Haley Reading Group: “Of Mothers and Monkeys”

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2018)]

In “Of Mothers and Monkeys,” Caitlin Kuehn details the journey of watching her mother battle cancer while she conducts medical research on monkeys. Kuehn struggles with a question of ethics and morals while trying to decipher how much research should be conducted on animals, even for the purpose of medical research that could potentially save someone like her mother.

Kuehn writes, “it is hard to remind myself that medical research has a purpose. Some days it is as clear as cancer. Some days I just do not know” (152). She compares the needles, procedures, and panic her mom endures to the way the monkeys are treated in her medical research facility. Although she is torn about the ethical questions, she settles for the idea of having more time with her mother on earth.

In brief, what’s one question you would now raise as a result of reading this article? How did this article prompt you to raise that question?

Black Poetry: A Timeline, 2000 - 2019

Here's a partial, developing timeline on the histories of black poetry:

2000: Lucille Clifton wins the National Book Award for Poetry for her volume Blessing the Boats.
2000: Terrance Hayes receives the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for Muscular Music.
2001: Yusef Komunyakaa awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
2001: Terrance Hayes's Hip Logic (2002) is selected by Cornelius Eady as a National Poetry Series Winner.
2001: Sonia Sanchez is awarded the Robert Frost Medal.
2001: Lucille Clifton receives Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award.
2001: Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady is published. 
2002: Langston Hughes symposium, organized by Maryemma Graham, takes place.
2002: Amiri Baraka appointed Poet Laureate of New Jersey in July.
2002: Tracy K. Smith's volume The Body's Question selected by Kevin Young for Cave Canem Prize for poetry.
2002: Jay Wright receives Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award.
2002: Carl Phillips receives the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for The Tether.
2003: Major Jackson receives Whiting Writers' Award.
2004: Tyehimba Jess's Leadbelly: poems (2005), selected by Brigit P. Kelly as a National Poetry Series Winner.
2004: Second Furious Flower Poetry conference, organized by Joanne Gabbin, takes place September 22 - 25.
2004: A. Van Jordan receives Whiting Writers' Award.
2005: Patricia Smith's Teahouse of the Almighty (2006) is a National Poetry Series Winner.
2005: A. Van Jordan receives Anisfield-Wolf Award for Macnolia: Poems.
2005: Thomas Sayers Ellis receives Whiting Writers' Award.
2005: Tracy K. Smith receives Whiting Writers' Award.
2005: John Keene receives Whiting Writers' Award.
2006: Nathaniel Mackey wins the National Book Award for Poetry for his volume Splay Anthem.
2006: Tyehimba Jess receives Whiting Writers' Award.
2007: Lucille Clifton awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
2007: Elizabeth Alexander becomes first-ever recipient of Poets & Writers’ Jackson Poetry Prize.
2007: Natasha Trethewey wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her volume Native Guard (2006).
2007: Nikki Giovanni reads poem on April 17, commemorating the April 16 Virginia Tech massacre.
2008: Michael S. Harper is awarded the Robert Frost Medal.
2008: Douglas Kearney's The Black Automaton (2009) selected as a National Poetry Series Winner.
2008: Adrian Matejka's Mixology (2009) is selected by Kevin Young as a National Poetry Series Winner.

The Champions of Accessibility Celebration Dinner

October 24, the office of Accessible Campus Community & Equitable Student Support (ACCESS) hosted the inaugural Ed Roberts Champions of Accessibility Celebration Dinner. The gathering brought a wide range of people together to celebrate achievements of ACCESS and raise awareness about the many ongoing challenges that people face on campus with accessibility.

[Related: Scenes from the Champions of Accessibility Celebration Dinner]

The event included recognition awards, presentations, a comedy routine, a silent auction, and more. Presenters gave information about the histories of ACCESS and disability, and there was time for fellowshiping. 

