Art Museum Visit

This weekend Scott and I visited the Cincinnati Museum of Art, something we've been wanting to do since we've lived here but haven't had the chance yet.  The Eden Park area surrounding the museum is absolutely beautiful, providing breathtaking views of the city.

Look! There's Kentucky!

 

During our visit we discovered the work of Henry Ossawa Tanner, an Africa-American artist from Pittsburgh who lived from 1859 to 1937.  His art was featured as part of the special exhibit at the museum.  Many of his pieces are religious, and his work was by far our favorite.

This is the one he's probably most famous for.  I'd seen it in books but I didn't know he was the artist.  It's called Banjo Lesson - Source 

Flight into Egypt - Source

Teaching Jesus to Read - Source 

Daniel in the Lions' Den - Source

Angels Appearing Before the Shepherds - Source

Palace of Justice, Tangiers - Source

Christ at the Home of Mary and Martha - Source

Here are some of my other favorites from our visit.  You were allowed to take pictures of works older than the 1960s so these are my photographs of the pieces. 

Peasant Women of Borst (Elizabeth Nourse 1859-1938)

Eve Hearing the Voice (Moses J. Ezekiel 1844-1917)

Industry Protecting Art and Music, 1930 (Clement J. Barnhorn 1857-1935)

Jim Dine's Pinocchio lithographs were also really neat, part of the exhibit, In Celebration of Pinocchio.  You can see pictures of them here.  The exhibit is being held to celebrate the twelve-foot bronze sculpture that greets visitors outside the museum.

Super Tuesday

Yesterday was pretty amazing. . .

First, I got up early and headed to Kroger to purchase a small veggie tray and some honey buns (I realize now what an odd pairing this is).  Then I met up with one of my classmates (K) from my Feminist Theory course.  Together we drove to a local women's shelter/family violence prevention center to participate in a small service-project we put together for our Women's Studies class.

Although we were both very excited (because we would be conducting a creative exploration session, which included writing, creating art, listening/reading poetry) neither of us was very nervous.  I told K that I was afraid we wouldn't be able to do the project after all, thinking we were both intuitively suspecting an unexpected cancellation (I've learned things can fall through last minute with non-profits).  When we found the center I finally felt a wave of nervousness because there were gates and a call box for us to "state our names and reason for visiting."  Inside the gates, we found a parking spot and walked to the visitors' entrance.  Inside, it resembled a dentist's office: chairs and small end tables with magazines and plastic toys and games for children.  We were met with yet another call button, and a friendly-looking woman emerged from behind the window.

She led us to the small room where we would do our activities with the women.  It was perhaps the first time either of us had really thought the women would already be there; they weren't in the room, but they were waking up in the rooms around us, rooms where they were staying temporarily.

We spread out the art supplies (crayons, markers, glitter pens, drawing paper) and small notebooks and pens, putting the snacks on a side table.  In a few minutes the first young woman (appeared to be in her early 20s) entered the room wearing lounge pants, a sweatshirt, and carrying her purse.  Her eyes lit up when she saw the supplies on the table.   She asked if we were going to be doing art; K and I shared a smile and told her we were indeed going to be doing some art - we were hoping to have a great time with them!  She seemed excited and told us most of the visitors just sat and talked to them and they answered questions and such.  We told her we hoped to have some fun with them today, and that K and I would both be participating in all the activities too, drawing and writing along with them.

More women entered the room and we introduced ourselves to one another (most of the women appeared to be in their 20s and 30s, one woman was pregnant, and we later learned that all of them had children - they lovingly shared photos of their children with us!).  In all we had six women in our little class, a perfectly intimate gathering.

We started by tossing a ball of yarn around and sharing our names and our favorite things to do.  In the end, we each held a piece of the yarn, connected by the web it made around the table.  Then, K led us in a creative visualization, taking us through "the house of our senses," traveling through the rooms of sight, smell, taste, touch, and smell.

