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FPOD: QUOTE COLLECTION

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1) “How is nationality made? Men make it with declarations and battles, transactions and deeds. But year after year the children are laid into the soil with their mother's grief and endurance, tying these women to this ground with cords as thick and red as the muscles of their hearts.” (Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 159.) 2) In the beginning, our mother was a turtle, and we all came from her back…”(Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 44.) 3) Knowledge involves listening, both to everything around us and to the stories that have been passed down to us. Knowledge then is relational.” (Weir, Allison.“Decolonizing Feminist Freedom: Indigenous Relationalities.”) 4) “Only when we have traveled to to each other’s ‘worlds’ are we fully subjected to each other … Knowing other women’s ‘worlds’ is part of knowing them and knowing them is part of loving them.” ( Lugones, Maria. “Playfulness, World-travelling, and Loving Perception) 5) “Because I, a mestiza, continually walk out of one culture and into another….” (Anzaldua, Gloria.“La Conciencia de la mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness.”) 6) “Snake people learn to adapt, to be what is needed, to speak many tongues fluently, to wear and shed skins.” (Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 107) 7) “Pomegranate teaches community, teaches the delights of love, teaches us to nest in each other's hearts…When the blow falls and the fruit shatters, let her seeds scatter far and wide on this earth, and spring up everywhere, a million orchards of joy,” (Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 65.) 8) “You don’t know the places where our bones are, but we are your bones.” (Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 93.) 9) “One is connected by descent, country, place and shared experiences where one experiences the self as part of others and others ad part of the self…” (Weir, Allison.“Decolonizing Feminist Freedom: Indigenous Relationalities.”) 10) “You who are descendants, do not forget us. You call yourselves by names we do not recognize, we were your grandmothers…” (Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 110.) #decolonize #indigenousknowledge #relationalities

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The purpose of my quote collection is to express my journey of understanding relationality. Specifically, how I understand my position in relation to others, human and non-human. My experience in this course has been influenced by my previous class: Native American Feminisms. In that class, we were assigned to listen to Dr. Kim TallBear’s podcast “Moving Beyond Settler Sexualities.” (Listen here) Dr. TallBear’s words resonated with me. She explained that the ways in which our society constructions relationships as monogamous limits our relationships with others. Meaning, that we need to change how we define and prioritize relationships. Now, I actively try to be open to other ways of knowing and relating to others.

  1. “How is nationality made? Men make it with declarations and battles, transactions and deeds. But year after year the children are laid into the soil with their mother’s grief and endurance, tying these women to this ground with cords as thick and red as the muscles of their hearts.” (Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 159.)

I chose this quote because I wanted to start off the collection with the idea of legacies. When discussing colonialism, people often trace the violent acts of white invaders. However, our survival is based on our mothers, the strong women who came before us, who we are built on and who we are still tied to.

2. In the beginning, our mother was a turtle, and we all came from her back. Not the tiny painted turtles you can get at pet stores, but the great green sea turtle, the hawksbill,the carey. The one they hunt for turtle soup, for the virility they seek in her eggs, the one whose shell is covered with whorls that map the universe, that they use to frame their eyeglasses, hoping to see.”(Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 44.)

This quote is meant to express that the concept of mothers should not be limited to humans but extended to nature as well. Meaning, that we should consider our relation to every aspect of life that has nurtured or nourished us.

3. Knowledge involves listening, both to everything around us and to the stories that have been passed down to us. Knowledge then is relational.” (Weir, Allison. “Decolonizing Feminist Freedom: Indigenous Relationalities.”)

I chose this quote because it is important to remember that knowledge is relational. We must be open to all forms of knowing to gain fuller understanding of ourselves.

4. “Only when we have traveled to to each other’s ‘worlds’ are we fully subjected to each other … Knowing other women’s ‘worlds’ is part of knowing them and knowing them is part of loving them.” ( Lugones, Maria. “Playfulness, World-travelling, and Loving Perception)

This quote shows that we can better understand and love each other by “traveling” to each others’ world. Thus, by “traveling” to others’ worlds, we can expand our ways of knowing.

