Selfies

From a friend's post:

on "selfie haters": who gives a rat's ass if people LIKE taking photos of themselves…admire themselves…try to bring out the best view of their selves.. ?

if you can't appreciate your SELF, then who else will?

My posting:

The only person who can take my selfie is me. Who else really wants a picture of me at a time when I am ready for a picture of me to be taken? The selfie is an art form designed by the artist taking the selfie regarding SUBJECT in a world of OBJECTIFICATION. Are selfie haters those men who are acting out of Patriarchal power and women who can't get out of the embedded Patriarchy of our culture?

Questions from a student

A student in Washburn's first-year experience class asked me questions about my college experiences, etc. I thought I would post them with my responses here, just for kicks:

1.Do you think WU 101 is necessary?

2.Why do you think colleges are doing it?

3.Did they have a course like this when you were in college, and if not, do you wish they did?

Many universities are having it because students are not prepared, there is a large first-year drop-out rate (25%), and such. However, I have heard complaints about it from students who were prepared, students who took AP classes in high school. I know I wasn’t prepared when I entered college. Maybe it could have helped me? I would love to see more discussions between professors and students about what they want WU101 to be.

4.What did you learn through your college experience?

I learned who I am.

5.Would you do anything differently?

I am not sure I would, or else I would not have learned from all of the mistakes I did make. I can’t tell you what you should do, except don’t be afraid of making mistakes.

6.Do you believe students should build relationships with their professors?

Yes! I love the relationships I have made as both student and professor. It might be the reason for being alive—to build relationships with others.

7.Are there any interesting/shocking facts about yourself that you would care to share?

It took me eleven years to earn my first degree in Computer System Analysis. However, it took seven years total to earn my BA, MA, and MFA in English!

8.What is your favorite college experience?

That is tough! The one changing point is when my philosophy professor called me in his office and said I should become a better writer. See question #10 for more info.

9.Was English your first passion? If not, what was?

When I came to Washburn, I followed my dream of what I wanted to be: A Computer Programmer/Analyst! My first degree was in Computer Information Systems. I moved into the job at the bank I was working with, then moved to an insurance company. Soon, I realized I did not like working in the corporate world. I went back to Washburn at night to earn my second degree in English, then left the business world for grad school--and never looked back!

10.Why did you choose English?

English chose me. When I was twenty, a professor said I should learn to be a better writer by keeping a journal and carrying a thesaurus. Those journal entries became poems, which entered me into the world of language. Language was a way I found myself—broke out of the isolation I was in. It was that moment when I was in my cubicle at work as a computer programmer when I looked at the walls and realized that, instead of flowcharts and programming strategies, I had poems. My cubicle walls inside a room of cubicles inside an insurance company were covered with poems!

11.How long have you taught?

Since 2004.

12.In literature who is your favorite author and who is your favorite poet? Why did you choose them?

WOW, what a question! I still love what Herman Melville did with Moby Dick. If people would just pick it up and give it a close reading, it really is amazing. I can’t put my finger on one poet, as so many have influenced my work: Joe Harrington, CA Conrad, Kate Greenstreet, Rachel Zucker, on and on.

13.Do you like writing? If so what do you like to write?

I write poetry, fiction, and hybrid works that combine them. In fact, I will teach a Poetic Memoir class in Fall 2015 I am really excited about.

EN199/399/599: CW Poetic Memoir. This special topics creative writing class explores mixed-genre/contemporary form examples from writers who use verse, prose, image, appropriation, experimentation, and form to "show" their autobiography/memoir. Students will write their own poetic memoirs inspired by these examples. No previous experience necessary.

14.What kind of books do you normally read?

Poetry. Lots of it. Sometimes experimental fiction.

15.What do you like to do for fun?

I spend a lot of time with my family, and they are a lot of fun to be with. Also, I like to meet friends at PT’s in College Hill to hang out, write together, etc. I also love movies.

16.(On a not so serious category) Do you believe in aliens?

I am still up in the air on this one. I do tend to side with Stephen Hawking, that if aliens come to Earth it would be for harm. Maybe I have watched a lot of sci-fi?

17.Do you believe the Avengers or the Justice League secretly exist?

The Avengers, of course, do. The Justice League is make-believe.

18.Who do you like better and why?

I am more of a Marvel Comics reader because I grew up identifying more with Marvel superheroes, especially the X-Men. I was a loner with only one friend, so I related to mutants being the outcasts. Here is a poem I wrote about it:

Wolverine

“I’m good at what I do, but what I do isn’t nice.”

Logan shouts at me

to run away

from middle school not knowing

the kids who chase me

and the late afternoon down

to the comic book store

isn’t this time for him

to catch a scent hear

tracks and double back

claws extended?

19.Do you like sports? If so what kind and who is your favorite team?

Baseball! Maybe, again, it has to do with my passion for it when I was a boy. It was the Golden Age for the Royals, when everyone knew each of the players’ names: George Brett, Hal McRae, Dan Quisenberry, etc. I’m still a Royals fan and took my boys to see their first game last Tuesday.

20.Did you make any friends in college that you still communicate with?

Yes! In fact, someone I went to school with while earning my second degree at Washburn teaches English here: Israel Wasserstein.

How About This?

My Springboards of 2004.

My Grunge of 1991

The project is finished, starting the last of the trilogy: My _________ of 2004.

