past month, the minor was approved by a panel in the College of Arts and Humanities as well as by its dean, James F. Harris.

Harris said he expects the minor to be approved and plans to give it two years to see if students enroll in the program and faculty members want to teach its courses. Harris would then consider broadening it to a full program. Expanding the program could cost $300,000 to $500,000 for new faculty and other resources, said Ruth Enid Zambrana, a professor in Women's Studies and the senior Latina faculty member on campus.

Latino studies is a complex, evolving field that focuses on the history, culture, literature and the social fabric of Latino communities in the United States. Obstacles to creating such programs include misunderstanding about the field and debate about whether such programs are legitimate scholarship. Lack of funding also is an issue. The Persian Studies center at College Park, for example, was established with a multimillion-dollar donation from an outside institute.

"There seems to be a common underpinning: the concern that it is simply a political project, whether as a variation of affirmative action, political correctness or inverse segregationist impulses among Latinos," said Vilma Santiago-Irizarry, director of the Latino Studies Program at Cornell University.

For the rest.

Seal Press "Girlcott"

Professor Black Woman breaks down what and why here.

Circular WOC PhD Love But...

I had to share. Professor Black Woman link loved elle who link loved me who is now going to bring it full circle by link lovin' Professor Black Woman who has a list of books by academics of color on what their work means to them, what inspires them how they keep going and strategies to beat the social isolation that comes with being NOT whitemaleheteroupperclass in this business.

Click here. Spread some more link love around.

Academe. Again.

Which is why I love La Chola's 1, 2, 3, and 4-part take on academe--and respect the change being worked from all kinds of directions.

From a post I (Kismet) wrote a few weeks ago on understanding latinidad and the importance of praxis and theory to that understanding.

Because I don't believe you can have one without the other.

Despite the academic industrial complex.

And despite the vagaries of appointments, tenure, and promotion. And the spirit injury done to radical women of color academics in educational institutions across this country (the world).

I still believe...

That at the end of the day...

The textbooks that are circulated in schools...

They matter. A lot.

And the history that is done by men and women who care that the world is not ALL heterosexual, upper middle-class, Anglo-American and white....

That violence is done to make it appear that way...

That such violence wraps ALL of us in a history we have yet to understand....

That none of us are actually at peace and free to be until we are ALL at peace and free to be...

When that history is brought into a classroom and it is taught right....

I believe it changes lives.

Because it has changed mine.

(This was first. This was second. This will probably be third.)

Any questions?

Good.

Let's get on back to movement building.....

Thank you for listening.

UMCP Students Fight for Latina/o Studies Program

Foolishness: Another ethnic studies program is under siege.

Last night, a meeting was organized by undergraduates, graduate students and supportive faculty. Particularly incensed are two students who are set to graduate with the minor this year but may not have it reflected in their degrees because of the university's proposed "strategic plan":

"And for ten years we've experienced a number of setbacks … and one of the things we keep hearing over and over again is that the university doesn't understand why we need a U.S. Latina/o studies program," said Hernandez, who formerly worked as a reporter for The Diamondback.

With laughter and applause from the crowd at the considerably audacious move, senior Evelyn Lopez, a criminal justice major and one of two students who has met the requirements to graduate this May with a minor in the unsanctioned program, took the floor as well. There, she asked Farvardin how he can push a plan full of global initiatives while a diversity-centered program sits on the administration's desk.

"We've worked really hard," Lopez said. "Are you just going to forget about the other minors that are trying to get put into place, or are you just going to give more initiative to [the strategic plan] and just kind of put everything aside?"

The university claims it does not have the resources to sponsor a Latina/o Studies Program.

Times are tight, true. But the first move is to cut scholarships, fellowships, programs and departments that cater directly to populations already underrepresented at the university-level???

And what does a university without these programs look like? How does that change the dynamic of a campus over one, five or ten years?

Click here to contact
Robb Hernandez about what you can do to help the students (who are united across race, by the way) at University of Maryland-College Park.

More Critical Latinidad....

...courtesy of Planet Grenada. This time on the race, gender and sexuality matrix in the music:

The classic merengue tune [El Africano by Wilfrido Vargas] is about a "rabioso" (angry, literally "rabid") black man uncovering the innocent girl who has little experience with "lo que quiere el negro" (what the black man wants). On one level it is a festive party anthem, but on another it pretty clearly perpetuates certain alarmist attitudes towards Black sexuality. (e.g. see race and sex)

DJ Laz made heavy use of a Vargas sample and updated the song musically, if not lyrically. While more recently, Cuban-American rapper Pitbull came out with "The Anthem" featuring Lil' John as an homage to the original. Miraculously, he manages to make the lyrics more lascivious (the girl is certainly not calling her daddy for protection) and racist (adding typical Latin stereotypes of Black female/"morena" sexuality to stereotypes of Black male sexuality)...

