All posts by AlyssaR

Student Blogs

Writing Leads with Voice

“When I first heard, as a young person who liked to write, that writing was about “finding your voice,” I got nervous. That seemed very risky: what if I picked the wrong one?”- Susan Huber

Susan Huber starts off this article with a very relatable question. What if I picked the wrong one? The wrong voice that would lead my writing. That’s a very real fear I had when learning about writing with voice for the first time in Professor Lisa Sislers’ Advanced Composition course during my undergrad. It was the first time I heard about voice being your own distinct personality in your writing. 

I felt behind as a writer, even though I wasn’t even calling myself one at the time. I thought I had to pick one voice and stick with it forever. Famous authors I recognize, like poets Sylvia Plath or Margaret Atwood, and novelists Stephen King and Ocean Vuong, have distinct voices that I look up to. All of which seems to be unmoving or unchanging. Huber offers a new, refreshing perspective:

“I believe that we often hold this sense of voice as “self” or “essence” a little too tightly. The idea of one “authentic” voice is a holdover from a time when we saw each self as singular, isolated, and separate. These days, we’re moving beyond ideas of simple subjectivity and objectivity, and we’re more likely to see the self as constituted in relation to others, in community.” 

Voice is not subject to stagnancy because we are not subject to stagnancy. We are ever-changing beings; therefore, our writing, and in turn, voice (or voice(s), may I challenge) can go through change too. This is how we embody our writing, by letting it embody our natural human nature, exploration, and creativity. This is how writing becomes a living, breathing body of work, even long after the words become stuck letters on a page.

Our writing can hold many voices and names.

“Language intersects with life.” -Mikhail Bakhtin

Mikhail Bakhtin, another notable literary theorist Huber mentions, also believed, like myself, that we have many voices. Even if a text were written by a single person, he argued that it can still hold many voices. Those of resonance and dissonance; of relevancy and hypocrisy.

Huber expands on this theory and calls for freedom of expression when writing and teaching it. She goes as radical as naming the many voices that take shape in her writing:

“And now I can’t stop naming voices: Hayseed Punk-Rock Girl, I’ve Lost My Shoes, Fierce German Peasant. In letting myself loose a bit, in looking for the weird voices in my own life and head and letting them out, I found new ways to say things and new perspectives on my life.”

I like the notion of naming your voices and reflecting on the different perspectives they bring into your life. If I were to name a few, I think some of mine would be: Slow Panda, Adhd Zoomies, Worry Man, Spirit Divine, Teacher Rivers, Stagnant Steed, and Inspired Butterfly. All are me, yet offer various ways in which I view the world and describe my processes.

3 spiderman's meme.
Which voice(s) are you using? (Pinterest//bababoyee)

When I become a professor, I’d love to incorporate voices, their importance, and how to find them, into the classroom and my writing exercises, the way Huber suggests. 

Student Blogs

Writing Leads with Voice

“When I first heard, as a young person who liked to write, that writing was about “finding your voice,” I got nervous. That seemed very risky: what if I picked the wrong one?”- Susan Huber

Susan Huber starts off this article with a very relatable question. What if I picked the wrong one? The wrong voice that would lead my writing. That’s a very real fear I had when learning about writing with voice for the first time in Professor Lisa Sislers’ Advanced Composition course during my undergrad. It was the first time I heard about voice being your own distinct personality in your writing. 

I felt behind as a writer, even though I wasn’t even calling myself one at the time. I thought I had to pick one voice and stick with it forever. Famous authors I recognize, like poets Sylvia Plath or Margaret Atwood, and novelists Stephen King and Ocean Vuong, have distinct voices that I look up to. All of which seems to be unmoving or unchanging. Huber offers a new, refreshing perspective:

“I believe that we often hold this sense of voice as “self” or “essence” a little too tightly. The idea of one “authentic” voice is a holdover from a time when we saw each self as singular, isolated, and separate. These days, we’re moving beyond ideas of simple subjectivity and objectivity, and we’re more likely to see the self as constituted in relation to others, in community.” 