NAROPA [DIS]EMBODIED POETICS CONFERENCE October 10-12, 2014

Subject to Change

 

[DIS]EMBODIED POETICS CONFERENCE

Sycamore 8140 (Friday)

•1:00pm - Precipice: the edge as a practice for scaling place. Jade Lascelles, Kristen Park, Matt Wedlock

•3:30pm - Withness: thought-start in creative-critical practice. Lisa Samuels, Duriel E. Harris, Megan Kaminski, Marthe Reed

Lincoln 4130 (Friday)

•1:00pm - Collaborative Being: Gender, Race, and Sexuality. Amaranth Borsuk, Andy Fitch, Aimee Herman, Ailish Hopper

•3:30pm - Writing and Performing [Dis]embodied States of Being: The Poetics of Disability, Movement, Grief, and Sensuality. Shelia Black, Amber DiPietra, Margit Galanter, Lisa Gill, Violet Juno, Denise Leto

Student Center (Friday)

•1:00pm - Illness, Language, and Perception. Richard Froude, Sarah Boyer, Eleni Stecopoulos

•3:30pm - "To sail in the dark:” history and hybridity in the wake of Zong!. Rosa Alcala, Susan Briante, TaraShea Nesbit, Sarah Vap & Ruth Ellen Kocher

Performing Arts Center (Friday)

•7:30pm - Keynote Lecture with Lisa Jarnot

Sycamore 8140 (Saturday)

•9:00am - Writing and Being Collaborative Transformation. Laura Wetherington, Hannah Ensor, Jill Darling

•1:00pm - Disembodied Forensics: Societal Anatomy and Cross “Culturalization”. Derek Fenner, Shin Yu Pai, Christopher Luna, Austin James

Sycamore 8120 (Saturday)

•9:00am - Bending the Source: Research, Poiesis, and Document Fluidity. Kristin Cerda, Athea Merredyth, Merete Mueller, Andrea Spofford

•1:00pm - The Mother Embodied: Poetic and Hybrid. Sarah Fox, Danielle Pafunda, Susan M. Schultz, Joseph Harrington, Dennis Etzel Jr.

Sycamore 8150 (Saturday)

•9:00am - Echo Locution : Aural / Environment / Body / Poetics. David James Miller, E. Tracy Grinnell, James Belflower, Maryam Parhizkar

•1:00pm - Reading/Writing and/as (Critical) (Animal) Inhabitance. Linda Russo, C.S. Giscombe, Brenda Iijima, Laura Woltag

Pavilion (Saturday)

•3:00pm - Opening reception . Food and book fair featuring: Boulder Book Store, JKS faculty and staff books, panelists' books, and Bombay Gin Literary Magazine.

Sycamore 8140 (Sunday)

•10:00am - Bearing Witness from Negotiated Spaces: Towards a Poetics of Occupation. Jessica Rogers, Stefania Irene Marthakis, Jason Cerrato

•1:00pm - Ecoskeletons of Language, Sound, and Impossibility: [Dis] Embodied Lineages. Julie Joosten, Matthew Pincus, Connor Fisher

Sycamore 8120 (Sunday)

•10:00am - Sewing is Writing is Body is Sewing. Rachel May, Jennifer Tamayo, Jill Magi, Jen Hofer, Elena Berriolo, Jan Johnson

•1:00pm - Touching Writing, Haptic Thinking: Embodiment, performance, and touch-screen literature. Amaranth Borsuk, Kate Durbin, Samantha Gorman, Ian Hatcher, Stephanie Strickland

Sycamore 8150 (Sunday)

•10:00am - Radical Improvisation: Meditations on Dirt. Samuel Ace, CAConrad, j/j hastian

•1:00pm - Writing: the Poetics of Trash. Allison Cobb, CAConrad, Jen Scappettone, Eleni Sikelianos

Performing Arts Center (Sunday)

•4:00pm - Kerouac School Reading. Readings by JKS faculty, Lisa Jarnot, and the work of Anselm Hollo

Innisfree (Sunday)

•7:00pm - Innisfree Open-Mic. Off-site open mic for JKS alumni at Innisfree! 1203 13th St, Boulder, CO 80302 (303) 495-3303

[Dis]embodied Poetics Schedule So Far, Naropa, Boulder, Oct 10-12

Below is the schedule for the panels. We have not yet assigned panels to days and time slots but will be doing that in August. As for Sunday, There are panels from 10-12, and from 1-3, then there's a big reading from 4-6 and an open mic off-site at 7. I hope this is helpful!
Friday October 10th 1:00-3:00 PM: 3 panels 3:30-5:30 PM: 3 panels

Saturday October 11th 9:00-11:00 AM: 3 panels 1:00-3:00 PM: 3 panels

Sunday October 12th 10:00 AM-12:00 PM: 3 panels 1:00-3:00 PM: 3 panels

New projects: post-PTSDADHD and KC Royals

Shanna Compton recently posted on facebook:

Advice: Should Bloof Books also be explicitly stating we welcome poets with disabilities? Is there good language for this I can borrow? I don't see other presses doing this really.

This really inspired me to examine my own issues in my life: depression, ADHD, PTSD.

My first project is post-PTSDADHD, where I examine my life now in association with then.

Another has to do with Dan Quisenberry. Travis Macdonald found an article about his poetry, so it would be a  write through with his book of poems and memoir about my childhood. I reclaimed baseball recently after making amends with my father. There is a lot of tension and resonance around the two. More coming.