Next, I read a poem called "The Invitation" aloud and then we passed it around so the women could choose a stanza that spoke to them.  They spent the next half hour creating a piece of art from the poem, using the words or images that spoke to them.  What was so neat about this activity was that one of the workers at the center said they could have a smoke/bathroom break and only one woman got up to use the restroom.  They said they'd rather stay there coloring and drawing!

After the break, we all wrote a letter about a day five years into the future, addressing it to either (1) our future selves or (2) someone else who would be proud of our accomplishments  We wrote about our ideal day, what we would be doing, who we would be with, why it would be "ideal," and what we would have to overcome to be there.  The women really seemed to enjoy this activity and a couple shared their writing with us.  They all said they would like to continue writing because they thought it was comforting and made them feel hopeful.  They each left with their notebooks and some art supplies.

After the session was over, K and I stuck around talking to some of the women; one woman let me hold her baby!  They said we should come back and visit them, and I know we're both interested in returning sometime soon, even if just to visit.  This experience was so unbelievable to me, and I can't believe how at ease I felt there.  Normally I think I would have felt anxious or nervous, but I felt so comfortable spending time with the women there.

When K and I returned to the car, we tried to process the experience together, considering how we felt and how it affected us.  We both had other things to go to that day so we were forced to move on quickly, but that experience will stay with me forever.  I hope we can go back again sometime soon!


Less than two hours after our session was over I had my creative nonfiction class to attend at school.  It wasn't an ordinary class, however - Joyce Dyer, a writer who resides in Akron, OH was visiting our class.  We read some of her stories for homework so I was excited to hear her talk to us about the reflective voice.  What I didn't know was that she identifies as an Appalachian because her parents moved to northern Appalachia when she was little and she grew up in a mining family.  When I got to class, one of my classmates handed me a book called, Bloodroot: Reflections on Place By Appalachian Women Writers, edited by Joyce Dyer.  I was so excited!! My professor had gotten it for me!

I sat and listened with the rest of the class as Dyer talked to us about reflective voice, showing us examples from other CNF writers, anxiously anticipating when I could go up and talk to her after class.  When class was over, I walked up to the front and told her I enjoyed her talk and that I was wondering if she could sign my book.  My classmate and professor had already told her about me (!) and so she asked me questions about what part of Appalachia I was from (pronouncing the same way we do in southern Appalachia) and signing my book.  She also told me about an Appalachian Writers Workshop in Kentucky.  If I had thought of it and known ahead of time I would've mentioned that I've studied with Rita Quillen, an Appalachian poet included in Bloodroot.  We said our goodbyes and I carried my signed book, admiring it in the hall.


I knew when I woke up Tuesday that my planner was packed full of stuff to do.  But I didn't know what a great day it would be.  Enough of that. . . here are some pictures!

Our art supplies! 

Showing off their drawings :)

My "drawing" of words that spoke to me in the poem

All their beautiful artwork

Bloodroot. . . I just love the cover!

She signed, "I'm so glad I met a fellow Appalachian. I hope to see you again."

Brian Doyle's 'Leap'

For my first night of assigned readings for my Creative Nonfiction class this quarter I got one of the authors mixed up on the syllabus and read the wrong reading.  This wouldn't have been that bad if I hadn't chosen that 'wrong' reading for my first response journal.  Come to find out that author's not even included in the syllabus - - 'Why yes, I am in my second year of grad school, preparing to graduate in June, why do you ask?'

Anyway, I didn't turn it in that day and make a fool of myself (although I really don't think our professor would've minded...she probably would've read it and given me a grade, but I chose not to give her the first impression of me as someone who can't even read the name off a syllabus correctly).  I digress...

I wanted to share the reading because I thought it was quite powerful, and well I have this useless response journal.  You can read the (very) short essay here and then I've posted my response below.  The essay is called "Leap" by Brian Doyle (the 'correct' author was Doty and they're right next to each other in the anthology, so see I wasn't too far off...okay well maybe I have no excuse).  We're using the Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction edited by Williford and Martone.

