"40 Dayz" by Motion

Our last book for the class is "40 Dayz" by the spoken word poet Motion. I'm really looking forward to our last lecture and reading as I can imagine that it will be quite the performance and the class will really enjoy it. But to hold me over until then, I have been enjoying watching the videos she has featured on her YouTube page, which mcsa1991 shared on our Discussion page.
Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MotionLiveTV

The first video featured on her page, called "Now Hear Dis Sampler" has such a great flow that it sounds like music. I actually watched this video before I cracked open her book, 40 Dayz, and it has really helped me to put her poetry into context. As I'm reading, I imagine her observing Toronto and creating her lines and imagery as the city's movement inspires her. After hearing her perform her poetry herself, I also try to apply the same rhythm to the poems I am reading.

Like Zwicky, her poetry is fluid and full of imagery. It reminds me of this great city and how it can inspire art. She is constantly referencing parks, streets, schools, "the cement skyline" (from "I-ku"), brownstones, and the subway (in "connect the t-dots"). It reminds me how inspiring the city can be and her words make the most ordinary and mundane aspects that I am so used to seeing come alive. This makes her poetry similar to the stories in Lien Chao's The Chinese Knot in the way both writers integrate Toronto as another important character. By including so many recognizable landmarks, both authors succeed at making their works more identifiable as Canadian and add a colourful dimension to their words. The reader who knows or has been to the places described can feel more connected to the author, while the reader who is not so familiar, can imagine, be transported to, and feel the vibrancy of Toronto.

Another aspect of her poems that is prevalent and interesting to me is her references to and descriptions of the female body. In "dream," she uses descriptive diction to describe a woman in comparison to the earth and nature:
" she was skin
she was tree
she was string
taut and tuned
hollow
opened by knife and strain" (20).

She also describes her role as a woman. In "dem say," she discusses her childhood and how she felt so grown up when she was still so young:
"they'd rock their heads and grin
say see
that girl
that girl is a woman
in the body
of a child" (19)

Particularly beautiful is her ode to Maya Angelou called "4maya". She describes the poets and writers that came before her and how their words helped her realize what an impact writing could have on her life.

In "dem say," she makes many references to Black culture (example: "angie davis on the wall....daddy pick my afro") that give me even more of an understanding to where she is coming from. But she also writes of a world outside the city, a world of chaos and confusion that goes on as Toronto is sleeping, in "hedlines": "somewhere/a poet is detained/a woman births the baby of a/ soldier who crouched in the bush" (26).

Motion's poems have so many themes that after reading each one, I feel like I am getting to know more about the poet and what inspires her. I will certainly be rereading them to find even more hidden truth, but I know that I am not getting all I can out of them by simply reading them on the page. Motion is a performance artist and I know that once she actually comes into our classroom and we discuss the meaning behind her work, it will deepen my understanding of their content and further help me appreciate their beauty.

Questions I hope to ask Motion in a couple of weeks or so:

How does living in Toronto affect your writing?
What kind of environment fosters the most creativity for you?
How did you start writing poetry?
Does the poem come alive to you when you perform it? How is this different from putting them together in your collection, 40 Dayz?

"Shopping for Sabzi: Stories" by Nitin Deckha

This is one of the last books in the course and its themes are easy to connect to the other books in the course such as: Barnacle Love, The Chinese Knot and Natasha and Other Stories. These have been four my favourite books so far and it is clear why: these books are easy to relate to and are full of wit and humor. As a young person in a minority, I can especially relate to the themes of love, sex, relationships, friendship, family, and culture in Shopping for Sabzi. It has not been a chore to read this book, but a pleasure. I am about halfway and can’t wait to get to the other stories. Each one focuses on a distinctly different character from the story before, but all are interesting, compelling and well developed, despite the short length of the stories. Deckha is one of the only authors able to understand today’s young people and how they speak and translate that onto the pages of his book. Unlike Thea in The Other Sister, the voices and diction of the young characters, such as Marcus in “Cheese Guru Kiss”, are believable.

Some questions I hope to ask Deckha next week:

Do the characters, themes, etc. of the stories come from people you have met in real life?

Is there a clear message you want to convey with your stories about South Asian people and/or culture?

Do you think that "shopping for sabzi" is a detrimental way of looking for a mate or for love?


Below I am also including the discussion I started on the Listserv on this text:

I am currently finishing up Shopping for Sabzi by Nitin Deckha and was wondering if anyone else noticed the similarities between it and other books in the course, such as Natasha and Other Stories, The Chinese Knot, and Barnacle Love. The stories in these books focus on a specific group, whether it be a racial/cultural group or a family, and are separate yet interconnected. I have found these books to be the most enjoyable to read throughout the course because they have often been the most easy to relate to (common themes I've noticed are: relationships, sex, family, love, friends - all issues that interest people of our age group), are contemporary and are written with humor and wit.

