She rolled her eyes when I said I preferred not to use the word “Prostitute”, but “transactional sex worker”, instead. Granted it was in Portuguese, and while this might not reflect the cultural trends of the Lusophone world, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be critical thinkers as we enter the speech of new cultures.
It’s funny how when learning another language we can wear words like veils, pretend we don’t know ourselves in terms we would never use in native tongue. It is like putting your linguistic feet on the coffee table of a foreign language house, knowing merda well you wouldn’t pull that at your own domicile.
This week in my course on service-learning I read of Critical Whiteness, this theory that postulates that “white” people, particularly “white” men are often uncomfortable with facing their own inherent privilege when discussing the marginalization of other ethnic groups as it forces them to question their own identity. This idea dropped me off on the side of a thought: Is there such a thing as a Critical Womanness? If so, then this might proffer a possible reason as to why many of the female population find it so difficult to consider the problematics of words like “Prostitute” or “Bitch” as it causes them to rearrange their own self-perception. No matter how dictionaryized a speaker might be, definitions get lost in the culture of fast speech – quick words that feed thought at the cost of our progression. What self-loving woman wants to really question the words she uses that perpetuate a vicious cycle of misogyny? It’s so much easier to chalk it up to over- analyzation, but truth always translates to verdade.
It’s curious, too, because in African Studies when we talk about the quasi-racist word “tribe” most people with half a head accept that, say “ethnic community” and call it a day. Even in Portuguese, I teach that the word “tribo” is used to denote groups of people, but it’s better to say “comunidade étnica”, even though the bulk of Lusophones probably wouldn’t agree, but we are the owners of our speech and we select the words we use, freely. We are not chained to terms that we appear to have such affinity for.
Some people toss forth any given word to formulate a sentence. I arrange poetry to sing meaning through ever dialogue I breathe.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Lesson learning
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Spoken Word Benefit for HAITI at UCLA
The African Activists Association of UCLA brings you
A Spoken Word and Performance Art Benefit for Haiti
Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 at UCLA
From 5:30-9 pm
NRB Auditorium (635 Charles E Young)
At Structure 9/ across from School of Public Health
Proceeds to benefit PSI’s emergency and long-term relief efforts in Haiti. See more about them at www.psi.org
Suggested minimum donation of $5
Hosted and MC’ed by AAA co-chairs Cassandra Tesch and Deborah Dauda
Featuring Haitian Art with commentary by Kathy Smith
Brazilian Capoeira
African Dances
Stand up Comedy by some of LA’s funniest comics
Spoken Word Poetry by local and international artists
International Dance Ensembles
Hip Hop guest performances
Special International guest stars
Beats by DJ Animao
Foods and drinks provided
Who we are: THE AFRICAN ACTIVISTS ASSOCIATION
The African Activists Association at UCLA is committed to generating cultural and political awareness about Africa and its diasporas. We achieve this by organizing annual student colloquiums that bring together new scholarship pertaining to various topics on the countries of Africa. We organize quarterly African Film Screenings, Spoken Word and Performance Art benefits, gallery exhibitions, and other means through which we seek to counter some of the misrepresentations of Africa and the world in general in popular media. For more information about AAA please contact africanactivists@gmail.com.
Why PSI?
PSI is an international non-profit organization that works with HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Reproductive Health Issues around the globe. In Haiti, PSI is working with both immediate and long-term assistance, to help people get back on their feet and stem the tide of illness that can occur in the days and weeks following a crisis of this magnitude.
One of the important aspects of this help is access to water, which PSI is working very close with. This is a direct quote from PSI:
In response to the desperate need for water in and around Port-au-Prince, PSI has secured water purification solution to provide survivors with 30 million liters of safe water to drink.
More than 1 million sachets of P&G’s PUR Purifier of Water, currently stored in a PSI warehouse in Panama, will be brought into the country. Another 25,000 bottles of PSI’s local safe water system Dlo Lavi will be shipped from a Miami storehouse to Haiti.
PSI has been working in Haiti for more than 20 years and had 100 staff on the ground when the earthquake struck. Its top priority now, beyond ensuring the safety and security of all staff members, is to make certain there is an ongoing supply of clean drinking water for those in need. With the mass movement of people in and out of the capital and the ongoing lack of drinking water, sanitation and health care services, people in Haiti are at increased risk of contracting diseases such as diarrheal disease and other waterborne illnesses.
PSI has launched an appeal for funds to help support these efforts. It has also deployed a special response team to the region to further assess the situation and help reinforce relief efforts on the ground. The special response team is also tasked with locating PSI/Haiti staff members who remain missing.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Opportune moments on the number 12
The first thing I noticed were these strange shaped pumpkins. I’d seen the women schlep her articles from the bench on Westwood and Weyburn onto the seat in the middle of the bus, then scrimmage back out the door to grab a second pumpkin.
I was in the middle of a conversation with Nivardo, when after snuggling herself into the seat with all her bags and two pumpkins she stood up and looked around the bus, then said, “Does anyone here have a camera? Can someone take a picture of me with my pumpkin?”
People looked around, in bus rider shock, amused that this older women who seemed someone nutty and normal simultaneously had had the audacity to request her fellow bus riders immortalize her beloved pumpkins with a simple canon snap.
Since it had been my first night as office photographer for the Spanish and Portuguese department blog, I happened to be traveling with my camera, at which moment I responded to the riders request with a withdrawal of my camera from it’s case. People on the bus looked around and laughed in unison and I proceeded to quickly capture the woman and her large fall fruit. As I took the picture, she posed and said, “It’s so beautiful! I planted it myself” After taking a few shots, she thanked me and asked that I send her the pictures.
I assumed this women, who I learned later is named Mama Santini, would give me an email address. The age of digital photography may or may not impress this pumpkin mama, who handed me a handwritten note with her home address and phone number. She thanked me again, and situated herself back in her seat, snuggled up with her beloved pumpkin, awaiting the development of her image.
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