Under the leadership of the director Domini Dorsey, ACCESS has become one of the most vibrant and inventive units on campus. It's a hub of activity, and the dinner was one more example of the outstanding new programming that has emerged over the last two years since Dorsey has arrived.

A couple of months ago, ACCESS held a grand opening for its expanded and remolded offices and testing spaces for students. What we have today represents a tremendous extension from what was once just a small operation.

ACCESS was formerly known as Disability Support Services. The shift in name and purpose has greatly expanded services to students at the university. You rarely hear Dorsey discussing what's been recently accomplished though. He tends to focus on what additional improvements need to be addressed.

During his "State of Accessibility" address, student Dalyn Wells discussed his struggles navigating the campus. He noted how hard it is to move around campus in his scooter given when the weather gets really cold. He also asked, "why are the doors so heavy?" He was speaking to the difficulty of access for what he noted as even seemingly simple tasks.

Wells initially thought that SIUE was not the place for someone like him. He said he changed his mind recently as a result of the development of ACCESS and the expansion of, well, accessibility on campus.

The keynote speaker for the event was Sara Minkara, founder and CEO of Empower Through Integration. She led activities concerning perceptions and how those perceptions create barriers. She declared how she is "proud to be blind," but noted that it took her some time to get to that feeling. It took the support of a loving and active community to strengthen her confidence and capabilities.

During the awards ceremony, Dorsey acknowledged Professor Trish Oberweis as the inaugural Faculty “Defender of Equity." Tyler Phelps was awarded the inaugural Staff “Defender of Equity,” and Tammie Neathery was the inaugural “Messenger of Inclusion” awardee.

Dorsey noted that he was most proud of the fact that staff and many students associated with ACCESS were really responsible the Champions of Accessibility Celebration Dinner. Those students were involved in the planning, setup, and production of a really groundbreaking and important event.

Related:
• Scenes from the Champions of Accessibility Celebration Dinner

Scenes from the Champions of Accessibility Celebration Dinner

Photos from the inaugural Ed Roberts Champions of Accessibility Celebration Dinner that took place at SIUE on October 24, 2019.

Digital Humanities Club: Week 5

For our session on October 22, we continued experimenting with collages based on East St. Louis postcards. Some of the participants also took some time to begin experiment with audio mixing.

Related:
• The East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club Fall 2019

Year in African American poetry entries

• The year in African American poetry, 2024

• The year in African American poetry, 2023

• The year in African American poetry, 2022

• The year in African American poetry, 2021

• The year in African American poetry, 2020

• The year in African American poetry, 2019
• The year in African American poetry, 2018
• The year in African American poetry, 2017
• The year in African American poetry, 2016
• The year in African American poetry, 2015
• The year in African American poetry, 2014
• The year in African American poetry, 2013
• The year in African American poetry, 2012
• The year in African American poetry, 2011

Additional reflections 

• A visual recap of poetry blog entries in 2018

• A visual recap of poetry blog entries in 2017

• A visual recap of poetry blog entries in 2016

• A Notebook on 2015 Poetry Reflections 

Related:
• Timelines

Haley Reading Group: “Astonish Me"

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2018)]

In “Astonish Me: Anticipating an Eclipse in the Age of Information,” Susannah Felt meditates on the looming eclipse and the meaning behind it. She compares the difference in preparation for eclipse saying that while people in this millennium celebrate by throwing viewing parties and selling T-shirts, “centuries ago, a total eclipse was cause for panic, a sign of doom—or a moment of great discovery” (246).

Felt focuses on how with information provided by science, society’s view of the world shifts while also diminishing the wonder and fear attached to discovery and surprise. For Felt, tracking the exact moment of an eclipse and breaking it down into our science feels like “a hubristic offense” (246). Felt uses the article to question the best way to restore “some measure of its power and surprise,” in a world where information is often at everyone’s fingertips.

In one word, what's one useful idea or way of thinking did you gain by reading the article? Why is that word or concept important to you as a result of what you read? 