I was just wondering if anyone else saw these similarities, agreed/disagreed, could share which of these books they liked the most and why, or if anyone has noticed any other similarities between the books in the course? This last question in particular could perhaps be helpful for all of us in studying for the exam.

"Late Nights on Air" by Elizabeth Hay

The funny thing about reading Elizabeth Hay's Late Nights on Air is that it was my idea of the traditional Canadian novel before I started this course. Although every character has something interesting about them that makes them different and makes the radio station a mixture of unique personalities, they are all Caucasian Canadian. I had gotten so used to books that told the stories that hadn't been told before, the stories that were about the traditional 'other' Canadian, that reading this book was unfortunately very hard for me to get into. I started to approach it differently, however, after Gail presented the video of The Sweater. It reminded me that although they are more traditional, these stories of Canadian life must also be told through our art and literature. Although this country is now more multicultural than ever, these long-established Canadian ideals are also important and are now a part of the distinctive blend of stories that this country has to present.

I suppose I was discriminating it against it for its lack of including other cultures in its main characters, but I was missing the unique brand of Northern Canadian culture that it did present. This was an idea that I was more open to after Hay's visit as well. Her soft-spoken manner drew me into the narrative as she was reading and I began to reconsider my initial impression. Just like the voice of Dido drew Harry into the radio station, Hay's discussion drew me into the book whose themes and setting I was not accustomed to reading about. She talked about her own stay in Yellowknife and how the town itself inspired her and plays a central role in the narrative. This is similar to other books in the course, such as Barnacle Love, The Chinese Knot and Natasha, in which Toronto plays a central figure that all the plot lines intertwine around. I learned that the beauty of Hay's novel lies in its exposure of a city that is not as prevalent in Canadian culture, Yellowknife, a medium that is almost forgotten, radio, characters that are atypical, and her unconventional focus on a group of characters rather than a clear protagonist. I'm glad that I now see what is so special about Hay's highly acclaimed work, so I can maybe give it another chance before the exam. As is often true of first impressions, mine were misleading and did not allow me to appreciate the beauty of Late Nights on Air.

"In the Place of Last Things" by Michael Helm

One of the aspects of Helm's novel that most drew me in was how it reminded me of another famous road novel, On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I have always had the dream of, like the characters in both books, taking an extensive road trip throughout North America and discovering things about myself along the way. My ideal trip would go from Toronto to Vancouver and then down to California, across the US to New York, to Montreal and then back to Toronto.

This led me to think about the most important things that I would need to take with me on a road trip: good books, good friends, good music, and a camera. Imagining the music that would make the cut on my own road trip soundtrack was helpful because when I'm reading, I often set the narratives of books to music, and it helped me identify with In the Place of Last Things.

Road music:

1. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2. Tegan and Sara - Sainthood
3. Gossip - Music for Men
4. Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head, Parachutes, Viva la Vida
5. M.I.A. - Kala
6. Vampire Weekend - Contra and Vampire Weekend
7. Jay-Z - The Blueprint III and The Black Album
8. Santigold - Santogold
9. No Doubt - The Singles Collection
10. The Smiths - The Very Best of the Smiths
11. Regina Spektor - Far
12. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
13. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
14. The Strokes - Is This It? and Room On Fire
15. Metric - Old World Underground, Where Are You Now, Live It Out, Grow Up and Blow Away, Fantasies
16. Passion Pit - Manners
17. Madonna - The Immaculate Collection, Celebration
18. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
19. The Eagles – Greatest Hits
20. The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing
21. Notorious BIG - Ready to Die
22. The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
23. Michael Jackson - The Essential Michael Jackson
24. Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson In Crime
25. Blink-182 - Greatest Hits
26. Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
27. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible and Funeral
28. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs, Plans, and Transatlanticism
29. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
30. Coconut Records – Microphone and Young Baby
etc.

Maybe I should look into investing in an iPod adapter before I embark on this trip...

"The Book of Negroes" by Lawrence Hill

Last night was Lawrence Hill's reading of his masterpiece, The Book of Negroes. He was soft-spoken, surprisingly humorous in person, and generous enough to answer many of our pressing questions and sign our copies of his book.

I was truly moved and inspired by Hill's book and am most likely going to write about it for my Letter Assignment. So I've decided to use this journal entry as a space for me to brainstorm on the many things I want to write about. Right now, there is so much that I want to mention about the 470-page novel, that I feel that I have to get down my ideas as soon as I can.

I am thinking that I would like to focus on Aminata and the forces that push her to survive. I am very interested in the relationship she has with her parents and how their voices are constantly with her, even when she is nearing death and getting ready to face the London courts:

"I could feel my pulse pounding in my throat, and tried to calm myself by thinking of my father and how - even when making tea or jewelery - his hands moved with confidence. I imagined his voice, deep and musical, reaching out across the ocean to soothe me now: Just be who you are, and speak of the life you have lived. (458)

I am also interested in her relationship with her husband, Chekura. I was deeply moved by how only death could stop him from finding her every time they were apart. Not only did The Book of Negroes teach me things I did not know about Black history and Canada's role in slavery, but also about love and how it can cross oceans and bring people together again.

