Final Reflection

Throughout my life, I have encountered certain hard times in which I needed a safe-zone. These examples include when I was separated from my family and moved to Illinois; when I transferred schools; when I was rejected by my church; and, after having serious arguments with my mother. Usually when I needed to escape, I would go on a walk. However, going on walks alone in a strange area is never a good idea. So the next best idea was to go over a friend’s house. This same concept is demonstrated in Keesha’s House, in which teenagers would often escape over to Keesha’s residence in order to find a “safe house,” or a temporary sanctuary.

                Like the characters in Keesha’s House, I too found myself crossing unintentional borders when I would camp out at a friend’s house. Because I consider myself lower-class (I come from a one-parent household and my mother is the only family I associate with; I am considered a racial minority; I’m a little stingy with money) and all my friends are higher social standing (two parents, have extended family; Caucasian; spend money all the time), I thought that I would not fit in at all with their lifestyle. On the contrary, I found myself agreeing more and more with the parents of my friends than my friends themselves, being able to understand the pains of allocating money and the need for frugality. In addition, I thought it would be a good thing to put myself to work. I cooked, cleaned, tutored, and even counseled in order to stay on the good side of my friends’ parents. But like the definition of a safe house says, it was only temporary. So I eventually returned to my own place and status and used the knowledge of my experiences away from home to see if I could build bridges with my own mother. It seemed to work.

                However, sometimes staying with my friends didn’t go so smoothly. Just as Harris was approached by some strange person in the middle of his transition from one sanctuary to another, I was too. This person, however, happened to be a relative of my best friend at the time. For my own safety, I was required to break off the friendship. I lost a safe-house because of it, but I was able to form new relationships with other people that probably wouldn’t have formed otherwise. By distancing myself from one place, I formed connections with other outcasts, others who were looking to find their places in life. This became my journey throughout my senior year.

                My senior year, in a way, reminds me of the Yuma 14. Many of us in my graduating class came with our own baggage, with our own issues, from our own families, and we came to high school in order to try and get a better life for ourselves. By pursuing the road to higher education, we chose to believe in ourselves and our dreams.  Some of us were the first in our family to go to high school and try to get to college, just as those in The Devil’s Highway were the first to go to America. However, the road to acceptance and education wasn’t an easy one. Sure, we didn’t have to travel through a desert and die of dehydration. But there were physical barriers, like our neighborhoods. I had to figure out how to address and skip over boundaries, as the high school of my choice was not in my recommended zone. After careful negotiation with my school board and a number of entrance exams, I was allowed to attend. I needed someone to speak on my behalf, just as the native Mexicans did, and so these people were my instructors from middle school, freshman campus, and even community college.  My teachers acted as the bridge necessary for me to make the jump from one school to another, and I know that the admissions counselors did the same for many of my peers.  Sure, not all 900 freshmen crossed the stage, but some of us did, and though we made it with our own battle scars, we made it and now we are able to tell our stories.

                Before this year, however, I don’t think I ever found it necessary to tell my story or focus on the borders, bridges, and boundaries of my life or education. I didn’t think to interlink my problems, either, in order to show a bigger struggle for those who might be in my same situation or demographic. But through compilations like The Wind Shifts and A Capella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry, I realize that I am able to actually share my story in such a way that it can prove educational to readers as well as bridge connections to others that can ultimately help me in a way to grow.

                I suppose overall my interests have now focused towards creative writing in both a fiction and non-fiction purpose, and that this class has prepared me in ways of connecting to my reader by forming bridges with connections that occur in life. Ideas for this concept occurred to me while I was writing my poetry imitations of Di Brandt, a poet included in the A Capella anthology. Poetry writing has always been a passion of mine, and I believe it was my best subject not only in high school, but also in my Introduction to Creative Writing course. Creative non-fiction for the purpose of entertaining and educating my reader has also drifted into my papers for Expository Writing class, in the forms of my personal stories and through my perspective pieces about demisexuality and my lack of comfort in regards to personal displays of affection. Perhaps by continuing to address borders, bridges, and boundaries in everyday life, I will be able to teach others not only about myself, but also a little bit more about the human development.

Just How Open is the Door?