Sample of responses:

Present. The author...showed me how important it is to be present in each moment because it could be some of our last like this is her parents' last eclipse they'll witness. And also to never take time or people for granted because so much could happen in those two minutes of an eclipse or any time of the day. --C. R.

Reflection. Felts helped me to understand why it is important to live in the moment and reflect on what you are seeing, hearing, and feeling. Sometimes we place too much emphasis on knowledge and don't rely as much on our own experience. --M.T.

Anticipation. The time of the eclipse was very cliff-hanging. The author says "Two minutes, a lifetime, the overlapping of lives. Our threaded-together fates still largely unknown." (p.247) This stood out to me because the eclipse was so anticipating and people could not wait to experience something that would happen once in a lifetime such as it. L. B.

UNCF/Mellon Program celebrates 30 years

Melanie Hill plays violin as Beverly Guy Sheftall, Johnnetta B. Cole, and Cynthia Spence listen

October 17 - 19, in Washington D. C., the UNCF/Mellon Programs celebrated 30 years of active programming with a gathering of professors, scholars, and former participants. The conference included panels on mentoring, the value of a UNCF perspective, contributions to public discourse, and writing and productivity workshops. There was a keynote conversation between Spence, Beverly Guy Sheftall, and Johnnetta B. Cole at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).

[Related: Scenes from the UNCF/Mellon Conference]

The UNCF/Mellon Programs are directed by the unstoppable force known as Cynthia Spence. She's aided by the program's longtime and incredibly resourceful Ada Jackson. We've all lost count of how many wonderful gatherings the duo of Spence and Jackson have pulled off over the years, no, over the decades. This recent gathering was no different.

Cynthia Spence welcoming attendees to the conference 

Michael Gomez (sitting) and Benjamin Talton

The conference was informative and fun. It was serious, powerful, and inspiring. I certainly left with a sense that I could and should be doing more. And remarks by various participants gave me insight on how to best move forward.

In her role, Spence directs a suite of Mellon programs, including the Undergraduate Fellowship Program, the Junior Faculty Development Fund, the Faculty Seminar, Teaching and Learning Institutes, and the Faculty Residency Program. Spence as been visionary bringing those programs to fruition.

Karima Jeffrey, Alisha Gaines, and Trimiko Melancon

Spence and Jackson organize a conference for new and returning mentors for the undergraduate program. The meeting is designed to prepare those mentors to most effectively guide and assist undergraduates on their research projects.

I first became involved in the UNCF/Mellon Undergraduate program in 1997, while I was still a student at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. In the summer of 1997, I participated in the summer institute for undergraduates from a variety of schools. After that, I was primed to pursue independent research for which the Mellon program provided funding.

Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper introducing speakers at the NMAAHC

During my time in graduate school, the Mellon Mays Fellowship program continued providing assistance. Most importantly, participation in the programs linked me to broad and diverse networks of scholars and organizers, whose ideas and advice have shaped my career.

In addition to covering business as usual, the conference in Washington D. C. was an opportunity to pause and acknowledge the progress and accomplishments over the last three decades. More than 600 UNCF/Mellons undergraduates have participated in the program. Approximately 123 of us have earned PhDs and working as college professors and administrators. We've collectively published articles and books, and we worked with countless numbers of students. So we had much to celebrate.

One of the highlights of the conference was the conversation between Cole, Guy Sheftall, and Spence. Cole is a living legend, having served as president of Spelman College (1987 - 1997) and Bennett College for Women (2002 - 2007). She has curated many major exhibits over the years, and current directors the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art.

Cole captivated us with her reflections on her expansive career. She talked about teachers and scholars who inspired her. She discussed her time teaching while also serving as president of Spelman. She mentioned her work  serving on the scholarly advisory committee for the NMAAHC.

After the presentation, we took time exploring the museum. What a truly spectacular and extraordinary place. The NMAAHC traces all kinds of threads of African American history, struggles, and contributions to this country. It was fitting that we got a chance to visit this outstanding monument to black history and culture as we reflected on the 30 years of UNCF/Mellon programming.