Leap - excerpts from an essay by Brian Doyle (Acrylic, gouache, graphite on Tyvek)
by Kathleen Borkowski
Source: Kathleen Borkowski website

Brian Doyle’s “Leap” touched me in a way I could have never thought possible from a page and a half piece of writing. As a member of the ‘9/11 generation’ it took me only moments to realize what event he was discussing in his piece. Within seconds I was taken back to my eighth grade Home Economics classroom and the visions on the television of smoke and fire coming from the Twin Towers; we all sat mesmerized, horrified, watching the cameras pan from one image to the next. Our teacher had never experienced our silence before, and she wouldn’t again. In that moment, I felt ‘American’ in a way I’d never felt before and have never felt since. Doyle’s brief, but stunning piece took me back to that moment. It also conjured up a more recent image of the photograph in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer depicting a man jumping from the tower.

Perhaps Doyle's influence and power in conjuring up these powerful images is what makes it such a great piece of writing. It takes us back and connects us to those moments, what we thought, how we felt, what we tried to tell ourselves to find some sense of comfort. In a brief page and a half he captures the moment, the people who witnessed the powerful image of the couple holding hands, and the connection to verses in the Bible.

His weaving of Scripture was perhaps what touched me the most; he tries to give words and meaning to the positive image witnessed amid the turmoil and tragedy. Even in the way he incorporates those Scriptures – “wrote John the Apostle” or “says the Book of Wisdom” – he makes it seem less like he’s pulling them from a holy text, and more like he’s quoting wise friends who provide wisdom in a time of need.

His inclusion of people’s names – the people who had watched as they leapt from the towers – seemed odd to me at first. As I read their names silently, I wondered why he had chosen this kind of ‘reportage’ style, quoting them as one would in a newspaper. But after reading through the entire piece, I understand that what Doyle might be doing is providing real witnesses, people who could, in a sense, ‘give voice’ to the circumstance, and in turn, share those images with us, as readers.

Though this piece, and its subject matter, has the danger of sounding ‘sentimental’ or overly optimistic, his has enough realism and an underlying message that death and tragedy, though inescapable, cannot be explained or understood. Instead, he urges that in those moments when we could easily focus on the “screaming souls of the murderers,” why not remember the “extraordinary ordinary succinct naked stunning perfect simple ferocious love?” (166).

I think what makes this a wonderful example of creative nonfiction is that he tells the story of a true event, while weaving in his own speculations and reflections. He has also tried to make connections to other tragedies, guiding his readers to see that love “is everything that we are capable of against horror and loss and death” (166). Even in this terrible moment, when it would have been easy to give up on the power of love, Doyle provides an articulate example that whether these two people were “husband and wife, lovers, dear friends, colleagues, strangers thrown together at the window there at the lip of hell,” they fought against the world’s evil as best they could until their moment of inescapable death. His reflections, along with the inclusion of the witnesses and Scriptures, are what make this a powerful example of creative nonfiction.

.let's hear it for the w-o-m-e-n.

It's Women's History Month so I thought one way to honor the lovely occasion is by sharing some women who inspire, challenge, empower, and encourage me! This is of course one in a series of posts because I won't be able to fit them all in one (and I'm sure more will come to mind as the month goes on)...here are just a few to start!

Source: google.com via Jade on Pinterest

Barbara Brown Taylor pictured on her farm with her chickens (I hope I kind of look like that one day, chickens in arm and all).  I first fell in love with Taylor's writing when I serendipitously stumbled onto her book at a Border's that was going out of business about a year and a half ago.  I loved the cover and read that she was a former Episcopal priest but now resides on her farm, worshipping God in the many 'altars in the world' (the name of the book, in fact - Altars in the World); from that book I've been hooked on her memoirs, lectures, sermons, and essays.  Altars in the World inspired the name of my blog actually! Her writing is poignant and helps challenge and encourage my spiritual growth in so many ways.

Source: google.com via Jade on Pinterest

Jessica Chastain - It might seem odd to follow a writer/theologian with an actress, but I'm just loving this woman's talent, not to mention her choice of roles.  She's one of those actresses you have to take a double-take to recognize in films (I did this recently when watching The Debt).  There's not one of her movies I've seen that I haven't enjoyed - - Tree of Life, The Help, Take Shelter, The Debt, all great films I highly recommend!