THESIS

Oftentimes the church is considered to be a sanctuary-- a place of worship for those of like minded people. Originally, the purpose of the church was used as a gathering place for people to escape persecution and to find people who accept their beliefs in order for them to continue to be strong in their faith. Rather than going out and reaching others as the main purpose of a church, they remained available for others to come to them willingly. In this way, the Open Door Christian Fellowship participates in this manner, rather than going out and seeking others.

DESCRIPTION

Open Door Christian Fellowship, with its main location at 51586 County Road 5 N, Elkhart, Indiana, is a church located out in the middle of nowhere. Many of the off-roads do not have signs, and unless coming directly off the interstate or state highway, it is quite difficult to find it unless one is familiar with the area. There are a lot of farms and not a lot of residential areas. In fact, the only residential area that I noticed was the one that my friend lived in and the apartments located next door. If coming by Elkhart Memorial High School, there are a number of misleading signs that say "church" and street signs that lead to nowhere. There are also forks in the road where there are no street signs. When a person is about two minutes away from the church, there is a questionable looking gas station to act as a landmark.

Considering that each time I visited the church I had a different reception based on I was accompanied by, I cannot give a description of a typical Sunday service. I can, however, give a number of details on the basic layout and schedule of the church itself as I understand it. If a person is asked to babysit the youth leader's children, they must arrive at around 8:45 AM. Because there are people already there setting up the stage for the musicians, I would assume that the pastor opens the doors no later than 8:15 AM because there is a lot of equipment, in addition to the fact that the door needs to be open for the youth leader to get in. Though the youth leader is the pastor's daughter, she is at least 25 years of age, so I am assuming that she has her own home and lives some distance away from the church. People pour into the church around 9:15 and casually communicate with one another before walking into the sanctuary at 9:30. There's a bit of time for praise and worship with a live band before moving onto prayer, communion, and then the sermon. After the first song, the children are excused from the sanctuary and moved to various areas of the church for their own services. Communion is done by people breaking off their own pieces of bread and dunking them into chalices filled with wine. The youth leader generally announces when the pastor is ready to begin service. Church always ends no later than 11:00, as dictated by the pastor, in order to ensure that people are able to use the rest of their day in a productive manner.

The type of people that attend the church are essentially all middle class Caucasian people. In order to be more specific, most of the people there are related, according to my inside source. The pastor, his wife, and their relatives are all ministry leaders. The pastor's children, as well as his in-laws, also have positions as spiritual guidance counselors or teachers. Branching from the in-laws and siblings are all aunts, uncles, grandparents, and adopted children. According to a program from the last service I attended (St. Patrick's Day), there were about 90 in total. The church is slowly growing as it begins to expand its ministry to outside its own walls, but for the most part, the population is about the same. The only cultural diversity include an African American boy who was adopted, an African American woman who works with another member of the church, and a Latino family whose matriarch acts as a nanny for an additional member of the church. No names were included.

STRUCTURE, MISSION, AND VISION

The pastor of the church is Dennis Chaput, and sometimes his wife, Sharon, stands in for him. The associate pastors are Matt & Julie as well as Matthew & Kate. Matt and Kate are Dennis's children. A woman named Jillian Melnick, who was born in England and immigrated to Indiana, has the title of "prophetic life minister." She stands in when the pastors and associate pastors are unavailable to preach and handles some of the outside ministry programs.

As part of a non-denominational church, it does not belong to part of a specific structure. That being said, the founding pastor was able to create his own mission statement that does not have to correlate to any of the other Evangelical Protestant churches that might be located around the area. The mission statement of the church, which can be found on any publications made by the establishment as well as on the website, says: "Cultivating a supernatural Jesus-culture that values God's Presence, honors His people, and advances His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven." Interests of the church include ministering to hundreds as soon as it has enough money and people; ministering to married couples, children, families, and adult singles; extending its ministry by "being Jesus in the Michiana region"; and helping people to enter a loving and interactive relationship with Jesus.

The outreach portion of the church focuses a lot on the participants already attending Open Door, and includes programs such as the ministry team, classes (Bible study / book club), children's ministry, youth ministry, "The Well" and prayer chain. The part of outreach that focuses on reaching the community and contacting them personally to bring people the Word of God relies on a program the church calls "blessing teams," in which businesses can call the church if they would like a group of people to visit them and to pray over them.