We must, we must, we MUST critique the racism in the Latina/o community and the (hetero)sexism. We must challenge the dangerous stereotypes we perpetuate in our music, whether that is hip hop, reggaeton, or merengue. Because these stereotypes give life to things like the Da'Niyah's rape and murder + Al Sharpton's proposed defense of the Dunbar Village rapists + Juanita Bynum's return to her abusive husband Thomas Weeks III + The women who keep going missing in Juarez. Those are just examples. Those are just the (barely) publicized examples.

It's not a game. People are dying. People are scared. And critical thought leading to critical action (theory + praxis) is so key. Work change into the world from whichever direction you choose--at the moment, I choose the master's tools. Which is why I love La Chola's 1, 2, 3, and 4-part take on academe--and respect the change being worked from all kinds of directions. Which is why I love her and her and the things they are doing for the communities they live in.

It is painful and frustrating to have to think so hard about the world. To be engaged in everything around you when what you really want to say is

COME ON!
AT LEAST LEAVE US ALONE IN OUR FAMILY ROOMS
LET ME HAVE MY MICROWAVE
AND
FLATSCREEN
AND MY
20 INCH RIMS
AND I WON'T SAY ANYTHING!

When what you want to do is twinkle along your way....or be go-go gadget lost in space...

But imagine if we did. Imagine if "every n*gga was a Master Teacher?" How FUNDAMENTALLY would our entire worldview change if we treated every man and woman, every child, ever bum on the corner or professor at Oxford as though ALL of them had something to teach us? As though ALL of them had something we could learn from, experiences we could learn through? My Gawd....

(I'm still thinking through these thoughts. More to come. Thanks for the inspiration, Abdul-Halim V....)

My Righteous Mind (Great Debaters Post #1)

I feel as though I need to see the movie twice to really comment on it. But, in the meantime, I have nothing bad to say about the four young actors who played the "great debaters:" Jurnee Smollett (who made me want a daughter like her when I saw Eve's Bayou), Denzel Whitaker, Nate Parker (who may replace my current crush, Derek Luke, especially after watching the video below), and Jermaine Williams.

Anyway, below is an interview with Jamaal Finkley of BlackTree TV below. Not sure how I feel about young Whitaker's comment that smart isn't "cool" for young people today. But I adore what Smollett has to say about strong women of color, wearing a skirt by choice, and being comfortable in the good ole (black) boys club.

Bonus: It is incomplete in this clip but my FAVORITE part of the movie begins @ 6:33...

Thoroughly Amused...

...at how black/African/Afro history gets "discovered" every few years "as a way to engage black students who feel detached from mainstream curriculum."

They have learned how long it would take a runaway slave to walk to freedom from deep in the south.

A year.

"Now think how much longer it would take if you had children with you," prods the teacher. "Or if you lost your shoes wading through the river to throw bloodhounds off your scent."

Not a paper rustles; even the girl eating lunch at the back is fixed on the front.

In this unusual new "sold-out" class at a Scarborough high school, students are learning a new kind of history: African history.

As the Toronto District School Board debates trying an "African-centred" alternative grade school next year to battle the high black dropout rate, this course – and a dozen like it sprinkled through Toronto's 150 public high schools – provide a glimpse of how such a school might work.

"This is my history, miss. The first university in the world was in Timbuktu – in Africa!" gushes Karar Jafar, 18, who moved to Canada five years ago from Libya.

(Quote Courtesy: HNN Roundup; Full Article: The Toronto Star)

And I completely approve. It kept my butt in my seat in high school AND college and now I'm trying to make a living with it. Whodathunk?

But now we are back to the conflict that we saw with the AP African American history issue. Does an "African-centered" curriculum also translate into hiring more African American (or African, Afro-Caribbean, etc.) scholars and teachers to create curriculum, teach the classes, write the books that will be read, craft exercises, build the museums the kids will visit, design the websites they can use.....you catch my drift? Does it even translate into hiring competent, enthusiastic and interested teachers of ANY color who will give the history its due attention?

Although I will take an L on it if the coursework translates into those young people making those demands for themselves.

(*sigh and relevant sidenote: Saw a NAACP preview of the Great Debaters. Interesting night, interesting movie. A blog post is in the queue....)