Source: google.com via Jade on Pinterest

Melissa Harris-Perry - Scott and I have begun watching her show on MSNBC airing on weekends at 10 am.  I wrote about her segment on The Help a week ago and I hope to blog something about her segment this past weekend on America's Education.  You'll definitely hear about her if you're tuning into my blog!

Source: google.com via Jade on Pinterest

My mother is of course another woman who has served as a source of encouragement, empowerment, inspiration, and challenge in my life; I am the woman I am today in part because of her guidance and presence in my life.  I'm married and living miles away from her but we still talk every couple days or so.  Last year when I wrote a memoir in my feminist memoir class, my teacher noted the significance my mother played in shaping my me, even in ways that we're different.  

Amy Tan says it best in her book The Joy Luck Club, a fascinating story (and movie) about the mysteries of the mother-daughter relationship: "I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way."

What women encourage, inspire, empower, and challenge you?

.coming soon: birds!.

Scott bought me this cute bird feeder for Valentines' day and we hung it up on our balcony right away.  Even though we might not sight some birds for a while I can't wait to see them when the weather warms up.  Our male cat, Sammy, seems to already understand what it's for - he sits staring at it out the window.  The cylinder of food that came with it is 'safflower' which is supposed to attract chickadees, titmice, and (one of my favorites) cardinals!  I already saw a couple of cardinals chilling in the trees at my school so hopefully we'll sight some soon on our porch.

Until then these cardinals will have to do...some prints by Charley Harper, an Ohio artist.  We first saw these in a museum gift shop and now it seems like we see them everywhere.  But aren't they great?!  His works of other birds and animals are quite fascinating too!

You can see more of his originals here; I love that he does mostly animals and nature.  And I couldn't resist including this poster, The Edge of Appalachia...love it!

photos from here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

.out in the sticks.

Today Scott and I ventured out to one of the Metro Parks to see Patrick Dougherty's "stickwork."  Scott got the opportunity to meet Dougherty in April and hear him give a talk at the Dayton Art Institute.  He bought his new book so I'd already seen a lot of his work.  But it's nothing like seeing it in person.  For more information or pictures of his work the New York Times had a very interesting article about his log cabin home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  Here are some pictures from our excursion.

.Appalachian Studies Conference.

This weekend Scott and I traveled to Richmond, Kentucky for the 34th Annual Appalachian Studies Association Conference at Eastern Kentucky University!  I have to say my favorite part was being around "folks" from the mountains, hearing the familiar accent, and meeting people from our neck of the woods in Southwest Virginia.  Some of the sessions I attended were:

• Appalachian Women's Work - Perceptions of Breastfeeding Among First-Time Mothers in Appalachia; Eastern Kentucky Women Artists Working for Social Change; Appalachian Women Take It on the Road.
• Service Learning: Action, Reflection, and Renewal in the Academy through Student Engagement in the Community - Shepherd University, West Virginia (this one was extremely helpful in what I'm currently interested in with high-risk college students)
• Readings by Southern Appalachian Writers' Cooperative 
• Sexing Up Statistics With Song and Story (Serendipitously I got to help out with this one since it was being presented by my theater director from my undergrad and he was talking about a play I performed with him)
• Appalachian, Ethnicity, and Gender: An Exploratory Look at Higher Education Learning

In addition to the sessions we attended there were booths set up in the library with piles of Appalachian Studies books and materials.  We brought home a stack of newspapers and information about activism in the area.  They also had a silent auction of eclectic items from handmade jewelry to cds and tickets to bluegrass shows.  I bid several times on a t-shirt that said "Treehugger," but didn't end up winning it - I was hoping I could get it to wear home in front of my dad and brother who have already given my that distinguished title!

One particular item Scott and I are both quite excited about is a poster we bought from the Beehive Design Collective, a "swarm" of artists and activists working to translate the stories of environmental destruction from "word-to-image." We plan to get it framed and hang it over our couch. Here are some examples of their art and you can see more at their website!