5. “Because I, a mestiza, continually walk out of one culture and into another, because I am in all cultures at the same time, alma entre dos mundos, tres, cuatro, me zumba la cabeza con lo contradictorio. Estoy norteada por todas las voces que me hablan simultáneamente.” (Anzaldua, Gloria. “La Conciencia de la mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness.”)

I chose this quote because as a mixed person, I can relate to Anzaldua’s struggle of existing in and between worlds. Anzaldua’s words express the ways in which people’s co-existing cultures and identities may contradict when they are thought to be separate and not in relation to each other. The different voices that speak to us, the different worlds we exist in and between, are constructed by those who came before us. Thus, we must be mindful of the voices that impose coloniality while strengthening those that protest it.

6. “Snake people learn to adapt, to be what is needed, to speak many tongues fluently, to wear and shed skins.” (Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 107)

This quote illustrates the ways in which people adapt and change to relate to their environment in order to survive. Moreover, our existence today is based on the survival of all those who came before us.

7. “Pomegranate teaches community, teaches the delights of love, teaches us to nest in each other’s hearts, to cup the juice of life in our joined hands, union, communion, community of souls, the true and most ancient holy of holies where we find each other naked, place of ecstacy remembered in each cup of wine we bless. When the blow falls and the fruit shatters, let her seeds scatter far and wide on this earth, and spring up everywhere, a million orchards of joy,” (Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 65.)

I chose this quote because Levin Morales used the construction of a pomegranate to encourage relationality and community through love and growth.

8. “You don’t know the places where our bones are, but we are your bones.” (Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 93.)

This quote shows that our past is the foundation in which we are built. Although we may not always be aware of our ancestors’ histories, human and nonhuman alike, they are always within us, they are our hearts, our blood and our bones.

9. “One is connected by descent, country, place and shared experiences where one experiences the self as part of others and others as part of the self; this is learnt through reciprocity, obligation, shared experiences, co-existence, co-operation and social memory.” (Weir, Allison. “Decolonizing Feminist Freedom: Indigenous Relationalities.”)

This quote is meant to summarize that our ways of knowing should be inclusive of shared experiences and social memory. Meaning, that we should not consider the past as just impersonal distant histories but as our own memories and sources of knowledge.

10. “You who are descendants, do not forget us. You call yourselves by names we do not recognize, we were your grandmothers. We were from people whose names themselves are lost. The names of the places we were taken from are not on your map. But the places are still there, and we did live, and you are our children.” (Levins Morales, Aurora. Remedios, 110.)

Finally, I chose this quote to reiterate and emphasize that we are the living legacies of those who came before us. It is meant to remind us that although many names of our past may have been lost, they still exist because we exist.

Decolonization and PR: The Nuyorican Poets Cafe

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JANLINA ELLIS AND CASSANDRA FARRUGIA:

Performative art has been used as a channel for underprivileged, unrepresented, and colonized peoples to collectively heal while using language, performance, and music as a powerful tool to make their voices heard. Spaces like The Nuyorican Cafe are vital because they provide an outlet for these otherwise silenced voices to reach out, inform, and gather support from a diverse audience.

During the 1950s, there was an increase in Puerto Ricans migrating to New York City. This led to the creation of Puerto Rican neighborhoods and communities in the Lower East Side and East Harlem. Nuyorican poet Miguel Algarín stated, “the experience of Puerto Ricans on the streets of New York has caused a new language to grow: Nuyorican.” The term “Nuyorican” had originally been used as a “pejorative term,” meaning that native Puerto Ricans from the island had coined this term as a way to distinguish themselves from Puerto Ricans from New York City. Later, the term transformed into an identity and movement that celebrated the pride Nuyoricans have for their language, culture, and Afro-Caribbean and indigenous Caribbean identities.

In 1973, The Nuyorican Cafe began in the apartment of an East Village living room of Miguel Algarin, who invited playwrights, poets, and musicians of color whose work was not accepted by the mainstream academic, entertainment or publishing industry. With the help of other artists, in 1981, the Cafe was able to expand their movement to even include educational programs to provide literacy and public speaking to thousands of students. At the Cafe, artists use a unique blend of poetry jazz, theater, hip-hop and spoken word as a means of social empowerment for minority and underprivileged artists.

