Where Do We Go From Here?

Hope you’re enjoying reading “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Our next discussion will be held at 6 p.m., Monday, Nov. 15, at the Java & News Cyber Cafe inside the H.T. Sampson Library.

This will be our last book discussion for 2010 and I hope we can generate lots of excitement for our January selection.

Remember, the President’s Campus Reading Community is open to the general public. To join, send an email with your name, class (if you’re a student) and email address topublicrelations@jsums.edu.

Womanhood is something that doesn't seem to have a real description

Megs said:

Womanhood is is something that doesn't seem to have a real description. Once you try to define it, you limit what it can be, and it should be a force. And all real forces of nature move without boundaries. Womanhood is like nature. It encompasses everything. It touches everyone, and it is a symbol of life.
I don't like to think that all African Americans have a certain attitude toward anything because we are all individuals and have our own minds. But I would like to see more people embrace sex as something that is akin to love and instead of a sin. When you demonize something beautiful, all the products of it are suspected to be dirty as well. People will live in the closet with their dirty secrets allowing it to torture them and become something painful and violent. Being more open with conversations involving sex and not trying to proselytize a certain dogma is very important in making people think about what it is they are doing and why they do it.

 Thank you Megs for your comments!
Megs you bring up some great points about African American attitudes toward womanhood and human sexuality.  Some of our attitudes are based on our history as African American women.  African American women activists of the nineteenth and  early 20th century fought against stereotypes that labeled African American women as liars, sluts, and whores. 
Read what Mrs. Mary Church Terrell  says about that time:

When Ernestine Rose, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony began that agitation by which colleges were opened to women and the numerous reforms inaugurated for the amelioration of their condition along all lines, their sisters who groaned in bondage had little reason to hope that these blessings would ever brighten their crushed and blighted lives, for during those days of oppression and despair, colored women were not only refused admittance to institutions of learning, but the law of the States in which the majority lived made it a crime to teach them to read.

During slavery and Jim Crow African American women's sexuality was defined as promiscuity.  And African American women leaders worked very hard to remove that stigma. While we should not limit what womanhood is Megs, I do think we need to define what womanhood isn't.  Womanhood is not limited to what is between a woman's legs and women have more to offer humanity than simply what is between their legs.  
Also many African American women identify themselves as Christian and Christianity defines sex as the function of marital procreation and marital intimacy.  Any sexual relations that is not related to either making babies during marriage or promoting intimacy in marriage is considered wrong.    Two of the ten commandments deal directly with sexuality: "Thou shalt not covet" and "Thou shalt not commit adultery", both the Old and New Testaments consider homosexuality  and premarital sex wrong. 
But the reality the 21st century church faces is while it condemns certain sexual behaviors, both Catholic and Protestant pastors and  leaders have been caught in horrific sex abuse scandals.  But it is not just the church leadership that has problems with double standards in terms of sexuality, we as loyal congregants endorse public policy that outlaws abortion, insist on abstinence only sex education, forbids gay marriage, limits entitlement programs, while coping in our personal lives with teenage pregnancy, increased exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, single-parent homes, extra-marital affairs, closeted or "down low" family and church members. 

Where do we go from here? We need more discussion on womanhood and sexuality. 

For Colored Girls

i found god in myself & i loved her/i loved her fiercely

This line represents what For Colored Girls is ultimately about.  It is about women making the journey from victimhood and self-destruction to self-acceptance and self-love.  Society, friends, family, lovers often tell women that they are not beautiful, not smart, not sexy, not desirable and women often internalize these feelings but once we learn in spite of obstacles to love ourselves fiercely then we can move forward.

Ntozake Shange

 

ntozake shange

(pronounced en-to-zaki shong-gay)

1948-

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey on October 18, 1948. In 1971 she changed her name to Ntozake Shange which means "she who comes with her own things" and "she who walks like a lion" in Xhosa, the Zulu language. Her father was an Air Force surgeon and her mother was an educator and a psychiatric social worker. The Williams were upper middle class African Americans whose love of the arts contributed to an intellectually stimulating childhood for Shange and her three siblings. Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, and W. E. B. Du Bois were among the frequent guests at her parents' house.
In 1966 Shange enrolled at Barnard College and separated from her husband, a law student. She attempted suicide several times. Nonetheless, she graduated cum laude in American Studies in 1970 and entered the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, where she earned a master's degree in American Studies in 1973.
While living in California and teaching humanities and women's studies courses at Mills College in Oakland, the University of California Extension, and Sonoma State College, Shange began to associate with poets, teachers, performers, and black and white feminist writers who nurtured her talents. Shange and her friends began to perform their poetry, music, and dance in and around the San Francisco Area. Shange also danced with Halifu Osumare's company. Upon leaving the company she began collaborating with Paula Moss on the poetry, music, and dance that would become for colored girls Moss and Shange left California for New York and performed for colored girls in a Soho jazz loft and later in bars in the lower East Side. Producer Woodie King Jr. saw one of these shows and helped director Oz Scott stage the choreopoem Off-Broadway at the New Federal Theatre where it ran for eight months, after which it moved to the New York Shakespeare Company's Anspacher Public Theatre, and then to the Booth Theatre.
In addition to her plays, she has written poetry, novels, and essays. She has taught at California State College, the City College of New York, the University of Houston, Rice University, Yale, Howard, and New York University. Among her many awards are an Obie, a Los Angeles Time Book Prize for Poetry, and a Pushcart Prize.