Cynthia Spence and Shanna Benjamin discussing upcoming conference activities 

During the conference, there was adequate time for fellowshiping, for catching up with old friends and making news ones. I realized that those broad and diverse networks Mellon introduced me to were soliddying and growing at this recent conference.

Related:
• Scenes from the UNCF/Mellon Conference]

Scenes from the UNCF/Mellon Conference

A few photos from the recent UNCF/Mellon Programs Conference that took place in Washington D. C., October 17 - 19, 2019.

Haley Reading Group: “Astonish Me: Anticipating an Eclipse in the Age of Information”

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2018)]

In “Astonish Me: Anticipating an Eclipse in the Age of Information,” Susannah Felt meditates on the looming eclipse and the meaning behind it. She compares the difference in preparation for eclipse saying that while people in this millennium celebrate by throwing viewing parties and selling T-shirts, “centuries ago, a total eclipse was cause for panic, a sign of doom—or a moment of great discovery” (246).

Felt focuses on how with information provided by science, society’s view of the world shifts while also diminishing the wonder and fear attached to discovery and surprise. For Felt, tracking the exact moment of an eclipse and breaking it down into our science feels like “a hubristic offense” (246). Felt uses the article to question the best way to restore “some measure of its power and surprise,” in a world where information is often at everyone’s fingertips.

In one word, what's one useful idea or way of thinking did you gain by reading the article? Why is that word or concept important to you as a result of what you read? 

Illustrating a black girl superhero: Luciano Vecchio and Matt Milla presenting Ironheart

Vecchio and Milla

Artist Luciano Vecchio and colorist Matt Milla have been doing excellent work on Ironheart, which will wrap up in the next couple of months. I hate to see the title come to a close, as I've been following the book, written by Eve L. Ewing, since it began. Beyond the storylines, I've really appreciated how Vecchio and Milla have illustrated this black girl superhero.

Much of the early coverage on Ironheart understandably focused on Ewing. It's rare for a major comic book company like Marvel to hire a black woman as a lead writer. That's news. Too, writers generally receive more extended coverage than artists and colorists in comics, despite the centrality of visuals to the art form.

So even if you heard about Ironheart, it's possible that you haven't heard much or enough about Vecchio and Milla's collaborative work on the title. There are others too. Amy Reeder has done covers for the book, and Stefano Caselli has done a cover. Kevin Libranda did some of the art on issue #1 with Vecchio, and Libranda was the main artist on issue #6. All the other issues were done Vecchio. The layouts are by Geoffo.

"The question of how you represent a black teen girl hero, how we show her world and her family and her friends and her body and her feelings, is immensely political," Ewing has noted. "Luciano gets that." Some years back, controversy surrounded illustrations of Riri Williams when a cover image by J. Scott Campbell "appeared to over-sexualize" the teen character. Issues like that, concerning how a black girl is represented, is part of what Ewing's comments signal.

In Ironheart, Vecchio has presented us with a range of black girls and women, including Riri's mom and, more recently, a group of other heroes: Shuri, Silhouette, and Okoye. Vecchio has done really well depicting the action of Ironheart while giving us a variety of looks and angles on the main character.

 Ewing is right about how immensely political it is to represent a black girl character. Just as important, as Vecchio's works demonstrate, it's been a deeply artistic endeavor made possible by his high level of drawing expertise. Seeing images of Riri soaring through the air in many issues always gave me reason to pause and marvel at the progress.

Milla has ensured a vibrantly colored viewing experience with Ironheart. The exciting energy of the issues are a result of Milla's coloring. The wide spectrum of hues displayed in the series constitutes additional elements of the politics and artistry of illustrating a black girl.

