Before I began writing a draft for this weekâs writing prompt, Write a Few Paragraphs or More Of Chick Lit or Womenâs Fiction… After Learning More About Each Genre, I needed to learn more about what exactly âWomenâs Fictionâ and âChick Litâ are first. And what I discovered wasnât too surprising. But did prompt some important questions that need to be asked. Â
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As we begin the first week of Womenâs History Month, Iâm interested in understanding more about Chick Lit and Womenâs Fiction, and their histories. I donât typically read either genre⌠I donât think⌠so I want to know more about both of these genres and what exactly it is that designates a piece of writing as âChick Litâ or âWomenâs Fiction.â And what better way to do that than by attempting to write a sample of one or the other (or both?) myself. After learning more about what each genre entails, of course.
Iâm hoping this weekâs writing prompt (Write a Few Paragraphs or More Of Chick Lit or Womenâs Fiction… After Learning More About Each Genre) will help me check my own likely subliminal and subtle yet not-so-subtle passive-aggressive, misogynistic assumptions and biases about what Chick Lit and Womenâs Fiction areâ at the very door to the vault of our âliterary canon,â where only whatâs deemed as âvaluableâ in society and academia is let in, revered, saved, and preserved.
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Below is my journal entry about Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, for this weekâs writing prompt.
If Iâm being honest about my experience reading this book, I should say that Iâm still processing and reflecting on a lot of what Iâve read from it.
Iâll try to keep the journal entry below brief because I donât want to spoil the reading and learning experience for those who havenât had the chance to read the book yet, as this book should be required reading for everyone.
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The process behind writing this weekâs writing prompt, Write a Journal Entry About a Book You Read on Black History, has included a lot of moments of reflection for me.Â
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I still have about half of Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 left to read this week. But Iâm still thinking about one particular passage from one particular piece included within its choir of voices, âWhipped for Lying with a Black Womanâ by Ijeoma Oluo. This piece holds a passage that illustrates a part of Black History we so often willfully forget or purposefully neglect to remember: how racism was codified into the very laws of our nation since its very inception, as far back as 1630 when the colonies were still taking shape.Â
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As I read Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 to complete my journal entry for this weekâs writing prompt, I really do feel as if Iâm reading a âcohesive and connected narrative with strikingly differentâyet unifiedâvoices. A choir.â(p. xv) And as I read Four Hundred Souls, I sense how this is an attribute of written Black History that can make it truly come alive in the presentâ this profound quality of an extremely diverse yet connected community with distinct yet unified voices, the attribute of a choir of voices. A choir filled with âsopranosâ, “altosâ, âtenorsâ, and others, who come together to make history soulful, and a soulful history.
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This week is the last week of Black History Month in 2021. And I want to acknowledge and observe Black History Month this year by writing a journal entry about a recently published book Iâll closely read on Black History. The book Iâll be reading: Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 , edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain.Â
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This weekâs writing prompt, Write an Unbiased Essay on Trumpâs Second Impeachment Trial, was extremely challenging. Why? Because our deeply partisan situation in the United States, further propagated by a deeply partisan Congress and other deeply partisan public and civic leaders, makes an inherently political impeachment trial, well⌠deeply political. Not necessarily fair or just. And a deeply political trial is challenging to write about without referring to or alluding to biased, deeply partisan party politics or rhetoric because partisan politics and rhetoric is its lifeblood.
Below is the draft of my unbiased essay on Trumpâs second impeachment trial. Itâs unbiased because it doesnât include references to political parties, or include overtly political or rhetorical terms or phrasesâwhich also ended up making this essay short and difficult to write. Because without such political references and rhetorical language, there ultimately isnât too much to say about an inherently political trial. Or is there?
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My process for drafting this weekâs writing prompt is simple and straightforward, yet not so easy to do, as itâs been time-consuming and has required a lot of attention to detail. And, if Iâm really being honest, itâs forced me to check a lot of my own biases and beliefs and things I thought I knew, which was uncomfortable at first but ultimately necessary and liberating.Â
Hereâs the process I carried out, and what I did, as I completed my draft of an unbiased essay on Trumpâs second impeachment trial this week.Â
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Today Iâm considering two passages from one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, as I draft this weekâs writing prompt: Write an Unbiased Essay on Trumpâs Second Impeachment Trial. Â
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