R. A. Nelson at Huntsville Library

The Bailey Cove branch of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library hosted a talk by R. A. Nelson yesterday at 10am, and our small audience was treated to the story of Nelson’s writer’s journey. In order to get to the talk on time, I had to break off my reading of Nelson’s most recent novel, Days of Little Texas, about a young pentecostal preacher. Not the subject matter I would normally pick up — but his third novel, like his first two, deals with uncomfortable subjects (pentecostal evangelism and ghosts, our collective culpability in slavery), or as Nelson puts it, subjects that “scare” him, subjects that “push[es] him creatively” (“About the Author,” Days of Little Texas). I am glad he practices this creative courage because we reap the reading benefits. Discussing his research for Breathe My Name, Nelson said that he changed his views on the main character’s mother (I’m trying not to give away the book’s story — go read it!), and because he learned a different way of seeing, his writing gave me the same insight.

I did not want to stop reading Days of Little Texas to go listen to Nelson talk, and that’s the highest form of praise for an author. But the book was waiting for me when I got home, and I finished it. Nelson’s books have great pacing, and Days of Little Texas kept me hooked all the way through, delighted with some of the twists I didn’t see coming. Once again, I’m left thinking about things I’d pretty much fixed my mind about. I like seeing in new ways, especially if it’s a good story that helps me do that. I’ve always felt that a great novelist teaches as much as she or he tells a good story — Chinua Achebe’s essay, “The Novelist as Teacher,” has always made a lot of sense. I’m happy to claim Nelson as one of my new teachers and favorite authors.

Torturing Democracy

Last night on the Journal, Bill Moyers introduced excerpts from Sherry Jones’s documentary, Torturing Democracy. As Moyers said, it’s difficult but necessary to watch these atrocities so that we can name things properly: our country has tortured — it has not engaged in “enhanced interrogations.”

If we cannot prosecute those who broke the law, then another country needs to prosecute us. If we allow the Bush administration’s illegal actions to go unpunished, we will reap the negative karma. We need to say what we’ve done and make amends. There’s no other way forward. I don’t know if Obama’s administration has the guts to help the American people take this step. Do we?

second life avatar

Just had to show my Second Life avatar. I hang out at the ISTE Island and Cookie Island, where the writers are.

Technomama – Ana Sisnett — my tech heroine for Ada Lovelace Day

Ana Sisnett (1952-2009) was Executive Director from 1998-2006 of Austin Free-Net, a community technology center. But her pioneering on the internet began earlier when she co-founded Technomama with Gisele-Audrey Mills. Technomama worked with the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) back when the text-only internet presented more opportunities for social justice activism than for consumerism. Funded in part by the Foundation for a Compassionate Society, Technomama trained women left out of the digital revolution and viewed equal access and ability as an international human rights issue.

An early adopter who delighted as much as the next geek over a new application or gadget, Ana nevertheless always thought through the complex questions of access, training, and ability. If the technology excluded, well, then…where’s the fix? She admired the work of Knowbility, whose annual AIR-Interactive (Accessible Internet Rally) features a web-design contest focusing on assistive technology and accessible design.

Over the last three years, Ana struggled with ovarian cancer, and she passed away on January 13. She leaves behind many, many people who were touched by her vision of a usable and just technology that bridges differences and helps us realize our better selves.

the blessed sound of change

Is there anything that signals more radical change than Obama’s message to the Iranian people and its leaders? Watching the address, I wonder what rabbit hole we’ve fallen into — Bush’s 8 years have done just that much damage. What’s the shift? Listen to the speech. It’s short. But here’s my list of indicators that we are finally on the right track — this is what Obama does:

• he addresses the Iranian people and Iran’s leaders, but he speaks just as much to Americans
• by naming the New Year celebration of Nowruz, Obama starts by honoring a foreign tradition and educating Americans. There’s no condescension — just a matter-of-fact use of a term most Americans will need to go look up. Obama is a teacher at work.
• he begins with knowledge and a history lesson that demonstrate respect. Obama names the venerability and ancientness of Iranian culture and history.
• he maintains emphasis on commonality and coalition. The people of Iran and the U.S. share desire for peace and prosperity for themselves and their children.
• he puts the responsibility for peace on Iranian leaders and is clear that the path is diplomacy and not violence.
• he ends by reiterating his best wishes for the New Year and then repeats these best wishes in Farsi. That one Farsi phrase at the end of this short address will likely do more to heal Iran-U.S. relations than anything that’s been done in the 20th c.

Joseph Harris’s Rewriting

I just finished Joseph Harris’s Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts. I want so much to talk with someone about this book but haven’t found anyone yet — so I’ll talk with myself here. Why do I like this book so much? It’s not that it’s stunningly new — Harris references Elbow, for instance, and Harris’s emphasis on social construction of writing and knowledge echoes Bruffee. I guess it’s that it makes stunning turns in thinking — or, that this book is stunningly useful. You get my drift — there’s something stunning about this book, even if I can’t quite fix that stunningness precisely. By rewriting and revising familiar terms (summary becomes “coming to terms,” for instance — although that’s a simplistic take on Harris’s project), Harris helps us re-think what goes on in college writing classrooms. Or, rather, what needs to go on in writing classrooms.

Obama’s Dreams from My Father

Last week, I finally read Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father. I expected it to be good — several friends had recommended the book. I know the man delivers a mean speech! But I did not expect the poetry, the storytelling. It’s one thing to be a powerful rhetorician and speechmaker; it’s another thing to craft a memoir that sings. This voice weaves, skips, mends, reaches, and sanctifies. A clear and deep voice for complex and difficult questions.

Encountering Disgrace

Some of my earlier posts discuss my attempt to work through an article on J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, and now that piece will appear this April as “Dis(g)race, or White Man Writing” in Encountering Disgrace: Reading and Teaching Coetzee’s Novel, edited by Bill McDonald. The collection has a lot to offer the solitary reader wishing for some kind of discussion and the perplexed teacher wondering how to work with this contentious novel.

Austin American-Statesman article on Ana Sisnett

Here’s the article on Ana from the Statesman, 15 January 2009. By Joshunda Sanders, it’s called “Celebrated author, artist and activist Sisnett dies after battle with cancer.” A beautiful picture of Ana and more information is at Lesbian.com, of which Ana was a founding member.

Ana Sisnett — a big soul

Ana Sisnett passed away yesterday at 4pm in Austin TX after dealing with ovarian cancer for three years. If you don’t know Ana, let me share her with you so that you will be as inspired as I have been. Most recently, she’s worked as a visual artist. More long-term, she’s a poet, activist, voice for social justice, internet pioneer. Here’s an article from the Austin Chronicle that gives you a little information on her work as Executive Director of Austin Free-Net, a community technology center: “Ana Sisnett: The Reluctant Heroine.”

An African Panamanian, Ana remained moved by her childhood geography and the sounds of Caribbean English, Spanish. She used the sound of her Barbadian grandmother’s voice in her children’s book, Grannie Jus’ Come. Ana wrote the poem first, and after hearing it, I told her it would make a wonderful children’s book. She took me seriously. We took each other’s words seriously — especially when it came to writing, art, politics, family — coffee and Scrabble. Even with cancer, she still kicked my butt in Scrabble.

I’ve got so many more stories, but I’ll stop now. I know there will be a huge memorial in Austin. Ana’s big soul affected so many people.