PLAYS

"for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem"-1975

First produced in New York City at Studio Riobea in 1975; produced Off-Broadway at the Anspacher Public Theatre in 1976; produced on Broadway at the Booth Theatre that same year.

"A Photograph"-1977

First produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre.

"Boogie Woogie Landscapes"-1979

First produced in New York at Frank Silvera's Writers' Workshop; first produced on Broadway at the Symphony Space Theatre in 1978.

"Spell #7"-1979

First produced Off-Broadway at Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre.

"Black and White Two Dimensional Planes"-1979

First proudced in New York at Sounds in Motion Studio Works.

"Mother Courage and Her Children"-1980

An adaptation of Brecht's play; first produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre, directed by Shange.

"Three for a Full Moon" and "Bocas"-1982

First produced at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

"Educating Rita"-1982

Adapted from Willy Russell's script; first produced at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

"Three views of Mt. Fuji"-1987

First produced in San Francisco at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre; first produced in New York at the New Dramatists.

AWARDS

"for colored girls...."

Obie Award, Outer Circle Critics Award, Audelco Award; and Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award nominations, 1977

"Mother Courage and Her Children"

1981 Obie Award

For Colored Girls

 SPOILER ALERT!!
I went to see Tyler Perry's film adaptation of Ntozake Shange's powerful choreopoem last night and thought his approach was good but also highly commercial and limited.  Tyler Perry accepted a major challenge bringing For Colored Girls to the big screen and should be appreciated for that effort.

For Colored Girls was originally written in the mid-1970s so it deals with issues such as illegal abortions, Vietnam War veterans and timeless issues such as self-esteem, sexuality, post-traumatic stress disorder, religion, incest, rape, sexually transmitted diseases, infertility, etc. 
The original choreopoem consisted of about 20 choreographed monologues by women in various different colored outfits, (The Lady in Blue, The Lady in Red, The Lady in Brown, etc.) 
It is interesting to go on the web and see all these posts written by people offended by the movie's title, most of these people seem to not understand three crucial points:
1. The movie title is an abbreviation of the choreopoem title
2. The original characters were not identified by name but by outfit color
3. Colored is a state of mind, where a lot of African Americans still reside

Now granted in American history the word colored does not just have negative connotations, however in reference to For Colored Girls I think the word colored refers to the characters low self-esteem, victimhood and often self-destructive behaviors.  These women for the most part are presented as powerless or at least seeing themselves as powerless.
LET'S TALK
Questions this movie raised for me are what are we teaching our African Americans about womanhood in the 21st century?
What are African American attitudes toward sexuality?
How do we stop/prevent sexual violence against African American women and girls?
Please comment to the above questions.
Thank you!

Chaos or Community?

How do we define community in the 21st century?
How do we develop community or civic engagement?
What are some possible solutions to the problems we are currently facing?

After November 2, 2010: Where do we go from here?

On Tuesday November 2, 2010 the Republicans regained control of the United States House of Representatives, numerous state houses, and gubernatorial posts in their and the Tea Party's efforts to take the country back.  After a brief two years in control, the Democrats were lucky to barely hold on to a slim majority in the United States Senate. 
What happened?  According to the Tea Party and the Republican party too much government spending and according to the Democrats not enough job growth.  Mississippi ousted two marginal Democrats in Travis Childers and Gene Taylor, so that even Democrats who actively distanced themselves from President Obama lost their seats.  In two short years the nation has gone from embracing "change" and "hope" to embracing the party of "nope".
No Health Care
No new taxes
No earmarks
No compromises
No cooperation with President Obama or the Democrats
And according to new Florida United Senator Mark Rubio, no cooperation with even moderate Republicans either.  While more attention was focused on Sharron Angle of Nevada and Christine O'Donnell of Delaware, the Tea Party movement was able to get minorities such as Mark Rubio and  LTC Allen West of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina elected. 
But the mid-term elections are over and the question is where do we do from here?  November 2012 is less than two years away.  What are our priorities for the new two years?  Can the Democratic party and President Obama recover before the 2012 presidential elections?  What should they do to attract more African Americans and young people to the polls?