Voice is not subject to stagnancy because we are not subject to stagnancy. We are ever-changing beings; therefore, our writing, and in turn, voice (or voice(s), may I challenge) can go through change too. This is how we embody our writing, by letting it embody our natural human nature, exploration, and creativity. This is how writing becomes a living, breathing body of work, even long after the words become stuck letters on a page.

Our writing can hold many voices and names.

“Language intersects with life.” -Mikhail Bakhtin

Mikhail Bakhtin, another notable literary theorist Huber mentions, also believed, like myself, that we have many voices. Even if a text were written by a single person, he argued that it can still hold many voices. Those of resonance and dissonance; of relevancy and hypocrisy.

Huber expands on this theory and calls for freedom of expression when writing and teaching it. She goes as radical as naming the many voices that take shape in her writing:

“And now I can’t stop naming voices: Hayseed Punk-Rock Girl, I’ve Lost My Shoes, Fierce German Peasant. In letting myself loose a bit, in looking for the weird voices in my own life and head and letting them out, I found new ways to say things and new perspectives on my life.”

I like the notion of naming your voices and reflecting on the different perspectives they bring into your life. If I were to name a few, I think some of mine would be: Slow Panda, Adhd Zoomies, Worry Man, Spirit Divine, Teacher Rivers, Stagnant Steed, and Inspired Butterfly. All are me, yet offer various ways in which I view the world and describe my processes.

3 spiderman's meme.
Which voice(s) are you using? (Pinterest//bababoyee)

When I become a professor, I’d love to incorporate voices, their importance, and how to find them, into the classroom and my writing exercises, the way Huber suggests. 

Student Blogs

Writing Leads with Voice

“When I first heard, as a young person who liked to write, that writing was about “finding your voice,” I got nervous. That seemed very risky: what if I picked the wrong one?”- Susan Huber

Susan Huber starts off this article with a very relatable question. What if I picked the wrong one? The wrong voice that would lead my writing. That’s a very real fear I had when learning about writing with voice for the first time in Professor Lisa Sislers’ Advanced Composition course during my undergrad. It was the first time I heard about voice being your own distinct personality in your writing. 

I felt behind as a writer, even though I wasn’t even calling myself one at the time. I thought I had to pick one voice and stick with it forever. Famous authors I recognize, like poets Sylvia Plath or Margaret Atwood, and novelists Stephen King and Ocean Vuong, have distinct voices that I look up to. All of which seems to be unmoving or unchanging. Huber offers a new, refreshing perspective:

“I believe that we often hold this sense of voice as “self” or “essence” a little too tightly. The idea of one “authentic” voice is a holdover from a time when we saw each self as singular, isolated, and separate. These days, we’re moving beyond ideas of simple subjectivity and objectivity, and we’re more likely to see the self as constituted in relation to others, in community.” 

Voice is not subject to stagnancy because we are not subject to stagnancy. We are ever-changing beings; therefore, our writing, and in turn, voice (or voice(s), may I challenge) can go through change too. This is how we embody our writing, by letting it embody our natural human nature, exploration, and creativity. This is how writing becomes a living, breathing body of work, even long after the words become stuck letters on a page.

Our writing can hold many voices and names.

“Language intersects with life.” -Mikhail Bakhtin

Mikhail Bakhtin, another notable literary theorist Huber mentions, also believed, like myself, that we have many voices. Even if a text were written by a single person, he argued that it can still hold many voices. Those of resonance and dissonance; of relevancy and hypocrisy.

Huber expands on this theory and calls for freedom of expression when writing and teaching it. She goes as radical as naming the many voices that take shape in her writing:

“And now I can’t stop naming voices: Hayseed Punk-Rock Girl, I’ve Lost My Shoes, Fierce German Peasant. In letting myself loose a bit, in looking for the weird voices in my own life and head and letting them out, I found new ways to say things and new perspectives on my life.”