Since 2014, we've seen the emergence or re-appearance of a variety of black girl and women superheroes in comics. Storm. Lunella Lafayette from Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. Shuri. The Dora Milaje. Kayla Tate from Superb. Naomi. Future Nwafor Chukwuebuka from LaGuardia. Livewire. And more.  The collaborative work of Ewing, Vecchio, and Milla on Riri contributes to that important body of works.

Related:
• A Notebook on comic books

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Bryan Hill, black men, and diversity in comics

When it comes to black men and comics, I've been reading quite a bit of work by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Bryan Hill. I read others, and clearly, I read more than just works by black men. Still those two -- Coates and Hill -- do take up some space in what I cover and discuss with folks.

You hear quite a bit of talk about diversity in comics these days, and the overlapping and divergent careers of Coates and Hill create considerable opportunities for what differences among black men in the field means. 

I've been reading Coates's work on Black Panther and Captain America. Of course, I began reading him more than a decade ago when I followed his work as a journalist. He was recruited into comics based largely on the acclaim he won for "The Case for Reparations" (2014) and Between the World and Me (2015).

Based on his overall reputation as a major author and public figure, Coates is now one of the more well-known and actively reviewed African American comic book writers. It helps that he is writing such popular characters with T'Challa and Steve Rogers.

Hill, by contrast, is not as widely known as Coates outside of comics, but he's far more prolific across multiple titles. To name just a few works in recent years, Hill wrote American Carnage, Killmonger, Postal, The Wild Storm: Michael Cray, and Detective Comics. Right now, he's writing Postal Deliverance and Batman and the Outsiders. He's also one of the writers for the television show Titans. So with Hill, you get a much broader range of output, at least in the realm of comics.

So far, Coates works primarily in the superhero sector, mostly concentrating on a few key figures. Hill does heroes, but with Batman and the Outsiders, he's really presenting characters and their team dynamics. He also does non-superhero work like with Postal Deliverance, where he's narrating a multi-layered tale about groups of people and crime, among other topics.

I think about Coates and Hill in the larger context of comic books, but I also spend time thinking about them as part of an artistically productive generation of black men writers and visual artists, which includes Colson Whitehead, Jay-Z, Aaron McGruder, Paul Beatty, Black Thought, Kehinde Wiley, and so forth.

There are a steady stream of reviews of the monthly comics by Coates and Hill, but we could definitely stand to see more extensive examinations of what they're doing. It would be helpful too seeing how their works are in conversation various others across the field and beyond.

Related:
• A notebook on comic books

Black girls, representation, and Ironheart

Back in September, I was moved by Ironheart #10. The issue presents not one, not two, not even three, but four black female characters on the same pages. It caught my attention in part because it's so rare to see such occurrences in major comics.

Here in issue #10, Eve L. Ewing (writer), Luciano Vecchio (artist), and Matt Milla (colorist) are presenting us with Riri Williams, Shuri, Silhouette, and Okoye. Oh, and the action takes place in Wakanda.

We've been seeing some progress with black representation among major companies over the last several years. But rarely does that progress involve a combination of central black girl and women characters, interacting with each other.

Some people recall the Bechdel–Wallace test, which questions whether at least two women appear in popular media representations and talk to each other about something besides a man. Many movies, television programs, and comic books fail the test, because creators somehow to struggle to bring girls and women together for their own missions, conversations, and other activities.

Ironheart offers something different. We see these characters in a major fight scene with what are in effect zombies. The team is looking for answers to a larger puzzle. Such a scene is fairly normal for comics, but it's unusual to showcase a group of like Riri, Shuri, Silhouette, and Okoye.

Related:
• A Notebook on comic books

Digital Humanities Club: Week 4

On October 8 during our session, we expanded our work on collages. The members are having a good time blending the images and producing work that they view as aesthetically pleasing.

We're continuing the work that we did last week. On the one hand, we worked on the East St. Louis postcards, and at the same time, folks spent time searching for and producing collages with a range of historical figures and characters.