The Nuyorican Cafe’s founders recognized the importance of representation and celebration. Because of the Nuyorican Cafe, powerful, outspoken women were able to take the stage and highlight the effects of colonization, and confront social and systemic issues within their lives as women of color.

Featured Artist: Diane Burns

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Poem: Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question

Poet Diane Burns was born in Lawrence, Kansas, to a Chemehuevi father and an Anishinabe mother. She was raised in up in Riverside, California but moved to the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation in Hayward, Wisconsin when she was 10. She later realized that she could turn her poetry to money and moved to the East Village in the late 70’s. She became a member of the Lower East Side poetry community, reading her work at the Bowery Poetry Club, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church. Her witty, sardonic takes on Native stereotypes jolt her readers into understanding biases indigenous people face. Unfortunately, Diane had drank herself at age 50, leaving behind a 15 year old daughter and unfinished works.

Featured Artist: Ntozake Shange

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Play: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow is Enuf

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Williams into an upper middle-class African American family. Frustrated and hurt after separating from her first husband, she attempted suicide several times before channeling her energy to focus on the limitations society imposes on Black women.  In college, she reaffirmed her personal strength based on a self-determined identity and took her African name, which means “she who comes with her own things” and she “who walks like a lion.” Performing at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe drew the attention of producer Woodie King Jr., who helped her polish her verses into her most famous work For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1975) that later won the Obie Award and a Tony Award nomination for best play.

Featured Artist: Caridad de la Luz  aka “La Bruja” (“The Witch”)

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La Bruja performing “Nuyorico”

Cardid de la luz is a spoken word poet, actor, singer-songwriter, and community activist. She was born and raised in the Bronx and attended SUNY-Binghamton. In 1996, de la Luz debuted at the Nuyorican Poets Café and adopted the persona of “La Bruja” meaning, “the witch.” Her work focuses on social justice and Nuyorican identity. (Watch de la luz perform “W.T.C.” here). She also wrote the musical “Boogie Rican Blvd” and has recorded and released several songs and albums such as “Brujalicious” and and “For Witch It Stands. As an actor, de la Luz has appeared in Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” and in Pedro Pietri’s “El Spanglish Language Sandwich.” Additionally, de la Luz is known for her dedication to activism as a community organizer.

Featured Artist: Karen Jaime

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Karen Jaime is an author, researcher and spoken word/performance artist. In 1997, she debuted her work at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and later served as a host. (Watch Jaime perform her poem Ghost in the Walls at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe here). In addition, Jaime is a member of the Nuyorican Founder Archive project, which works to establish a digital archive for the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. (Watch Jaime’s talk on the Nuyorican Poets Cafe here). She states, “spoken word poetry has a history of being able to incite change, to give voice to those who are disenfranchised and feel that they’re not being heard.” Jaime’s work at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe inspired her book project, “The Queer Loisaida: Language and Performance at the Nuyorican Poets Café,” which examines queer theory and the critical study of the historical, political and cultural conditions that led to the transformation of the term “Nuyorican” from a “pejorative identity marker” to an “aesthetic practice” and “political-poetical alliance.”

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is a platform for coalition building that celebrates their language, culture, Afro-Caribbean and indigenous Caribbean identities and pride.

References

Photo Essay Midterm: Decolonial relationality of human and non-human bodies

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This photo essay depicts my understanding of an Indigenous feminist perspective on decolonial relationality of humans and non-human bodies. To read more check out: https://hawksites.newpaltz.edu/decolonize/2019/03/11/photo-essay-midt…non-human-beings/ Imagine 1: Kwe becomes the moon, touches herself so she can feel full again (Artist Quill Christie-Peters, Source: http://gutsmagazine.ca/kwe-becomes-the-moon ) Imagine 2: The Land is Ceremony (Artist: Erin Konsmo, Source: http://www.albertanativenews.com/activist-christi-belcourt-says-youth-will-lead-the-way-into-the-future/ ) Imagine 3: Water is Life (Artist: Christi Belcourt, Source: https://canadianart.ca/features/walking-softly-with-christi-belcourt/) Imagine 4: Bless Sacred Indigenous Bodies (Artist: Unknown, Source: nalgonapositivitypride <https://www.instagram.com/nalgonapositivitypride/>) Imagine 5: Honor the Sacred (Artist: Unknown, Source: Pinterest.com <http://pinterest.com/>) #decolonization #decolonialart #decolonizingfeminisms

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Before diving into my photo essay, it is important to understand how “settler colonialism destroys to replace” (Wolfe, 2006) Unlike extractive colonialism, settler colonialism does not only claim land to extract resources but for establishing permanet residence. As a result, settlers continue to use and abuse ‘Indigenous bodies’ as objects for their consumption. Here, Indigenous bodies refer to more than Indigenous human bodies but also to Indigenous bodies of knowledge, land and water.