CONCLUSION

Because the church is so focused on maintaining the religion and worship within its own walls, I think outreach and missionary deeds are a little difficult for them. In addition, with everyone in the church being connected to one another in some way or another, they all have a similar mindset, and so it is difficult for the church to look outside the box and find out other ways of how it can act as a contact zone. In addition, with such an obscure location, how can people find them? Rather than drawing people in with the Light of God, they simply act as an Open Door-- letting the light seep through and hope someone from the darkness sees it and is curious enough to come inside. But I guess the biggest success is that whenever they are ready to go out and spread their wings to act as a contact zone, they'll have a large number of people that are well prepared for their mission of helping others.

International Student Dinners?

Every now and then, my friend Hannah and I decide to just make a dinner or an outing because we need time to spend together outside of work or studying. The first time, we went over to her boyfriend's house and watched The Cleveland Show. It doesn't seem like the most exciting of venues, but to just have me, Hannah, her boyfriend, and his roommate just relax and watch some cartoons was a thrilling experience itself.

Did I mention that Hannah was born in Botswana and is just now spending time back in America after taking a gap-year in South Africa? What about her boyfriend and his roommate, who are both from Burkina Faso? And then there's me...that Black/Cherokee kid looking to fit in. And somehow in the midst of things, I did. 

So we decided to have another dinner! And this time, they asked me to bring a friend. So naturally, I brought the person who absolutely never leaves my side for anything at all. He's from Goa, India, and I knew Hannah and he would hit it off. The evening ended with us watching Touch until 3am. Again, I didn't think much of it. Just a group of us students getting along and making food from our own cultures and enjoying ourselves. The first time, we had tons of mangoes and papayas and vegetables to hold us down as healthy snacks. The second time, we decided to make frittata, brown rice, and baked chicken livers.  It was okay. I thought, oh okay, a third event wouldn't hurt too much, right?

Over Easter break, Hannah and I decided that we needed to watch Jesus Christ Superstar because the phrase "Jesu Cris superstar" has been in our head for ages. We decided a dinner would be the best way to handle this situation. In addition, she and I have been craving salad for ages. So we decided to have another dinner this past weekend. But little did I know, I was going to have a major surprise.

"Come over at 3pm," Hannah's boyfriend said. "We'll start prepping and get ready for the dinner at 7." I'm pretty sure my face dropped, because never has prep work ever taken so long. 

"How many are coming?" I asked.

"However many my roommate invited," he responded.

When 7:00 PM came around on Saturday evening, the people just started piling in. I took it upon myself to invite another friend and my roommate, just so that they could have a little experience of what "hanging out with Hannah" meant, but the impression they received was far more than what I had intended. What happened instead was that all of Hannah's boyfriends' friends over 21 showed up. And there were a ton of them.

We had people from Norway, India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Greece, Italy, and Australia. In addition, we had Polish, African American, African, and other American Indians around. In other words, we had a number of countries and a ton of diversity! It was insane! There was a ton of food, from three types of grilled and baked chicken, to green beans and tomatoes, to basmati rice and a spicy sauce to go on top, and frittata as usual. Surprisingly, though our number came to about 16, there was enough food to spare. 

What makes this event exciting is that I felt it acted as a contact zone. Though most of the international students already knew each other, it was obvious through interactions and conversations that they had never really spent time of this nature together. They learned about what songs they liked to sing and dance to, what drinks they preferred, and even plans after graduation. And my friends were able to meet the upperclassmen that I always talk about. I believe networking is a valuable thing, and so I hope more events of this caliber happen in the future to create more "contact zones."

The Maple City Market -- A Contact Zone

THESIS

Maple City Market acts as a contact zone for different borders, bridges, and boundaries by being located between Goshen College and downtown Goshen, Indiana. By being within walking distance of the school, it allows nearby students who may come from different regions of the country (or the world!) to obtain different and specialized types of fruits and vegetables that may not be otherwise accessible within ordinary grocery stores.

             DESCRIPTION

Maple City Market, located on 315 South Main Street, Goshen, Indiana, is a natural food shop that acts as a cooperative. It is located on the edge of downtown Goshen, and it provides naturally grown produce that is delivered by nearby farmers.

Though downtown Goshen also has a farmer’s market, people can choose to contribute to the co-op in order to obtain discounts on other items within the store. It caters to those who are interested in healthy foods at high quality, as well as those who have specialized diets and want to do “one stop shopping” rather than going around to different markets to find certain foods to avoid particular allergens.