The hardest parts in the novel for me to read were when Aminata loses both her children. Aminata experiences some of the most horrific events I could ever imagine. As a child, losing parents would be the most difficult thing to face, and as a woman, she must endure losing her children and her husband. Reading those passages always made me feel a pang of regret for the pain that she encounters, but I also learned that these experiences were what made her a stronger woman, encouraged to keep reading, learning, teaching others, and pushed her to continue fighting for her freedom.

I look forward to developing these ideas into my letter to the wonderful Lawrence Hill.

"Ragged Company" by Richard Wagamese

In lecture, we discussed the question that Richard Wagamese's book asks: Does money have the ability to change someone's quality of life? Previous to reading this book, I had often toyed with that same idea on my own. Whenever things don't go exactly as planned, those of us who have financial limitations often think, 'If only I had more money, everything would be different.' But Wagamese's book questions the truth in those thoughts. The characters in Ragged Company win money through the lottery, but are still unable to let go of their previous experiences, struggles and burdens. This reminded me of an episode of Oprah that I once saw about a homeless person who was give $100,000 by a documentary filmmaker. The director put the money in a briefcase in a dumpster where the homeless man was sure to find it, as he made his living at the time by collecting cans. The homeless man was unaware that the money was to be part of the movie he was being filmed for; the director had told him that he was just following him to discover what it was like to be homeless. The man had no idea that he was part of a social experiment to see if money really can change someone's life for the better. Out of no where, family members and old friends who had once abandoned the man and forgotten of his existence wanted a new relationship with him. The man bought these people lavish gifts such as cars and even bought himself a $32,000 truck. Not only did he not know how to handle having so much money, but he could not grow accustomed to living under a roof. Once he had acquired an apartment, he couldn't sleep on a bed, but slept on the floor. Eventually, he was so unwise with his money, despite the financial advisers and therapists available to him free of charge through the director, that he ended up homeless and alone once again. This story demonstrates that money cannot solve all of one's problems. (The link to the story is here http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/95216/a_homeless_man_blows_100000_of_free.html?cat=9)

Although the characters in Ragged Company do not grow fully accustom to having more opportunities either, they eventually learn how to use their talents and skills as trades and give back to the Mission. But the success of the characters is due to something they had that the homeless man in the other story did not - each other. They were a family before they received their windfall and were there for each other despite their social circumstances. They may have been lacking a physical place to live, but they had built a home with their friendship. The company's relationships with each other and with Granite allow them to move past their former lives and use their fortune to reinvent their lives. Regardless of their monetary wealth, as long as they maintained their home with each other, they would continue to be rich in love and companionship.

"Airstream Land Yacht" by Ken Babstock

To be honest, I was having a rather difficult time reading this book before lecture last week and Babstock's reading a couple of days ago. I had never before encountered poetry like this and was struggling to understand meaning through it. I am accustomed to trying to relate poetry and writing to my own life, but I just could not find emotional connections in Babstock's words.

I was relieved to discover in lecture, however, that Leslie agreed that it is often difficult to understand what Babstock's theme or intention is with his poetry. She mentioned, for example, that the poem "Airstream Land Yacht" is actually more focused in sounds and metaphors, rather than relaying an actual message or emotion. Even she found it hard to distinguish what his main point is. It seems as though Babstock's poetry acts as a twisted map through the convoluted thoughts of the poet's mind.

However, Leslie also mentioned that "Stencil Artist" is a more approachable poem with a more traditional theme of love and relationships. As these are themes that I am more accustomed to and interested in reading about, I decided to give the poem another try. I found his narrative about a relationship with a graffiti artist easier to understand after Leslie gave us more background information and eventually discovered the beauty in the poem. I delighted in the imagery of "rail bridges, back lanes, blue dust of building/sites - with the NSCAD dropout (b.68, Khanesetake)/who worked at night with stencils and spray/paint, enlivening the poured forms of capitol/with red and black silhouettes of ordinary people" (23) that could be describing rebellion in almost any Canadian city. And once Babstock references his relationship with the artist he has been describing and discusses how she removed him from her life, I could appreciate how he compares the way she approaches her art work with the way she treated their relationship: "Steady brown knife,/she cut me-expertly-out of her life; the life/I see now I'd been filling in" (23). It is a beautiful comparison that allowed me to finally appreciate the emotion Babstock was putting into his work, even though I didn't see it immediately.

I have learned from reading this book that although I may struggle with it, I shouldn't give up on poetry because it may take a few reads to find lasting beauty and meaning within the words.