Cultural Criticism and Ethnic Divisions

I wasn't sure whether to put this on my scholar side (this blog) or my Afro-diasporic politics side (Waiting2Speak) but since that is the crux of the conflict in this post, I'll put it in both places.

Because on one side I have just finished reading the conversations between bell hooks and Amalia Mesa-Bains in Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism. A Chicana and an African American woman, both artists and scholars, engaged in an intellectual exchange that they argue does not happen enough between African Americans and Latina/os. Both demonstrating, through their personal experiences and historical research, that the history and trajectory of both groups (i.e. slavery, genocide and colonization, disfranchisement, economic exploitation and violence) are interrelated.

Cut to the TSO posting (and "Tell Me More" discussion too?) of the New American Media poll that suggests "deep divisions" between Latina/os, African Americans and Asian Americans in this country. So deep that "...the three groups seem more trusting of whites than of each other."

Word?

The survey is only of about 1000 participants but still has profound implications as the first multilingual poll completed by this particular group. So, beyond the obvious, does this poll also say something about a gap between blacks and Latina/os in the academy and the lived realities of people of color in the U.S.?

Or (cut to glass half full) does it say something about how blacks and Latina/os in the academy can and do continue to engage and identify with the lived realities of people of color in the U.S. and presenting solutions/critiques?

Howard U., U-PR and Diversity in the Academy

PhDinHistory compiled stats on where Ph.Ds got their B.A.s with an eye to where history departments should go to recruit students of color. Howard ranks top for African American women and men. University of PR-Rio Piedras ranks top for Puerto Rican men and women.

Click Here for the list

When it Rains it Pours...

And I forgot to add this as another update. Passed along to me courtesy of Robb Hernandez, Program Coordinator for the United States Latina/o Studies Initiative and Director of the Latina/o Studies Working Group, both based at the University of Maryland. For all those with an interest in Afrolatina/o Studies or Black Latinidad:

Black Behind the Ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops
Ginetta E. B. Candelario

Associate Professor of Sociology and Latin American and Latina/o Studies at Smith College

"Black behind the Ears is an innovative historical and ethnographic examination of Dominican identity formation in the Dominican Republic and the United States. For much of the Dominican Republic’s history, the national body has been defined as “not black,” even as black ancestry has been grudgingly acknowledged. Rejecting simplistic explanations, Ginetta E. B. Candelario suggests that it is not a desire for whiteness that guides Dominican identity discourses and displays. Instead, it is an ideal norm of what it means to be both indigenous to the Republic (indios) and “Hispanic.” Both indigeneity and Hispanicity have operated as vehicles for asserting Dominican sovereignty in the context of the historically triangulated dynamics of Spanish colonialism, Haitian unification efforts, and U.S. imperialism. Candelario shows how the legacy of that history is manifest in contemporary Dominican identity discourses and displays, whether in the national historiography, the national museum’s exhibits, or ideas about women’s beauty. Dominican beauty culture is crucial to efforts to identify as “indios” because, as an easily altered bodily feature, hair texture trumps skin color, facial features, and ancestry in defining Dominicans as indios." CLICK HERE

Would You Take (or Have Taken) AP African American History?

In an effort to raise interest in Advanced Placement courses among African American high school students, some have suggested offering AP African American History. See story below.

(Thanks T.Ligon for passing this along)

Should AP Add African-American History?

The original story and user comments can be viewed online at http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/08/07/ap.

The Advanced Placement program offers curriculums and testing in 37 areas — chemistry and calculus, art history and Latin literature, Chinese language and culture and European history, to name just a few. But there is no AP in African-American history.

Some school district officials have recently suggested that such an AP program be created — but the College Board is skeptical College Board officials say their doubts have nothing to do with the significance of African-American history, but with the reactions they have received from college educators they have consulted. For a variety of reasons, the College Board says, college officials prefer to be teaching African-American history themselves, as opposed to having students enter college with AP credit in the field. If colleges wanted to have an AP offering in African-American history, the board would be open to the idea, its officials say.

The difference of opinion points to a number of questions that surround the AP program: Is its purpose to help students place out of introductory courses or to encourage them to study with greater rigor in high school (or both)? Why do some AP programs attract more members of certain ethnic or racial groups than others? Why are black students significantly less likely than the population as a whole to take AP courses? With many competitive colleges expecting applicants to have AP courses on their transcripts, should the College Board be trying new strategies to get more black students involved in the program...

(click above for rest of article)