It is located on a busy street corner of downtown Goshen, which branches further into downtown in three of the four available directions. By going south, one would find themselves heading towards New Paris. People of all ages enter the cooperative, and young adults are usually the cashiers in the establishment.

In a typical hour, younger people from the nearby college look for specific items such as herbs, allergen free produce, and granola that might be in little to no stock in a regular grocery store that would be less expensive. Middle aged individuals go in looking to try out the new soups and to buy their regular items—this can be assumed based on the familiarity the cashiers and managers the people have with the older patrons in comparison to the younger customers who hardly speak to the workers while purchasing their items.

Because the prices are a little higher than the supermarket, this shop is definitely not for low-income families. Rather, it caters to those who are of middle class. Because the population of the middle class has not changed in quite some time, it seems that the cooperative is staying about the same size, and at the moment it has no intentions of expanding. In addition, the cooperative does not use the money it receives in order to promote its own business. Rather, it gives back into the community to promote the development of the inner city.

STRUCTURE, VISION, AND MISSION

The current general manager of the cooperative is Kum Ng, representing some of the new international influence that Goshen receives yearly through its outreach programs. His influence can be seen throughout the store because there are a lot of Asian spices that cater to those coming from India, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China. Considering that many of the students that come from these countries attend the nearby Goshen College, it makes sense that Ng is reaching out to these specific individuals by providing them items that they would not be able to find elsewhere in the Goshen area. Owners would include Laura Hernandez, the supplier (or supplement buyer, as she calls it) of the Maple City Market and Sarah (no last name given).

In addition, there is a board that collaborates with the owners in order to establish what they would like to see within the co-op and to instill the values the board has into the actual business and organization themselves. Rather than work inside the business, they collaborate with the city board in order to discover ways the business can help to support the community in terms of other small businesses and its citizens. This is how the Maple City Market can choose to allocate its funds to help out businesses like The Window, the fire department, and to share its produce during events like the annual Breast Cancer Walk.

As for interests, the co-op acts on the interests of the manager and owners. The owners voluntarily choose to become members of the co-op and they are people who have shopped there on a regular basis. By becoming owners, they get a number of discounts and select offers, including:

·         Monthly owner-only sales
·         Receive 10% discount on case quantities
·         Receive 5% discount on your total purchases, every third Wednesday
·         A voice in your local co-op by voting for board members  and other special issues, and also the ability to serve on the board as well
·         Receive our bi-monthly newsletter
·         Investment in our community
·         Become eligible to lend the store’s DVD’s

In order to become an owner, there are two options:

1.       Make an annual investment of $20 for five years.
2.       Make one $100 investment and receive an organic cotton grocery bag.

The ownership starts immediately afterward.

Going back to the core values of the co-operative, there are seven principles that are created and designated by the board in order to keep the business “on track.” They are:

1.       Voluntary and open membership
2.       Democratic member control
3.       Members economic participation
4.       Autonomy and independence
5.       Education, training, and information
6.       Cooperation among Co-ops
7.       Concern for community

If the owners keep these values in mind, the board believes the co-op will be successful.

                COMMUNITY OUTREACH

As stated previously, the co-op reaches out to different groups and organizations throughout Elkhart Country and tries to support them in one way or another. Each month they try to support two or three different groups, and records of such efforts are recorded online in the “community outreach” page. At the moment it is incomplete and outdated, as the last time it was updated was August 2012. Regardless, examples of community events and organizations they have supported in the past include:

·         The 2012 Run for Research Campaign
·         The Window*
·         The Goshen Police Department
·         Elkhart County Clubhouse
·         Mosaic Goshen
·         Downtown Goshen, Inc.

*They have contributed to The Window every month since December 2011.

                CONCLUSION

The Maple City Market has integrated fully with its community by not only catering and supporting other small businesses and organizations and thus creating a larger contact zone and base of support, but also takes the interests of the community into its concerns by participating in city hall meetings and having a board of representatives from various backgrounds to ensure that the co-op is able to hold items that are within the community’s interests. In addition, the general manager works with the owners and supplier to ensure that there is enough diversity within the grocery store itself in order to attract others who would otherwise look over the market. This diversity includes having ingredients that cater to the tastes of the international population that cycle not only through the nearby college, but in Elkhart County all together. 

