Daughters of the Dust and Native Guard: past as present by Professor Diana Paulin https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/k71vbxxg2hc9bccd Choose 1 poem and 1 scene that link the past to the present. Did they defamiliarize the familiar? Did they remind you of an issue that you have already been thinking about from a new perspective? Explain for each example. en-us 2021-10-31 19:16:26 UTC 2021-11-02 23:58:23 UTC hello@padlet.com Elegy for the Dusk anthonywashrosado https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/k71vbxxg2hc9bccd/wish/1860264734 An abandoned, partially-built fort is repainted in Natasha Tretheway's "Elegy for the Native Guards" as a symbol signifying the legacy of Black soldiers who fought for the Union in the U.S. Civil War. It is a "weathered monument to the dead." Much like the dust at the bottom of Nana Peazant's tin can, this fort dehierarchizes the notion that objects in museums are of greater historical value than those which hold the stories of unsung trailblazers. 

It may not be as mainstream as the countless memorials across the U.S. named for white union soldiers, but the stories of Black freedom fighters are in the roots coexisting with the fort. Without adequate nationally recognized monuments to celebrate them, albeit one is being built in North Carolina by Stephen Hayes this year, Tretheway immortalizes the "lee" through her poetry. She decrees the "...round, unfinished, half open to the sky..." fort a hallmark of humanity and historical significance. Exposed to the elements, it is "God's deliberate eye" that looks to us from the past. 

In the farewell scene of "Daughters of the Dusk" by Julie Dash, Nana Peazant binds a leather pouch--a familial artifact sewn with she and her mother's hair--to her granddaughter's bible. She asks the children to kiss the two, tethering new religion with ancient tradition. "Come, children, kiss this hand full of me." Simply put, she was tying her family's past journeys with the future of her descendants headed North. Just as Mary wishes to be remembered in Ibo Landing, Nana desires to be in the memories of those embarking on the Great Migration. 

While blessing bibles is a familiar act, merging one with a familial artifact made with two generations of hair is a rare phenomenon. The shock of its message is soothed by assurance that self-made traditions have preserved the stories and cultures of African diasporic families across the Americas and beyond. Though Nana refuses to be thought of by her great grandchildren as an angel in heaven--for she is seeding so long as there is soil to plant--she accepts the change triggered by Christianity upon her family. She grounds the new religion in ancestry; family; memories. 

Then began discordant songs of mourning. Her Christian granddaughter hollers, "Old folks are supposed to die and go to heaven! It ain't right!" The Christian's sister-in-law declares, "Hoodoo! Hoodoo mess! Ain't no roots and herbs gonna change nothing... Old used-to-do-it-this-way help nothing today!" These adult tantrums were hinted at in Eli's opening monologue with Nana in the cemetery. He complained about believing in the magic of elders to "take the good out of evil." Could mainland modernity replace the power of one's connection to their ancestors? 

Perhaps change was happening too fast for the Peazant family. Were they mourning the end of their lives in Ibo Landing, or the beginning of their lives up North? Could they go on without Nana's guidance? By the end of this scene, it is dusk. Nana's poetic prose was its elegy; a ritual for the sun setting on the life they all know. 

And I am thinking of Mary. She chose to stay. She traveled non-stop. She needed to be on the move. Yet, she felt the loneliness Nana is feeling. She, the one labeled as "ruined," reminds me of myself.  I too want love, need travel, love my elders, respect my ancestors, miss my family, and have been "other-ed" by that same family. 

So, I look to the connectedness of the Peazant family in their departure as a reminder that whichever choice I make--whether I keep traveling and plant myself abroad, or move back to my neighborhood with my family for good--it will be right because what matters is the rememberings I carry for my future children; the stories of our foremothers and forefathers and forancestors. 

Following dusk 
comes rest, 
then dawn. 
As Nana says, 
"Morning would begin
a new life." ]]> 2021-11-02 01:36:28 UTC https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/k71vbxxg2hc9bccd/wish/1860264734 Daughters of the Dust and Native Guard rachelpapalski https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/k71vbxxg2hc9bccd/wish/1861830263 Nana Peazant, an embodiment of the past and respected elderly figure of the Sea Island Gullahs, is representative of the fact that the chains of the past and ancestral roots are eternal. There is a contrast of the idea that “What’s past is prologue” as asserted by Viola in the very beginning of the movie and Nana Peazant's assurance that the past is deeply engrained into the identities of the Gullah people. 

Nana Peazant's assertion that "We are as two people in one body, the last of the old and the first of the new" as she adds a piece of her own hair to the charm of dried roots and flowers indicates this eternal connection. Noticeably, in this scene, Nana's dark clothing contrasts her surroundings and others' clothing, everyone else dawning white while sitting on the white sands of the beach. Haagar's objection to the rituals of Nana at the closing of the movie "defamiliarized the familiar" for me, as candidly, it felt abrupt and upsetting that Hagaar did not want to accept the wisdom of her ancestors, despite characterizing herself as eager to obtain knowledge and understanding. I accept this view but had a hard time grasping that her decision to do so was likely rooted in a fixation on the future for the opportunities it may bring and a desire to drastically move forward from the pain of the past: how different people cope with these traumas and history is not up to my judgment. I would say that it made me view Black individuals' decisions on how to interpret the past in a different perspective, where what may make sense in my own head might not accord, and that is completely okay. I understand that I will never understand or carry this weight; sensing my own initial reaction to Hagaar's decision made me acknowledge this further.

This perception likely also felt abrupt when compared with the sentimentality and grieving of Tretheway's Native Guard. The loss of Tretheway’s own mother profoundly sculpted her work in Native Guard, her presence enveloping/shadowing every page: especially present in "Graveyard Blues." Tretheway quotes that,

"When the preacher called out I held up my hand;
When he called for a witness I raised my hand—
Death stops the body’s work, the soul’s a journeyman."

Candid language makes it very easy for the reader to closely follow the events of her storylines through each poem. It is evident that Tretheway's mother's soul is acknowledged as existent, present, and everlasting, and this perception provides comfort to her.

Overall, the lasting presence of Nana through The Daughters of the Dust and the overshadowing presence of Tretheway's mother in Native Guard both represent figments of the past: just highlight different ways of digesting these realities. 

]]> 2021-11-02 14:30:55 UTC https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/k71vbxxg2hc9bccd/wish/1861830263 Tee, Jill, Rachel. Rough notes of discussion for reference rachelpapalski https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/k71vbxxg2hc9bccd/wish/1863032209 Constantly talking about stories, ancestry, Catholicism, and being a sinner implying the island was sinful. Telling the new generations it was horrible- Raisin and the Sun talking about going back to Nigeria. Idea of regeneration in "What's past is prologue." Movie meant to portray how much the past is in the present: not only Nana insisting on their memories of the past but the the physical relects of past, kept panning to the statue of African man in the water as it was just floating.
Body imagery in Native Guard, manifestations]]> 2021-11-02 23:47:27 UTC https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/k71vbxxg2hc9bccd/wish/1863032209