March of the Phoenix!

Listen to the music, and see if you can visualize Phoenix marching back to the house with the pinwheel raised in her hand!

I got this video to showcase the Turner family, but I started crying when Little Man spoke. Drash's grandfather was one of the nicest to me when I first moved to Mississippi. I sat with him and the other Democrats at Rotary every Wednesday for nine years. He died four years ago, and the point that made me emotional was Little Man's voice. I could close my eyes (meaning no disrespect to Little Man or Mr. Taylor) and hear Mr. Taylor's voice. The pauses, the Southern drawl, the chuckles could be Mr. Taylor, and I miss him so. To me it is proof these men coexisted with mutual respect. ~Enjoy Maggie

Racial Ambiguity Reading Lesson

The realization that Welty does not tell readers the racial makeup of “missy” as in, “Please, missy, will you lace up my shoe?” stunned 4W participants in attendance last Saturday. I remember Josephine’s reaction as she thumbed back through A Worn Path to reread the passage. It was true we got hints of missy’s character such as, “gave off perfume like the red roses in hot summer,” and the use of Grandma to address Phoenix; but these clues could suggest any woman or Uncle Rondo.

In an instant, I was back in my Multicultural Books for Young Readers class, and Dr. Joan Atkinson sat leading a book discussion on Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff. In this graduate level course we read a discussion book every three weeks and sat through different formats one might use to present them.

Make Lemonade is the story of 14-year-old La Vaughn and her relationship with unwed, teen-mother of two, Jolly, for whom she babysits. Both La Vaughn and Jolly live in the inner-city, but their lives are totally different with La Vaughn having a stable family and supportive mother, but Jolly is living on her own and making numerous bad decisions.

The book is written in free verse, and within the 66 chapters readers will find slang and irregular English. I remember thinking this is a great book for reluctant readers; although, it contains numerous chapters, they are small and easily digestible.

After we discussed characterization, plot, symbolism, and theme, etc. Dr. Atkinson surprised us by asking the race of each character. True to Eudora Welty’s “missy”, we assigned race to all the characters. Unlike Saturday's discussion, we did not agree on the race, for example some assigned an all white cast, some an all black, and some–self included–made La Vaughn’s family black and Jolly’s family white. Dr. Atkinson smiled as she pointed out that Wolff did not describe any characters by race.

In an interview with the author, Roger Sutton asked, “One thing people have talked about with Make Lemonade...is that we aren’t told the race of the people in it. I assumed they were white; colleagues have assured me that they are black.”

Wolff replied, “I was very careful of not having them be any race, any particular ethnicity. I had hoped that the readers of Make Lemonade would have the characters be whatever ethnicity they needed them to be. I have on my wall a drawing, made by an eighth-grader, in which Jolly and LaVaughn are clearly Asian. That was the sort of thing I had hoped for. It’s true that their language is not the language of any ethnic group, and you could call that a virtue or a flaw, depending on how you look at it.”

Could this be the book a teacher uses to enter into a non-threatening discussion on race? The book is best for seventh and eighth grade classes, and might be the perfect precursor to Wright and Welty’s work.

I’ll leave you with a quote from my classroom text Against Borders: Promoting Books for a Multicultural World by Hazel Rochman. “A good story is rich with ambiguity. You sympathize with people of all kinds.” (20) ~ Maggie

Note: The cover above for Make Lemonade was the book most of us held in class. I used the cover to argue Jolly white, but one could argue it is La Vaughn at the window. Dr. Atkinson was afraid we would all use the cover in that capacity, but it turns out to be just as ambiguous as the characters in the story. This cover is no longer printed. It is now a bright slice of lemon dripping from a blue sky. ~Maggie

Eudora Welty Meeting January 10, 2009

On January 10, 2009, we concluded our intense discussion on Eudora Welty. It was fun to discuss our thoughts and turn to experts on Eudora Welty. How could I tell we were in the presence of intellectuals? No one stormed out when we referred to the "N" word. Everyone shared their personal and professional experience with handling personal connections to stories. There was even assignments brainstormed on how to handle personal connections, which cause unwanted outbursts in the classroom.

For me, I was concerned with Eudora's usage of the "N" word. I am proud to say that my colleagues explained the paramount meaning Eudora was trying to convey. Her ability to use it in Why I Live at the P.O. further exploits the type of family being depicted during the setting of the short story. Her decision not to use it in A Worn Path is to emphasize more of the journey of life, rather than the time. I was just amazed at how we could have a discussion on race at such a time of racial sensitivity.

After we watched the movie, which Maggie has already posted, race became a big part of the discussion. However, one of the teachers pointed out that in the tale the race of the lady, whom Phoenix asked to tie her shoe, is not mentioned. We are only assuming the lady's race and assume that the movie adaptation is correct. This point lead to a discussion that we must teach our students to rely on the text and not on the movie adaptation.

This list includes other ways to teach Eudora Welty's text.

• Discuss the baggage associated with using race-related words, like "black" and "white."
• Before beginning a text, which can have a negative impact on the discussion, a teacher should emphasize the power of words.
• Focus on the sense of family and compare the types of family Eudora tends to write about.
• Look at A Worn Path, remove the aspects of "having a purpose from the story. Have students rewrite the story by creating a parable.
• Emphasize the historical background of each text before teaching a specific text.
• Identify a character in one of the text, like the nurse in A Worn Path. Using the character sketch created by the author, have students create a new story from that character's point of view.

Not Writer's Block Per Se

My Book Talk column this week features Eudora Welty! Something so easy to write, but it took all morning. Not writer's block per se, I experienced a case of information overload having read oodles of Welty in two months. My quandary was either write a little about the short stories read, or concentrate on one. I decided to go for the one story concept and did A Worn Path.

While verifying the O. Henry award, I found the movie I talked earlier about in the "NewTube Your Classroom!" post. Unfortunately, I do not have sound on my computer at work. That means my article is off to the presses with a big-old-mistake! I swear! I read she saw the woman while traveling on a train, but you will hear in the following interview this is not the case. I see an erratum in my future.

The movie is broken into two parts of equal time. It takes a little over 20 minutes to watch them both. The last video is an interview with Miss Welty by Beth Henley, a Pulitzer prize playwright, concerning A Worn Path. Enjoy the movie and sorry for the poor sound quality in advance. ~ Maggie

Teaching A Worn Path & Why I Live at the PO

Reading the first paragraph of A Worn Path I was completely curious to know why Welty chose to describe the woman as a Negro, instead of using the N word. She used the N word twice in Why I Live at the P.O. Having the best opportunity ever to use the word, what do you think her reasoning is to use Negro instead of the most damaging and crude word possible to describe a human being?

This thought about her usage of the N word prompted me to think of how I could incorporate these two stories into an essay assignment for students. I would have my students create a critical analysis on the depiction of African Americans in these two short stories. I think it would be interesting to read what the students discover.