This section is dedicated to all voices echoing through the oral tradition – powerful counterstories honoring ancestors, mentoring the young, empowering future generations with resiliency and hope.
Some of the poems are musings providing the threads of softer and more fragile peripheries of Diversity. Moments to pause and think of times when to love and be loved was all there was, even if only for an instance. A moment when we were able and willing to sense each other’s vulnerabilities. Moments when awareness led to appreciation for our mutual humanness.
Poems are born in the marrow of our bones. They slowly work their way into a poet’s veins and flow through the heart where they palpitate and resonate. They wind their way into the lungs, inhaling experiences and identity. From the first primal gasp, to every breath thereafter, poems are exhaled to provoke and evoke emotions. They articulate the inarticulable freeing the mind, heart and spirit in order to stay alive. Poems are reflections of life itself.
Martin Espada provides his version of poetry ~ “Poetry gives a human face to a time life this. Poetry gives eyes and a mouth and a voice to a time like this. Poetry records a time like this for future generations who want to know about a time like this in terms of the five senses, and in terms of the soul.”
“Poetry humanizes – Poetry gives a human face to a time like this. Poetry gives eyes and a mouth and a voice to a time life this. Poetry records a time like this for future generations who want to know about a time like this in terms of the five senses, and in terms of the soul.”
~ Martin Espada
Aboriginal Ritual Chant – Anonymous
The spirits of native people endures and lives on.
Heritage and human dignity passed on through centuries of sacrifice, resiliency and perseverance.
Nature – the land guarding its ancestral treasures.
With each chant we hear anguish turned to eloquence and forgiveness.
How human to include those who only knew how to plunder.
MUSIC – perhaps the best way to appreciate its significance is to think of it as being nonexistent or unavailable.
What would our lives be without music? What would our emotional diaries – read like – feel like?
Thank goodness MUSIC lives reminding us of our diversity, inclusivity and humanity.
The Concert of Color is all about that universal harmony.
Check it out and be there.
The summer schedule will soon be available but the 2022 program provides insights as to its annual depth and breadth.
Alfonsina Storni wrote during a time of emerging “strong men” and authoritarianism. Among such forces and often standing alone among her peers, she had the courage to oppose machoism, chauvinism and the double standards suppressed on women. “Tú Me Quieres Blanca” (“You Who Want Me White”) reminds of the connections and intersectionalities of Diversity – then and now.
The complete Columbine narratives are included in Experiences of Columbine Parents: Finding a Way to Tomorrow (available through ProQuest UMI AAT 3161558). Detailed explanation of my approach to research may be found in my text Interviewing for Education and Social Science Research: The Gateway Approach published by Palgrave Macmillan (2009, 2015). I have made available stories of experiences of educators involved in mass violence events, including shootings, natural disaster, and terrorist attack, in my book Reclaiming School in the Aftermath of Trauma published by Palgrave-Macmillan (2012).
“Pretend Reading” differs from culture to culture. It was a tradition and intervention by mothers who did not have formal education but pretended to read to their child.
All it took was some crumbled papers and a mother who would not allow her past to become her child’s future.
Such a nurturer was my mother who never saw the inside of a school. So she pretended to read to me by way of the oral tradition sharing stories of ancestors, respect for elders, traditions, resiliency and perseverance – sometimes even without having to look at the crumbled papers.
“How could this be happening in this safe, comfortable middle-class neighborhood, in a high school noted for academic excellence; where arts, music, and theater were prized; where parent involvement was without equal, and graduation rates were among the highest in the state. It was simply inconceivable, and yet it had happened . . . here, at Columbine.” Carolyn Lundsford Mears
Trenzas ~ “¡Yo soy!” came to life during my youth watching my grandmother brushing and braiding my mother’s hair and my mother passing on the loving strokes to my aunts. Braiding was a time to ask and answer questions, for storytelling, sharing wisdom and always a time for caring and loving. There was an intimacy about it all that always finished with besos (kisses), lingering abrazos (hugs), and with a resounding emphatic ¡Cuídate! (Be careful! Remain cautious!) – The older “doñas” (elders) knew the reasons why caution needed to be ever present while “panzudos patrones” (fat cat land owners) roamed seeking their entitled desserts.
Every woman wore her trenzas with pride and dignity. There was a sameness and yet singularness as trenzas danced in the wind behind them with a story to tell. I remember how beautiful they were… especially my mother’s trenzas… how they made me feel safe and loved as they danced behind her.
William Stafford had a quiet daily ritual of writing focusing on the ordinary. His poetic style seems to invite a conversation that is close to everyday speech to remain alert and awake for there is many a small betrayal in the wind.
In a peaceful and yet stark manner, he urges that to know what occurs but not recognize the fact is the root of all cruelty.
A look can carry the weight of intention in silence.
It all happens in an instance as eyes meet to deny or affirm humanity.
It is a decoded nuance when diversity as the other and difference is viewed.
The poetic “La Mirada” (The Look) provides such internalized interpretations.