I like the notion of naming your voices and reflecting on the different perspectives they bring into your life. If I were to name a few, I think some of mine would be: Slow Panda, Adhd Zoomies, Worry Man, Spirit Divine, Teacher Rivers, Stagnant Steed, and Inspired Butterfly. All are me, yet offer various ways in which I view the world and describe my processes.

3 spiderman's meme.
Which voice(s) are you using? (Pinterest//bababoyee)

When I become a professor, I’d love to incorporate voices, their importance, and how to find them, into the classroom and my writing exercises, the way Huber suggests. 

Student Blogs

A Writer’s Walk

Before I post my blogs about Zach’s readings, I feel compelled to share what I wrote in last week’s class during our first writer’s walk:

On remembering my humaneness

Prompt: Reflect on what you notice about the world around you and your place in it (a meditation).

“I noticed the world operates on the perception of danger. Danger is inherent, and our need to detect it is biological. I know that now by studying the animals. The Deer and her baby ate grass as the class walked past them. Mama was on the right of us. Baby on the left. As we got closer, the baby looked up and instantly ran over to the mama’s side.

In this case, she faced the threat with the warmth of the familiar. The mom did not move or flinch, but she did keep her gaze on us. They stopped eating, but the whimsical baby, now feeling safe, ran up and down the grass, almost being hit by a tree branch.“Babies will frolic no matter what species,” Dr.Zamora remarks.

On the contrary, the squirrel I saw towards the end of the walk had to face perceived danger alone. It was eating an acorn when we were approaching. In an instant glance, it dropped the acorn and stopped at the tree. It looked stuck in place as if I had taken its picture. It stopped eating, too.

When does fear take us out of the present moment? When does our perception of danger become foggy? My default is fear of danger. Or what I perceive as danger. I noticed that in just 10 minutes, I had perceived danger on different occasions:

Did Adamari just fall? Look back.

What’s that sound? There’s always construction going on.

Don’t breathe in the steam; you’re healing from being so sick.

Walk away from the deer in case they pounce.

The trees are caving in on me.

What if those men shout things at us?

I wish I saw nature as I did as a child, unbeknowest to fight or flight.“

I am being, in this world.

A sensitive person, in this world.

A woman, in a world.

I feel scared, because of this world.

I feel deeply, every second of every day in this world.

Student Blogs

A Writer’s Walk

Before I post my blogs about Zach’s readings, I feel compelled to share what I wrote in last week’s class during our first writer’s walk:

On remembering my humaneness

Prompt: Reflect on what you notice about the world around you and your place in it (a meditation).

“I noticed the world operates on the perception of danger. Danger is inherent, and our need to detect it is biological. I know that now by studying the animals. The Deer and her baby ate grass as the class walked past them. Mama was on the right of us. Baby on the left. As we got closer, the baby looked up and instantly ran over to the mama’s side.

In this case, she faced the threat with the warmth of the familiar. The mom did not move or flinch, but she did keep her gaze on us. They stopped eating, but the whimsical baby, now feeling safe, ran up and down the grass, almost being hit by a tree branch.“Babies will frolic no matter what species,” Dr.Zamora remarks.

On the contrary, the squirrel I saw towards the end of the walk had to face perceived danger alone. It was eating an acorn when we were approaching. In an instant glance, it dropped the acorn and stopped at the tree. It looked stuck in place as if I had taken its picture. It stopped eating, too.

When does fear take us out of the present moment? When does our perception of danger become foggy? My default is fear of danger. Or what I perceive as danger. I noticed that in just 10 minutes, I had perceived danger on different occasions:

Did Adamari just fall? Look back.

What’s that sound? There’s always construction going on.

Don’t breathe in the steam; you’re healing from being so sick.

Walk away from the deer in case they pounce.

The trees are caving in on me.

What if those men shout things at us?

I wish I saw nature as I did as a child, unbeknowest to fight or flight.“

I am being, in this world.

A sensitive person, in this world.

A woman, in a world.

I feel scared, because of this world.

I feel deeply, every second of every day in this world.