Examples:

  • Settlers use, abuse and value Indigenous human bodies as laborers. However, once Indigenous people resist settler control, they lose their value and are labeled a problem or a threat. To combat Indigenous resistance, settlers work to eliminate Indigenous people both culturally and biologically.
  • Settlers use and abuse Indigenous knowledge to extract Indigenous resources from land and water while ignoring Indigenous knowledge of sustainability.

In “Decolonizing Feminist Freedom: Indigenous Relationalities, Allison Weir emphasizes the importance of decolonial relationality while challenging notions of Western secular knowledge. She states:

“One is connected by descent, country, place and shared experiences where one experiences the self as part of others and others as part of the self; this is learnt through reciprocity, obligation, shared experiences, co-existence, co-operation and social memory” (260).

Meaning, Indigenous ways of knowing recognize that all aspects of the natural world are connected and share a relationship. For Indigenous people, human knowledge is not considered superior to the knowledge of other beings. For example, some consider the knowledge of rocks superior to human knowledge because rocks have been here the longest (264). Thus, Indigenous ontologies (ways of being), epistemologies (ways of knowing) and axiology (ways of doing) encompass a richer and fuller knowledge because they incorporate “diverse knowledges” (266).

The images I chose are meant to depict various “Indigenous bodies” while emphasizing the importance of decolonial relationality of humans and non-human bodies.

Image 1: Kwe becomes the moon, touches herself so she can feel full again by Quill Christie-Peters (http://gutsmagazine.ca/kwe-becomes-the-moon).

I chose this painting because its attention-grabbing and because of the way Christi-Peters has infused the human body with nature. In the article, she discusses the ways in which settler colonialism works to remove the self from the body to clear Indigenous bodies from homelands for settler occupation. Her painting is meant to depict how intimacy between the self and the body can be a form of reclaiming homelands. (Here is a link for Christie-Peters’ podcast Decolonizing Sexuality thru Painting: https://soundcloud.com/feralvisions/quill-violet-christie-peters-on-decolonizing-sexuality-thru-painting-fv-ep-14 )

Image 2: The Land is Ceremony by Erin Konsmo (http://www.albertanativenews.com/activist-christi-belcourt-says-youth-will-lead-the-way-into-the-future/ )

I chose this image because it portrays Indigenous relationality to land as an on-going practice. It depicts that land continues to be ceremony or sacred to Indigenous people.

Imagine 3: Water is Life (Artist: Christi Belcourt, Source: (https://canadianart.ca/features/walking-softly-with-christi-belcourt/ )

I chose this image because it depicts the importance of water as life and as the source of life. Moreover, it depicts water’s role in the cycle of life and the ways in which people are connected to it.

Imagine 4: Bless Sacred Indigenous Bodies (nalgonapositivitypride)

I chose this image because it reiterates that all Indigenous bodies are sacred.

Imagine 5: Honor the Sacred (Pinterest.com)

I chose this image to end my photo essay because I want viewers to reflect on its message and connect it with Weir’s suggestion that Western practices of knowledge should recognize that Indigenous ontologies, epistemologies and axiology may provide a “better knowledge” (266). She states that decolonizing feminist knowledge requires practices of self-transformation and transformation of Western practices of knowledge.

Reflection: Decolonizing API: Centering Indigenous Pacific Islander Feminism

In “Decolonizing API: Centering Indigenous Pacific Islander Feminism,” Teves and Arvin share their critique of Asian American studies and their recommendations for decolonizing API. Like Asian Americans, we must remember that merely claiming allyship without recognizing Indigenous sovereignty is a “move to innocence.” In their argument, Teves and Arvin provide recommendations for building allyship that acknowledges differences between and among groups.