A Capella Poetry Project: Di Brandt

Di Brandt is a Canadian woman that was born into a conservative Mennonite family in 1952. She was born in Winkler, Manitoba, in a small community that held tight Christian beliefs and was incredibly critical of the outside world. Later in her life, however, she moved to Winnipeg, causing her family to chastise her for becoming “one with the world” instead of “living in the world, but not of it,” one of the major precepts of her church. Upon moving into a more diverse community, Brandt experiences liberal ideas and values that challenge her previous understanding of life. She is well known for writing “Canadian” literature—literature about maternity and nature—and has produced several volumes of poetry, such as questions I asked my mother, Agnes in the Sky, and mother not mother. Her writings branch out from the reserved notion of conservative Mennonites and address highly controversial feelings and experiences otherwise not openly expressed in the mainstream community. “Nonresistance, or love Mennonite style” is a poem addressing some of the aforementioned “forbidden” feelings that Brandt experienced as a child. Within the first few lines, she criticizes one of the Biblical values, “turning the other cheek,” by questioning what to do in certain situations that could demoralize an individual. Her satirical stance continues, almost into a blasphemous state, as she mentions inappropriate feelings towards family members and even towards themselves, such as how her lips tingle when she kisses her uncle and how her father beats her mother. By mentioning these topics, she strongly critiques the morality within nonresistance and pacifism from her new point of view of being “in the world.” I share a similarity with Di Brandt in regards to my personal opinion on my own culture. In a biography written by Donna Bailey Nurse, a contributor to the Quill & Quire magazine, Di says “I spent so much time writing, fighting, against my Mennonite inheritance and the restrictions it puts on women and its internal contradictions.” In the same way, I spent much of my life protesting my African American heritage, at times even rejecting it. In addition, my childhood also shaped my opinion of my culture. As my father often rejected me from his community by repeatedly telling me that I was never “good enough” or “Black enough,” I found myself spending a lot of time and energy loathing myself and the community that I was indefinitely tied to. Such frustrations are illustrated within my imitation of “Nonresistance, or love Mennonite style.”

Smile & Pretend

nod your head obediently & smile when
the white man walks past your house with
his feet trampling over the tulips & lilies
you spent all summer planting with your
great-grandmother who’s pretending she’s not dying
& honestly, you’re dying, too, but
none of that matters ‘cause you’re laughing too much
‘cause you’re still in one piece &
the teachers think that seems good enough
& they’re white & you’re not so
you smile & pretend you don’t feel
your skin tingling as the air hits that
newly open wound you received from
the black kids & the spit you were gifted with
to use as antiseptic to clean out all that white
puss you’ve got coming out of your flesh
& speaking of your skin you best remember
you’re not black enough even though you’re
the darkest one in the entire house &
no matter how much your mom tans
she isn’t going to get darker than the Jews
down the road & you wonder why daddy
even picked mama & you think that’s probably
why mama always says No! No! when you mention him
so you try not to & you mention God since
He’s an eternal papa & not gonna die like you
except for that one time on the cross when
He died for everybody and was stabbed in the hands
& you got stabbed in the hands too
& the heart & you pretend to be Jesus for a moment
& ask Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani &
you get no response but God is watching
so nod your head obediently & smile