Student Blogs

My Introduction to Queer Theory

As someone who has never studied, read, or even talked about Queer theory (that I know of), I didn’t understand Jonathan Alexander and Michelle Gibson’s “Queer Compositions: Queer Theory in the Writing Classroom” when I first read it. I became frustrated with the new material and had questions like: 

Is this about how gender has become racialized? Has it? Sexuality has definitely been racialized, with homosexuals being oppressed throughout history, but is it still? If gender is a social construct, does that mean we created it, like we did race, to label people who are different and not seen as ‘normal’ to keep certain stereotypes and expectations alive for systematic and capitalist purposes? 

I’m also taking Race and Ethnic Identities, another theory class, so I’ve gotten used to questioning my own identity. I have been getting lost, however, on how my sexuality and gender could also inform the way I see myself, the world, and how I am treated because of these characteristics. Even how I treat others. During this reading, I was forced to face my own biases. 

Bisexuality in media.

If you’re into pop culture, then you’ve seen Dove Cameron’s wedding everywhere. Her custom Valentino dress was beautiful, and even her Giorgio Armani suit. Gender, and how traditionally women aren’t ‘supposed’ to wear suits to their own wedding, didn’t even cross my mind. Her sexuality did. Alexander and Gibson bring up a good point; identities can and often contain contradictions. (p. 4). 

Whenever a woman celebrity identifies as bisexual, they usually end up with a man (from what I’ve seen). Like just mentioned Dove Cameron or global sensation Billie Eilish. I have never seen either of them out publicly with a woman, yet their music profits off of liking women. Dove Cameron’s (who married Damiano David) most popular song talks about “being a better boyfriend than him” to a girl she seemingly has a crush on while being in a heterosexual relationship at the time. This seems to be the trend.

This phenomenon is why Grammy Award-winning singer Rosalía has repeatedly broken headlines. She is one of the very few female celebrities who identifies as bisexual while simoultaneously has publically been seen in public with her girlfriend.

Can I still question?

Is it okay to call out these contradictions in identity when it comes to someone else’s sexuality? Should we then also call out our own rigid beliefs of how being a part of sexuality influences our own behavior? I identify as a straight Dominican/African woman. Parts of my identity in that include: straight, Domincian/African, and woman. The intersection of my sexuality is fucking me up. 

Amanda Knoradi, along with the article’s original authors, warns against being contained by identity and only seeing things through the lens of the oppressor vs. the oppressed. I am a minority who has been subject to racism, yes. But I am also straight, which I am sure has awarded me some privileges against the latter. One’s that, because my sexuality is considered the ‘normal,’ I have been ignorant to. 

They also state the fluidity of identity, how one can change and how, over time, the media’s perception can as well. Whatever is acceptable is profitable. I hereby apologize to Dove Cameron for my immediate judgment on her sexuality, as I know now it is not my place, but I can’t help but to wonder and question the contradictions in the context of media: 

Have homosexual relationships become profitable when it comes to gay women? Would Billie Eilish’s songs “Lost Cause” and “Lunch” be as markabtable/ profitable if a gay man wrote them? Would she have even written them? Why is that Dove Cameron’s only notable song? Why did she release it now if she’s been publicly bisexual for six years now? Is it possible their sexualities have changed over time, even if I feel like mine has not/will not?

Perhaps I am still being too rigid in my thinking…In the end, I am left with more questions. Different questions, at least. Questions I will be reflecting on after this reading.

Student Blogs

Writing Should NOT Be Intimidating

Hello everyone, I am back from the dead (whatever illness has been plaguing New Jersey right now). Excuse my lateness on this post; I was out sick for a total of six days. Or should I say, I was stuck inside. Today is the first day I see the light of day, and I am very grateful to be back.

How I was looking this past weekend.(Pinterest//ravennarecklesss)

With that said, I wanted to add to the discussion I didn’t get to be a part of in the last class before moving on and posting this week’s blog discussion: 

Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product by Donald M. Murray has made me reflect on how I was taught to write, the insecurities that came up because of it, and how I’d like to talk about writing to people who’d consider themselves ‘non-writers’. 