  1. Acknowledge you are on Indigenous land

Teves and Arvin first recommend that there must be an acknowledgement that this is Indigenous lands and of Indigenous sovereignty. They encourage alliances between and among Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans that does not erase political and cultural differences but acknowledges the ongoing colonialism and racism imposed. They also explain different ways in which Asian Americans can analyze their political positions and aspirations for inclusion to help denaturalize settler colonialism (118).

  1. Stop using terms like Asian Pacific Women

Teves and Arvin explain when Asian American studies attach Asian to Pacific Islander, it implies a connection that does not exist (119). They argue that lumping these groups together further marginalizes Pacific Islander. The use of the term API assimilates Indigenous sovereignty. Moreover, it equates Pacific Islanders to Asians Americans as immigrants who ignore that this is Indigenous land.

  1. Recognize Hulu as revered knowledge, not exotic exercise

Teves and Arvin recommend that Asian Americans acknowledge how the colonial gaze of the hula exoticizes and belittles Hawaiian and Pacific cultures (122). Although the hula does not mean the same to everyone who practices it, they explain that when it is practiced it should be honored because it is a long-standing tradition of Hawaiian culture and ways of knowing.

  1. Do not just invite us to dance

Teves and Arvin state that using the term API as a way of inclusion is not enough and that work must continue to create space for Pacific Islander culture, histories and concerns. This recommendation is meant to encourage responsible allyship that supports the growth of Pacific Islander studies (126).

  1. Reconsider your use of Hapa

Teves and Arvin explain that Hapa is a Hawaiian word for “part” and that when Asian Americans misappropriate it they participate in the erasure of Native Hawaiians and the ongoing colonial impositions and exploitations (126). They shared the different ways the term hapa has been used to refer to different notions and racial blood percents of Hawaiianness. Hapa has been used against Native Hawaiians with blood quantum laws that limited and forced assimilation on to those deemed less Hawaiian. Thus, the use of hapa became a tool of settler colonialism (128). Moreover, Teves and Arvin argue that before using the term hapa, its history and cultural significance be taken into account.

  1. Expand Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Curricula

Teves and Arvin explain the ways in which Asian American studies erases Native Hawaiians presence and does not place their teachings in wider contexts of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander history and politics. They suggest that curricula should engage with contemporary scholarship and activism that recognizes the ongoing issues (129). They also explain the importance of making “connections across Pacific contexts” without equating their experiences. Meaning, that curriculum must acknowledge the different ways colonialism has affected communities.

colonial/anticolonial/decolonial/postcolonial

From my previous understanding, colonial refers to either extractive colonialism or settler colonialism. Extractive colonialism refers to extracting or appropriating resources from people and their land in order to support empires elsewhere. Settler colonialism refers to the claiming of resources for the purpose of establishing a settlement or building an empire on another people’s land. In Coloniality of Gender and Power: From Postcoloniality to Decoloniality, Breny Mendoza describes colonialism as one nation imposing its sovereignty on another (17). Mendoza explains that coloniality is different from colonialism. Coloniality refers to “long-standing patterns of power that emerge in the context of colonialism” (17). It redefines all aspects of life and understanding in a manner in which reinforces the “superiority of the colonizer” (17). In addition, Mendoza emphasizes that coloniality continues to influence consciousness and social relations even after colonialism is imposed.

Anticolonial is a relatively new term for me. From my understanding, anticolonial is “a reaction against the violent history of Western colonialism” (2). Anticolonial theories challenge imperialist and colonizing practices, focusing on power relations between the colonizer and the colonized.

Mendoza notes Tuck and Yang’s “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor,” a text I read for a previous class. The title of the text refers to the ways in which the term decolonization has been trivialized. As Mendoza explains, it has been reduced into a vague concept for “social transformation” (5). However, decolonization refers specifically to acts of colonialism. Mendoza also explains that decolonial theory incorporates Spanish and Portuguese colonization of the Americas, not just focusing on British or French colonialism (14).

According to Mendoza, postcolonial theory offers “sophisticated critiques of capitalism, modernity, and Western colonialism” (9). It provides a new framework for understanding colonial history. Moreover, postcolonial theory considers the consequences of colonial impositions in order to expand its critics.