The next poem, beginning with the line “the great dark rush of mothering,” addresses Brandt’s concerns about maternity. Within her home, her father acted as an overbearing figure with an almost dictator-like authority. Growing up, the only text she was allowed to read was the Bible, allowing him to act as a tyrant without bonds. She was afraid to publish her poetry and waited until after her father died before she finally released any of her works. Considering that her mother was often beat, this led Brandt to question the purpose of a mother overall. After aging, the author entered into a short marriage before divorcing her husband and acting as a single mother. These experiences allowed her to reflect about maternity and the female sexuality, leading to the creation of this piece. In the poem, she reflects on the feelings behind being a mother and all the strength it takes, while meanwhile using language that contrasts from the stereotypical view of motherhood. Rather than embracing the beauty behind hosting children, she writes lines including, “slit open your belly, trampled / your sheets, / wanting to be gone.” As the poem is written in couplets, the images within each couplet stand alone with each section focusing on a different aspect of the biological experience. These images include bonding with the children, becoming protective of them, and letting them go. Though this is a natural experience of being a parent, the tone of the poem is dark, thus separating it from other works about being a single mother. In addition, Brandt includes another characteristic of her “Canadian” poetry by inserting nature. I chose this poem to analyze and to include in the discussion because I hold another connection with the poet. My mother was a single parent, and so often I wondered if she felt as if I was a parasite because I am solely reliant on her for everything. I also feel guilty at times because as I attend college, I am leaving her alone. My mother was raised with divorced parents and she did not stay in one home throughout her childhood. She began her life with her great-grandmother and she was visited by her grandmother, who she mistook as her mother; and her mother, who she mistook as her sister. Upon reaching her teenage years, she moved in with her mother and abusive stepfather who would often would make sexual advances towards her. After witnessing her step-father attack her mother when being addressed about the issue, my mother ran away from home and went to her father’s. Her step-mother did not like her, either, and maliciously threw objects at her, intending to injure my mother. With such a tumultuous childhood, my mother attempted to protect me by sheltering me. Rather than write about my mother’s experience with parenting, my imitation focuses on my mother’s childhood and her experience aging.

the vast, dark valley of childhood,
the false excitement in it,

the confusion, the loss, and the anticipation
as it sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks out youth.

your hands reach out to grab what’s left,
fingers trembling

hesitant to go back – hopping out
the frying pan & into the fire,

pushed on your back, dirtied
your sheets,

wanting to move on.

the color children see most often
is white,

holding on to it, with the snow,
in the air, in the sky,

in your eyes, pupils narrowing into slits, heart
pumping, almost bursting into:

tears, screams, every
indicator of terror,

pieces of yourself because you
can’t stay still,

the family’s a teapot,
whistling before its departure

when all it needed was
to blow off steam,

to be poured out,
to be released.

The last poem differs greatly from the other two poems, but goes back to the original theme of disliking childhood from her conservative Mennonite perspective and implements both her cross-cultural understandings and her appreciation in nature after moving to Winnipeg. This combination is something she calls “Ecopoetic.” It does not have a title, but it begins with the line “when I was five.” The premise of the poem consists of the speaker, which I assume is Brandt, reflecting on a time when she was five and thinking that heaven existed in her barn. This is actually a more relaxing poem, and so for an imitation, it was a little more difficult to personalize, but it is based off a misinterpretation, just as many of Brandt’s poems are misinterpretations and alternative understandings of speaking.

when I was twelve I thought the world was
ending with the school year and burned into
my skin with the rays of summer and the fresh
winds of change along with the freedom of not
having a home to call my own like Annie
an orphan without a church home but God is
in the wind like the colors from Pocahontas or
at least that’s what I thought when I saw my mother
and her smiling face and blowing Cherokee hair
smothering her face like the congested smoke of
the polluted air she breathed in from the cigarettes
& I coughed up and ejected the last air I could
before inhaling the peace pipe of carcinogens
through second hand smoke & survivors as
I remembered that the end is the beginning &
suddenly I felt sweat running down my face
like it would if I was already in Hell &
Chicago in the middle of summer burned my skin
like the end of the world and that homeless shelter
kept me cool.

In conclusion, Di Brandt writes poetry that offers an alternative interpretation of common experiences and circumstances such as childhood and motherhood, allowing her to create bridges from her personal life to the general understanding. She begins in the first poem by addressing the cultural boundaries that she felt were either suffocating or unnecessary and writes about them in a satirical manner, thus criticizing her extremely conservative Mennonite childhood. My poem compares by chastising the American culture and the boundaries that are not supposed to be crossed as both a child and an African-American. I also address similar topics that Brandt does, such as tension between the family and all together. In the second poem, she attempts to cross borders by writing about motherhood in an unconventional manner. By escaping the stereotype, Brandt tries to bring another perspective by distorting the traditional views regarding maternity and brings her experience from being a single mother with a broken family. My imitation includes my mother's experience of a broken childhood, and expands on the idea of not only the delights of childhood, but also the despairs. Finally, the Canadian poet reflects on her new perspective as a Mennonite by introducing a greater emphasis on nature, but at the same time reminisces on a fallacy she had as a child on a single moment she had in a barn. My imitation includes a single moment I had during childhood in which I also integrate nature but emphasize the fallacy I had in regards to having a home and what it meant to be without a place to lay my head to call my own but still having a place overall.