Murray describes the traditional, scapegoat way of writing as literary analysis. Literature is not necessarily the problem. Reading and analyzing literature whilst growing up, academically, shaped the way I perceived others. I distinctly remember having to read books like The Outsiders, The Giver, The Great Gatsby, and The Catcher in the Rye, all of which made me more curious about the human mind, community, and how we should interact with the world. The problem is using renowned literature to teach kids who still don’t know how to use their own voice:

“Most of us are trained as English teachers by studying a product: writing. Our critical skills are honed by examining literature, which is finished writing; language as it has been used by authors. And then, fully trained in the autopsy, we go out and are assigned to teach our students to write, to make language live.” (p. 3)

Published literature, at the end of the day, is finished. It’s like trying to encourage an aspiring architect in school to try to build his own version of the Empire State Building. When does our writing, or even better, when did our writing become merely mimesis rather than our own products brewed from the process that authentic writing is supposed to be?

Bring back authentic work.

We’re performing “autopsies.” But what about living writing? The writing that is still breathing. I do not want to only read and then compare myself to writing that has gone through hundreds of revisions and different editors. I do not have an editor; I only have myself. I think that’s why it is so important for us to share our “shitty first drafts,” the scribbles on the page, the thoughts at 2 am in our notes app.

Maybe that’s why published journals, like Slyvias Plath’s Unabridged Journals, are so personable. They’re still alive. Imperfectly human. Even poetry can be shared this way: Tupac Shakur’s “A Rose That Grew from Concrete.”

Instead of this structured way of teaching writing, Murray suggests writing as an experience of three parts: prewriting, writing, and rewriting, all with an emphasis on learning, finding voice, and creative autonomy. I think I’ll think of his theory in every writing practice I do, whether teaching or participating. Writing should not be intimidating. It should be accessible to all.

Student Blogs

The Reemergence of Rhetoric

 

I don’t know if anyone else had the same experience, but I was somewhat shocked to read that rhetoric had a reemergence during the 1960’s. In the practice of ‘good’ rhetoric, I took a page from Kyla Wazana Tompkins. Though she isn’t discussed exclusively in this reading, chapter two of Rhetoric and Composition by Janice M. Lauler, I still found some overlaps between the two:

“This brings me to another exercise I do in class, which is to actually write out the model that I learned as an undergrad across the top of a blackboard (Wollstonecraft then Friedan then National Organization of Women then Radical feminism then Women of Color feminism etc etc, an obviously reductive and flawed genealogy) and then underneath to chart out other revolutionary timelines…” (p. 5, “We Aren’t Here to Learn What We Already Know”)

That brings me back to my initial shock of rhetoric in the 1960’s. The first revolution that came to mind to chart out was, the civil rights movement. Never in my educational career did it even come to mind that both sides, those for and opposing civil rights, used, studied, and analyzed rhetoric. Take, for example, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” written in 1963, written at the height of the civil rights movement, which heavily “persuaded” the masses of the injustice of Jim Crow segregation. 

If Rhetoric and Composition are now synonymous with one another, then why am I learning about it just now?

Traditional English Teaching

That’s because, as Lauler reveals: 

“…teaching also focused on reading and discussing essays, completing exercises on style, and repeating drills on grammar. Little, if any, attention was paid to helping students get started, investigate ideas, consider readers, receive feedback on drafts, or revise.” (p. 7)

All of these aspects are of huge importance when it comes to composition. Without rhetoric, how does a student even begin to form a thought or question that engages and challenges themselves and their readers? Sure, I learned about Martin Luther King; no, I did not learn about his letter and what makes it successful writing. Successful in that it made people think, question, and eventually change their behavior, beliefs, and even racial laws:

He uses ethos by presenting himself as a minister and a scholar, thereby establishing credibility. He appeals to pathos by vividly describing the suffering and injustice faced by African Americans in Birmingham. King writes about the brutality of segregation, the bombings of African American homes, and the emotional toll it takes on the community. These emotional appeals elicit empathy and anger from the readers. King also uses logos by presenting a logical argument for the necessity of nonviolent direct action. He explains that negotiations with white authorities have failed, and waiting for justice is no longer an option. He argues that civil disobedience is a moral duty when faced with unjust laws. King invokes the moral and ethical principles of justice and equality, drawing upon his deep knowledge of philosophy and theology.” (ProfessorCatMaster607)

How can we expect students, or anyone, from that matter to write using rhetoric if there’s still a major emphasis on ‘correct’ grammar (p.20), which, ironically enough, makes grammar worse.

