ACES Discussion

1. What are your expectations going into engaged scholarship?

I expect that I will learn a lot from leaving the UC Berkeley campus bubble. I will learn about the people other than Cal students who live in the area and their personalities, attitudes and culture. Specifically, since I would like to be a part of the BTech residency, I expect to learn a lot from interacting with younger people that have different backgrounds than me. In that way I can open my mind to new perspectives other than just a focus on midterms and papers.

2. Have you spent much time off campus since you got to Cal?

I have not spent much time off campus since I started here as a freshman. I tutored for one semester at an elementary school in Oakland through a club at Cal. I definitely felt that that was a foreign place to me even though it was only in the city across town.

3. Are you from the bay area/not enrolled? If so, how does this affect your relationship to ACES?

I am not from the bay area; I'm originally from Orange County. Orange County has a different socioeconomic and racial composition than the bay area, so getting involved with this community will be a new experience for me.

4. Which projects did you select and why?

I selected the residencies at Btech and BCC as my top two choices because I enjoy teaching and being a mentor. I was a resident assistant in the university dormitories my junior year because I wanted to support incoming UC Berkeley students and help them transition to college life. I also think that interacting with younger people in an academic environment is very exciting.

5. What are your hopes and fears?

My biggest fear is that I will get into a mindset of trying to "save" students. I know from our class discussion that that is not a job function of Btech STP's and that the students don't need saving; it's just difficult because since I am so privileged, I feel like I need to give back to others that didn't have the same opportunities I did. I hope that I will be a good listener and be someone that the students want to see every week.

-Patrick Ho

Zaatar Diva Response (Love as Resistance and Feminism)

　 In, “Mama Sweet Baklava” Hammad incorporates feminism by honoring the resilience of her mother. She refers to her mom as a “backbone strong foundation” and having thousands of “layers.” Instead of dismissing her mom’s labor, beauty, and empowerment, she brings to light her mom’s “recipe” and also affirms all womyn by saying “every woman/got a recipe.” Sexism can be quick to simply and objectify womyn and not recognize their complexity and humanity, so here Hammad does the opposite. In “Love Poem”, the theme of love as resistance is present as she conveys her love for the children of Palestine and her desire to shield them from death and the Israeli army. Her resistance against oppression is shown through her love for the youth and for preserving life. In“4:02 pm”, she recognizes the struggle and strength of womyn, instead of making them invisible. She acknowledges the struggle of a womyn in Haiti, Tunisia, and Brooklyn. In “Rocks off” Suheir Hammad brings up violence against womyn. She depicts a womyn who experiences physical attacks. At the end of the poem, she asserts the resilience of this womyn in the face of brutality by saying “she has built a pyramid/of diamonds/a testament/of her strength.”

-Preyanka Gulati

ACES questions

1.  What are your expectations going into your ACES project?
2.  Your hopes & fears? 
3.  What are some of your assumptions?

Hammad

Hammad shows love as resistance in many of her poems. She talks about lovemaking but intersperses images of violence and struggle throughout the poem. In my group in lecture last Wednesday, we all had different ideas of what feminism meant. Thus I'm not sure how I would define it, but I think of feminism as a conscious effort to resist patriarchy. This means fighting for gender equality, ensuring that women are not discriminated against, and empowering women to believe that they deserve the same things men do. However, the idea of feminism becomes harmful if it is something that holds a negative connotation. For example, if feminists are seen as ugly women without boyfriends or significant others, then certain women may be less inclined to define themselves as feminists and may actually try to go against what feminists are fighting for just so that they do not get associated with feminism.

In response to Zataar Diva

In Zataar Diva, feminism emerges in various poems. One example is the poem 'glitter girl' in which Suheir raises the issue of sexualization and abuse of women. In the quote, "know how a mirror breaks...that's what happens to girls too when they get touched get broken..." she conveys the damage of sexual abuse using the simile of the mirror.  Love as resistance arises in the poem 'letter to anthony (critical resistance)' in which Suheir loves criminals to resist the idea that criminals are inherently bad and inhuman and to promote the idea that good people with real human emotions (such as love) are defined as criminals by societies. She also loves herself as a piece of Palestine in resistance to Israel's attempts to eradicate Palestinian people. 

--Monet Lane 

Discussion on Zataar Diva

Identify themes of feminism & love as resistance in Suheir Hammad's Zataar Diva