Sources:

Foo, Alexis. "Clichés And Landscapes." Canadian Literature 212 (2012): 155-156. Academic Search Premier. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.

Pell, Barbara. "Di Brandt's World." Canadian Literature 197 (2008): 119-120. Academic Search Premier. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.

Stark, Leslie. "Writing In The Dark." Canadian Literature 186 (2005): 187-188. Academic Search Premier. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.

Links: 

http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/profile.cfm?article_id=6129 

http://www.brocku.ca/canadianwomenpoets/Brandt.htm

http://www.ecclectica.ca/issues/2007/3/brandt.asp

[a conversation with the ignorant black.]

As explored previously within Borders, Bridges, and Boundaries, poetry can act as a contact zone as well as a bridge between cultures. Through reading The Wind Shifts, we as an audience gained the ability to learn a little about the Hispanic and Latino cultures through the portrayal given by the various artists. The poems included comprised of various opinions of cultures, from embracing the Latino heritage, to rejecting assimilation, as well as a general confusion on being on the "in between." By reading this particular anthology, the intended population gains an insight on the struggles within the Spanish-speaking community, allowing the people to form a connection and thus eroding the xenophobic barrier that has evolved and continuously reinforced with every terrorist attack. A similar education has been created and reinforced with A Capella,  a collection of Mennonite poems.

I must admit, I did not know what to expect when I first picked up this particular anthology. Previous to attending Goshen College, I had never even heard of--never mind encountered--a Mennonite before. Upon doing a little bit of basic research, I discovered that they seemed to be conservative individuals who held peace as a strong value, as well as volunteer work, in order to become as Christ-like as possible. It seemed simple enough, and so with attending the college, my presumptions seemed to be accurate. When I attended my peace-making seminar class, that is when I learned that there wasn't just one group of Mennonites-- in fact, there are a number of subcultures, varying the spectrum from erratically liberal to excessively conservative. In addition, the traditions changed by state as well as by the original country one's family emigrated from. These changes are reflected in A Capella as well, ranging from Julia Kasdorf's "Mennonites" to David Wright's "A New Mennonite Replies to Julia Kasdorf." There are even strange and "forbidden" concepts to write about, like Di Brandt's "nonresistance, or love Mennonite style." No matter what the case, I was shown time and time again that even though the Mennonite culture is a culture far different from my own, there was something for me to learn, understand, and eventually love. The poetry acts as a bridge and allows me to make connections between something that is completely foreign to me, and something I know very well: my identity and values.

So in writing my own poem based off a form discussed in A Capella, I found it easiest to take the Jeff Gundy route. My first drafts began with mere imitations of "How to Write the New Mennonite Poem," and I thought it best to focus on the length of the poem, as it focuses on a number of references made by Julia Kasdorf in her "Mennonites." However, upon the third or fourth draft, I discovered this was not the case. It was simply too difficult to explain everything about an African American, especially when there is not one clear view of the race. Instead, when I decided to focus on one particular subset (in this case, the rude and ignorant African Americans who are subject to today's stereotypes and actively fulfill them), I found it much easier to write, and thus it brings me to this draft. I am sure as of this moment it is still incomplete, but considering that my audience (in this case, my peers) seemed to be able to relate in some context, I feel that I may have reached my goal. Within my poem, I am writing as both an outsider and an insider. I am providing inclusive criticism to my own ethnicity and the contradictions that exist within it. The plight of the modern African American is having to choose between remaining ignorant to stay accepted by the culture, or to embrace education and diversity and thus be considered the ultimate evil, White

And my poem is as follows:

Oftentimes, we remember to write about Martin Luther King, Jr.
How he saved us from tyranny and oppression,
singlehandedly delivering us from segregation with talks of “I have a dream!”
If we’re lucky, we might remember Rosa Parks and
sitting on the bus makes us no slave of the white man. 

The white man made us who we are,
stealing us from Africa and placing us here in America.
Let’s pretend that the temptation for guns and new technology
didn’t make us sell each other out.
It’s not like we’re reliving our past mistakes right now. 

