CLAS Acts March 2022
Monthly newsletter of the TT faculty of CLAS
A Note from Dean Drake
Even as our minds lean toward spring, let’s not rush past some important February milestones:
- We celebrated the achievements of wonderful colleagues at the virtual Annual Faculty Awards Convocation (see the list of our CLAS award winners),
- Faculty voted in governance elections run by our CLAS Faculty Council, and
- We rolled out to the college the refined version of our strategic vision and plans for developing its initiatives.
Hard work went into all three of these, and I appreciate the commitment we show to working together and on behalf of one another. I applaud all who nominated their colleagues for awards, all who ran for committee membership, and all who contributed to our vision document.
The CLAS Student Advisory Committee met recently, and shared their excitement about our vision and action plan. They also had the opportunity to talk with soon-to-be-AD Dwayne Tunstall about how to enhance students’ sense of belonging at the university and in our classrooms. Their perspective is always enlightening. For instance, they described their experiences encountering syllabi as first-year students. They reminded us that many students don’t really know what a syllabus is. They explained that some syllabi contain such firm reminders of what not to do (sometimes in ALL CAPS) that one of the students described as “terrifying.” They understood that there is a backstory for every prohibition, and nevertheless suggested that a welcoming and inspiring tone really matters, especially since syllabi often provide the first encounter with a course. They also recalled faculty who got it supremely right—calling them “chemists” or “writers” on the first day of class, for instance.
Similarly, at a recent Faculty Council meeting, one of your colleagues noted that some students interpret “office hours” as time you have set aside for your own office work, and so avoid bothering you at those times. While this in-group term is probably explained at Transitions, so are a thousand other things. These are good reminders for us to help students navigate the hidden curriculum.
I’m sure you share my gratitude for our spring break coming up March 6-13. Though it may be hard to see to the other side of that break just yet, GVSU Arts Celebration Poetry Night will be on the day we return. Please let your classes know. Many of them may never before have heard a poet read, and we have three dynamic performance poets lined up—find out more about Danez Smith, Ericka “Kyd Kane” Thompson and Marcel “Fable the Poet” Price in our feature article below. I hope you will join us too. Registration for this free virtual event is easy.
I’m also grateful to those of you who have expressed interest in the CLAS Faculty Fellow opportunities. These are critical leadership positions for bringing our college vision to life. We are seeking 4-5 Faculty Fellows to lead implementation teams for the College’s two signature initiatives: 1) Experiential Learning and High-Impact Practices and 2) Multidisciplinary Collaboration. Faculty Fellows will form a guiding coalition with the CLAS deans and campus partners, and this group will meet regularly to check in, share ideas and progress, build on connections and intersections, and problem-solve. Administrative/ project management support for teams will be provided by the Dean's Office. These are compensated positions. To apply, please email a CV and a statement of interest describing your related experience to Tracy McLenithan at [email protected]. The application deadline is March 7.
Wishing you all the spring (maybe sun?) that can be packed into a week-long break.
Jen
The Spoken Word
“A poem demands pronunciation.”
~Jorge Luis Borges
On March 14, 7 p.m., the GVSU Arts Celebration will host Poetry Night. In what will be its most accessible format yet as a free Zoom webinar, three poets will bring their voices to their poetry.
Headliner Danez Smith (they/them) self-describes as “a Black, Queer, Poz writer & performer” with a list of well received books to their credit.
Professor Amorak Huey is the chair of the GVSU Arts Celebration Steering Committee and a poet. Very excited to bring Danez Smith to GVSU, he states, “Danez Smith is, quite simply, one of the best American poets — not just today, but ever.”
“That sense of identity and intersectionality is essential to their work. These are identities to be celebrated, to be explored, to be proclaimed — and that’s the work of Smith’s poetry. Smith’s poetry is celebratory, joyous, bighearted — and it’s also honest about trauma, about violence, about what it’s like to live in a body — specifically a Black, queer, HIV-positive body in America in the 21st century. Smith’s poems are moving and important, often funny, irreverent and reverent at once.”
Amorak has been using Danez Smith’s work in class.
Todd Kaneko and I included their poem “alternate names for black boys” in our textbook and anthology. I’ve taught this poem in my GVSU writing classes for years. It’s a spare and haunting exploration of the violence our society does and has always done to black bodies. It’s also a celebration of the beauty of those bodies. That ability to hold two such contrasting things — violence and beauty — in the mind at once is a hallmark of Smith’s work.
He also points us to the duality at work in the poem “Dinosaurs in the Hood,” one of Smith’s most celebrated poems.
"There are numerous performances of this poem online — it’s another poem I’ve taught at every level, from Intro to Creative Writing to Advanced Poetry. It’s a poem that works on the page and perhaps even more powerfully delivered aloud. Danez is as brilliant a poet as we have at understanding and taking advantage of the possibilities of language delivered aloud and experienced on the page. The ability to move an audience to laughter and tears with a physical performance of the “Dinosaurs” poem — contrast that with the quiet, metaphorical resonance of “alternate names.” And there’s also the poem “Litany with Blood All Over,” which can’t even be read aloud, at least not in the same way it reads on the page, where the words spill across the page, across each other — the experience is visual. One of my favorite class discussions I’ve ever had with my students was about these very poems — “Dinosaurs” and “Litany” — and the experience of listening and watching a performed poem on the one hand, vs. reading a poem on the page on the other hand. There’s such power in each experience: one is the power of seeing and hearing Danez’s performance, in connecting with the voice and delivery as much as the words; the other is a quiet, personal experience, allowing for reflection, re-reading, pausing at the moments that arrest you. To have one poet capable of delivering both experiences at such high levels? That’s amazing."
Todd Kaneko is teaching Danez’s work this semester, and Danez will be paying a virtual visit to Todd’s Advanced Poetry Workshop class (WRT 420) on the afternoon of the reading.
Todd is looking forward to Poetry Night. “Danez Smith's poems are beautiful and important and gravely funny. They are one of the most dynamic presences in contemporary poetry. Poetry Night is going to be off the charts.”
Poetry night will also include two stars of the local poetry scene. Kyd Kane and Fable the Poet. The current and immediate-past Grand Rapids poets laureate, they both use poetry as a force for good in the world and specifically in our communities here. They are committed to using poetry as a way to open social dialogues, to being a force for justice and equity, to bringing people together, and to opening doors for connection.
Amorak notes, “I first became aware of both of their work when I was invited to be one of the judges at a local poetry slam at Long Road Distillers. They’re dynamic performers and skilled writers, and their work — like Danez Smith’s — does important work. It celebrates and reveals; it’s unafraid to be honest, to call attention to trauma and violence.”
Both Kyd Kane and Fable the Poet have worked with The Diatribe, a local organization focused on using poetry and the arts to connect with young people in Grand Rapids-area schools, to raise awareness about issue of social justice, and to be a force for positive change.
The event is sure to be exciting, engaging, and thought provoking. Please encourage your students, neighbors, and even far flung friends to join in this free virtual event.