This is written after a nice meal of soup con mi madre. Consider my mind blown and zen.

Student Blogs

On Continuing My Education

My journey of being a ‘forever’ student.

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English-Writing this past May. It wasn’t long before I decided to pursue my MA, and even pursue it at the same institution where I did my undergrad. The seed was definitely planted, though. A little over a year ago, to be exact.

It was my second time joining Dr.Zamora’s Writers’ Retreat. The first time I met her, she reminded me of a forest fire (in the best way possible, of course). She was ignited by her studies, all the programs she ran (like MyFest), and just her baseline passion for the arts gleamed through her like a second pair of clothes. Nothing would put her out. This time around, three years later, she was calmer. A stern tree rooted by wisdom only grief can grant to someone. 

After we wrapped up workshopping what we’d been working on for those last three weeks, she told me about the MA opportunities here at Kean. Shamefully, I didn’t even know what an MA was. She expressed her enthusiasm for us to be able to continue working together. An opportunity that would pay for half, if not all, of my tuition. The thought of working with a woman like her felt enticing, for sure, but more so intimidating. Me? An undergrad nobody to work with a DOCTOR? 

Yeah, no way.

The Tide Changes

Still, I was flattered. I let some time go by and never revisited the proposition. I would’ve been satisfied enough to tell people that Dr. Mia Zamora wanted me in her program. 

“Engrave that on my tombstone. Here lies Alyssa Rivers, a student who was asked by a scholar, poet, doctor, wife, mother, friend, and sister, to work close alongside her.” My friends are used to my dramatics by now.

It wasn’t until last semester that another mentor of mine, Abrianna Jette, told me about the academic route she took. After her bachelor’s, she received her MA followed by her MFA ( a master’s in creative writing), and then her PHD to become the wonderful professor she is today. She explained the purpose of an MA and all the classes you can take:

I heard Racial and Ethnic Identities in Literature, Advanced Poetry, How to Teach Writing, graduate-level psychology courses, and there it happened: with some kindness and a few strawberry sour patches, the tide changed. I’ve never been more sure. I was going to pursue my Master’s.

One Week Into My Master’s Program

Poetry was my first love. I knew MFA programs like the back of my hand. MA was completely new to me. Why am I doing this? I knew I wanted to do this for myself, that I was on the route to becoming a professor, and not only because of my mentors; yet, I became speechless when someone would ask why. Why? 

If we took money and jobs out of the equation, would you choose to be in school? If so, why? My answer became simple: to learn and share. I am here to learn as much as I humanly can; I am here to share what I’ve learned as much as humanly possible. It is my passion. School just so happens to give me the routine, resources, and discipline to do so. It is why I went to China, on a whim, to study for four months and teach 1st graders English; it is why I got my 200-hour yoga teacher certification, with my first free community class coming up tomorrow.

My plan goes as follows: MA>MFA>>P.H.D. Obviously, whichever journey life permits and whatever comes between, because we have so little control of our destiny at the end of the day, but a baddie with 4 degrees? Sounds hot to me. 

What, like it’s hard?

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones, and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.” 

Slyvia Plath

If I am so blessed with top-tier brain health well into my 70’s, I want to continue learning until I can no longer see, hear, taste, or smell. I want to teach until my breath crashes down like a tsunami after it reaches its climax. It is not possible to grasp all the shades, tones, and variations in this one life…it is still beautiful to try. Until then,

-Your forever student.