Looking back on my writing portfolio was an experience more vulnerable than I was prepared for. I started from the beginning, Me As A Writer. Reading an older piece, albeit only by a few months, about my reasons for writing excited me to write more again. It was like a reminder of my love for…
Arabian Nights Disney Days
Reflection: Spooky Literary Night
Halloween Open Mic & Literary Party was hosted by Professor Lonsinger at Hoffman House November 1st. The event was to celebrate writing by reading it out loud. The readings ranged from popular prose such as an excerpt of Frankenstein to original poetry such as my very own reading of my poem Self Portrait as Language….
1001 Nights
Heavy shoulders of heavier boulders carry all the blood loaded into wedding jewelry rubies and ichor dripping off their necks Death spun into embroidery adorns ithyabs hanging like shrouds countless corpse brides one rises from the mass grave The kingdom’s curse may be broken by fables lies spun by red tainted lips the woman a…
Should We Be Reading The Nights?
The Arabian Nights by Husain Haddawy begins with the mention of an adulterous woman, promptly followed by her murder. The set up provides us with context for an entire collection of parables, with the moral being that women are manipulative cheaters who use men for their own means and pleasure. The book has multiple explicit…
Longer Reflection
My assumption walking into this class was that I would be more knowledgeable on the topic than I found myself to be. As arrogant as it admittedly sounds, I believed that I couldn’t possibly learn all that much about a topic I had already done some of my own research on due to my interest…
Reflection: In Conversation with Dacia Maraini
I left the recital hall after the talk given by Dacia Maraini with a lot more knowledge and food for thought than I walked in with- the marker of a successful presentation. Although I admittedly only went for extra credit, I walked out surprised at how she piqued my interest and captured my attention with…
The Marketplace of Agrabah:
A Classist Mockery of the Middle East In the first scene where we see the main character Aladdin on the screen, he is presented as a “street rat” and a thief running away from the soldiers. It is an action-packed scene with Aladdin and his monkey, Abu, cleverly tricking the guards and avoiding them, all…
SAID’S ORIENTALISM: FIRST GO!
The reading so far is focused solely on Balfour’s speech to the House of Commons. It feels like a build up to a bigger claim, and I can slowly see, so to say, the different points come together to form a claim. What stands out as important is that Said takes a British man’s point…
Reflection: Vision and Justice
I attended the talk given by Professor Sarah Lewis about the “ethics of the image” or the importance of the foundational right of just representation especially in contexts of American history and racial prejudice. I found the topic wholely fascinating; how she talked about the lack of regard or recognition as a form of violence…
The Orient First Draft
In the first scene where we see the main character Aladdin on the screen, he is presented as a “street rat” and a thief running away from the soldiers. It is an action-packed scene with Aladdin and his monkey Abu cleverly tricking the guards and avoiding them, all while singing a song. It is in…