In fact, let’s blame everything on Caucasian authority.
They’re the whole reason why we can’t get a job.
The only things we can do in life are play golf, slam dunk, and shoot bullets.
Females can pop babies and get welfare, too.
Don’t forget the child support. 

Celebrities are made when you go on Maury or Jerry Springer,
not so much when you graduate from high school or stay abstinent.
As long as you praise Jesus, you can get away with almost anything.
Except, of course, being white.
God forbid you act white. 

And that can happen if you commit the following sins:
You use that “white people speak.”
You dress conservatively instead of “showing those curves.”
You prefer to straighten your hair rather than keeping it natural.
But most importantly, you don’t “get your nails done and your hair did.” 

If you appreciate anything as a Black,
know that you will not take anything from the White man!
You will not take his stereotypes, his ignorance, or his name-calling.
Nor will you take his jobs, his education, his family, or his stability.
You will stay in the negative, where you belong.

Who are "We"? -- Latino Literature and The Devil's Highway

The Devil's Highway is a novel written by Luis Alberto Urrea narrating the events of the Yuma 14 survivors. Though involving some elements of fiction in order to conceptualize the emotions felt by the characters, Urrea does a great job of integrating facts he learned from interviews from Border Patrol, case files, and biographies and applying to the characters in order to make the story a more of a creative nonfiction piece. I think by making the victims of the novel slightly more fictional, it allows the readers to connect to the individuals involved on a much personal level, moreso than just as if Urrea had written a documentary or biography of the individuals in question.

This being said, Urrea is able to apply the concept of borders, bridges and boundaries and have the novel connect to us personally as readers in a number of ways. These connections allow us to determine the differences, if there are any, between "us" and "them." Who really is "us"? Why is there a need for a subgroup? As stated previously, there are a number of ways in which we as people can be explored in terms of borders, bridges and boundaries, and three of them are by language, citizenship, and physical geography.

First of all, language acts as both a bridge and a boundary for individuals. For those who speak the same language, a bridge is formed to connect people to different thoughts, concepts, understandings, cultural beliefs, and anything and everything in between. If they are to speak differently, then perhaps a boundary is formed because there is a lack of understanding between two individuals or cultures. This boundary is something that creates an "us" and a "them." Only through curiosity and the attempt to learn about the others and remove ignorance through other cultures is there a true sense of diversity and understanding, thus eliminating the boundary and bridging multiple cultures into one sense, one people. The Devil's Highway takes advantage of the situation that only the coyotes are truly fluent in American English, so the lack of comprehension between the Americans and Mexicans acts as a boundary and a psychological border.

Secondly, citizenship acts as a border. The Yuma 14 must cross the geographic border as illegal immigrants in order to have a chance at an economically sustainable occupation. However, once they reach the United States of America, citizenship becomes a problem because it affects how the inhabitants view people in themselves. As demonstrated in the 9500 Liberty film, the concept of citizenship and illegal immigration is enough to be able to tear a community apart. In some circumstances, the lack of a green card and a passport is enough to alienate a person and make them a part of an entirely separate social group--a group of liars, criminals, thieves, and terrorists. When the Yuma 14 crossed the border, they did not think of the social boundaries they would potentially encounter along the way. They simply looked for an economic opportunity, causing individuals such as the advocates they met in the hospitals to "pick up the slack."

Finally, as stated previously, geography encompasses a number of physical borders. There is the physical fence that was created during the Bush administration; there are the mountains that the Yuma 14 climbed; there is the Devil's Highway itself that the Yuma 14 traversed. Geography is a concrete border that people can touch, but at the same time it also acts as a social boundary. Does the political line drawn between Mexico and the United States really mean anything, or is just what the people themselves hold it to be? The Devil's Highway asks these questions, and even the border crossers do, too, especially when they ask, "Is this it?"

Overall, The Devil's Highway allows a connection between readers and immigrants in a way that might not have been possible otherwise. Through looking through the immigrants' perspectives, we as citizens of the United States (and other places, too!) encounter a number of social themes and aspects that make us question, "Does citizenship really matter?" When the goals and morals behind the survivors are revealed, is ethnicity really a major concern? No matter what the language we speak, we are all a part of the human struggle, and the human struggle is to survive no matter what the cost. Urrea's novel helps to remind us of that, and because of such a reminder, he removes the "them." "We" are now "one."