Related:
• The East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club Fall 2019

Haley Reading Group: “The Squeeze"

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2018)]

Sophie Brickman’s “The Squeeze: Silicon Valley Reinvents the Breast Pump” focuses on the evolution of the breast pump and the most efficient and modern version of it, the Moxxy Flow. Brickman details the difficulties four women engineers encountered when trying to create, market, and sell this product.

To explain the awkwardness of trying to incorporate pumping into daily routines at work, Cara Delzer, cofounder of the Moxxy Flow, likened pumping to “having to take off your pants for half an hour before hopping into a boardroom to deliver an important presentation” (50). She partnered with other businesswomen, marketers, and engineers in 2014, to create multiple versions of a breast pump which would evolve into the current Moxxy Flow. This article highlights how this breasts pumps aids in making women’s lives as mothers and working women practical and efficient.

What's something concerning women in business or women in engineering from the article that really caught your attention? In brief, state why.

The Power of Visual Remixes

On October 2, we organized an exhibit "The Power of Visual Remixes," which focused on artwork by Kehinde Wiley, a prominent contemporary visual artist. Wiley is well-known for painting portraits that play on or allude to works European artists who produced works prior to and during the 1800s. Wiley presents contemporary black subjects in similar poses as white subjects from those historical paintings.

The exhibit gave us opportunities to take a close, careful look at a few select images by Wiley. Working in teams, students discussed what they found interesting, memorable, and noteworthy.
The activity gave students a chance to consider the value of taking our time to observe, interpret, and assess artwork. They also had a chance to think about ways of effectively communicating about aspects of art that interested them.

Related:
• Public Thinking Events

The Power of Visual Remixes

On October 3, we coordinated an exhibit "The Power of Visual Remixes," which focused on artwork by Kehinde Wiley, a prominent contemporary visual artist. Wiley is well-known for painting portraits that play on or allude to works European artists who produced works prior to and during the 1800s. Wiley presents contemporary black subjects in similar poses as white subjects from those historical paintings.

The exhibit gave us opportunities to take a close, careful look at a few select images by Wiley. Working in teams, students discussed what they found interesting, memorable, and noteworthy.
The activity gave students a chance to consider the value of taking our time to observe, interpret, and assess artwork. They also had a chance to think about ways of effectively communicating about aspects of art that interested them.

Related:
• Scholarly Connections and Rewarding Engagements

Digital Humanities Club: Week 3

We had a good time during our session on October 1. We spent time experimenting with BeFunky -- an online photo editor.

First, we made collages based on East St. Louis postcards. Then participants became especially interested in collages focused on different teams: movie stars, superheroes, various cartoon characters.

Samples of some of the work.

Based on postcards:

Based on various cartoon images

Related:
• The East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club Fall 2019

Haley Reading Group: “The Squeeze: Silicon Valley Reinvents the Breast Pump”

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2018)]

Sophie Brickman’s “The Squeeze: Silicon Valley Reinvents the Breast Pump” focuses on the evolution of the breast pump and the most efficient and modern version of it, the Moxxy Flow. Brickman details the difficulties four women engineers encountered when trying to create, market, and sell this product.

To explain the awkwardness of trying to incorporate pumping into daily routines at work, Cara Delzer, cofounder of the Moxxy Flow, likened pumping to “having to take off your pants for half an hour before hopping into a boardroom to deliver an important presentation” (50). She partnered with other businesswomen, marketers, and engineers in 2014, to create multiple versions of a breast pump which would evolve into the current Moxxy Flow. This article highlights how this breasts pumps aids in making women’s lives as mothers and working women practical and efficient.

What's one way this article shifted, expanded, or enhanced your views about women in business or women in engineering?

Blogging about poetry in September 2019

[Related content: Blogging about Poetry]

• September 29: Collegiate black women as reader-listener-viewers
• September 21: More on generations of black women students and artists
• September 16: Poetry vs. Poetry entries
• September 14: Black women's poetry: from Margaret Walker to Megan Thee Stallion
• September 1: Blogging about poetry in August