Tag Archives: reading

Ravynn, Ravynn: Act 5, Ravynn: Act 5, Scene 2, Readings, The Journey

#RavynnReads: Pandemic Edition

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I realized that I had offered a list of books that I’ve loved recently. Despite being a Spring Break regular, the pandemic, teaching and dissertating, one of my favorite BGDGS traditions has fallen to the wayside.

So, even though we don’t have a Spring Break proper this year, I am going to forge ahead with a list of books that have really gotten me through the pandemic.

What I’ve loved…

  1. The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches and Meditations by Toni Morrison

Honestly, at this point I am pretty sure my students are tired of me quoting Toni Morrison, but she’s literally always relevant and there’s a 110% she has already articulated something I was trying to find the words for in this book.

Read it slowly.

Then read it again.

2. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

This is a book I think about a lot. Stella and Desiree and Jude and Kennedy stayed with me longer than I expected them too. They lingered. And I don’t know whether it’s because I started my graduate school journey on a class that dealt a lot with passing literature from the 19th and 20th centuries or because so much happened all at once, but there was so much of my personal and scholarly interests that got folded up into this book. I love the process of untangling in literature; this was a masterclass.

3. Nubia: Real One // Words by L. L. McKinney & Art by Robyn Smith

Fun fact: Wonder Woman has a Black twin sister.

We don’t talk about her often. But L. L. McKinney said, “We talking about Nubia today.”

A fun, sweet, thought-provoking, and tender take on one of DC’s gems, McKinney and Smith offer a Nubia story fit for the contemporary moment.

I’m currently loving the YA and MG DC graphic novels. I might argue they’re a little more beginner comic reader friendly because it’s a self-contained story that you don’t have to do a lot of digging to find the backstory on. So if you’ve been looking for a place to dive into the world of comics, maybe this is your book!

4. Twins // Varian Johnson and Shannon Wright

Another fun fact, but this time about me: When I was in the 7th grade, I ran for class president against my best friend.

And while it’s no where near the same as running against your twin sister, Twins took me right back to that moment in time where I was learning to be a friend, a honorable competitor and good person all in one fell swoop.

It’s a middle grade graphic novel, so if you’ve got tweens in the house itching for something to occupy them for a while, this might be the book!

5. Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera

I love a good Greek myth. I also love a good Greek myth retelling. But I adore Greek myth retellings that center Black and brown kids.

Rivera rewrites the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice in a captivating Young Adult book that positions the main characters as Afro-Latinx kids living in the Bronx in the summer. Filled with music and love and grief, Rivera makes you feel so much on every page, yet you come away with a genuine feeling of strength.

6. 7. 8. The Brown Sisters books by Talia Hibbert

I think we all know I love a good romance. Talia Hibbert’s books have been my first foray into adult romances and they’re perfection. Beautiful plus sized Black woman being loved out loud? Sign me up.

9. Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA ed. Nova Ren Suma and Emily X. R. Pan

I didn’t realize how badly I needed/wanted a craft book until I found Foreshadow. The stories are truly incredible, from a variety of new voices in Young Adult fiction, which practical craft notes throughout and prompts to get you started. It’s a truly multifunctional gift to all YA writers who are trying their very best.

What I’m reading now…

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis

The BreakBeat Poets vol. 4: LatiNext ed. Felicia Chavez, José Olivarez, Willie Perdomo

Black Futures ed. Jenna Wortham & Kimberly Rose Drew

What’s on deck…

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Something I’m looking forward to…

This Poison Heart

Kalynn Bayron

Coming June 29, 2021

Well, here’s a glimpse of some of what I’ve been reading and thinking about recently! This list does not include things I’ve been rereading and thinking about for class or book club books, so there’s plenty more.

Happy reading!

Book Review, Intermission 4, Personal Essays, Ravynn, Readings, Teaching, The Journey, Uncategorized, writing

Sirens and Superwomen: Finding My Way Back to the Power in My Words

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I finished reading A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow last night. I put off reading it for a little while because I knew whatever was inside, was going to change my life– or at least the layout of my syllabus.

In the midst of a pandemic and a national uprising sparked by the recent murders of Black folks (in particular, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and Nina Pop), I learned I was finally going to be teaching my own self-designed course. It was hard to be joyful; how, I wondered, was I supposed to teach a class on Black girls, new media and magic, when it feels like our worlds are nothing but fear and rage right now. How can I ask them to suspend disbelief– to meet me in imagined worlds– when our world exists the way it does?

Perhaps A Song Below Water didn’t give me answers, but it certainly cleared my head.

Morrow’s debut YA novel takes place in Portland, Oregon. Contemporary Portland, Oregon– not some faraway land you have to dream up the details of. The only difference is that the myths and folktales are true: Sirens walk among us (Seriously. They walk. They aren’t mermaids here.) Except one itty, bitty detail: only Black women are Sirens.

A Song Below Water follows the intertwined stories of two sister-friends, Effie and Tavia, as Tavia learns to embrace the power of her voice as a Siren and Effie comes into herself. (Vague, I know, but any more than that would be major spoilers.)

What readers think is a delightful tale of mermaids and underwater adventures and escapades is actually an insightful social commentary and poignant look at what it’s like to be a Black girl in America. Morrow’s book argues that the threat folks ascertain in Black girls and women can be found in our voices; it argues that our magic is real and it is matrilineal; and it argues that your Black girlfriends? They can always see you, and love you, for who you are. Readers are dropped into the lives of Black girls– microaggressions, love, protests, joy, and all. Morrow smartly weaves this narrative of our realities: being stopped by cops, snide remarks about our hair, the discomfort of being the Only Black Girl in Class with the joy of falling in love for the first time, falling asleep next to your best friend, reveling in the fact that you love yourself. Family love and difficulties hold space with fear of the unknown and connections with the ancestors.

Effie and Tavia’s world is absolutely lush and you want to dive headlong into it.

I picked it up to read a few days after it arrived. I had just woken up from a dream about my late grandmother. Not two pages in, and Tavia’s talking about the connection she has with her late grandmother. Weird, I thought, but not totally bizarre. A few more pages in and Tavia is describing the murder of a Black woman by the police that is sparking a lot of conversation around the nation. It was definitely bordering on prescient. But what truly sealed the deal for me was Tavia’s continued internal battle against her own nature based on external pressures– which is to say, the desire and need to use her voice.

For the first time since starting Black Girl Does Grad School in August 2016, I went an entire month without posting. It wasn’t intentional. Things just went from bad to worse with every passing day, and I felt paralyzed. There was not a thing I could say that would make it any better. So I took comfort in making art– where words failed me, I had images. I read the words of those who have come before me, thinking about the racist institutions they have named and rejected and which we still continue to use despite knowing they are built to work against us.

I thought about how I felt I had nothing to add to the conversation that hasn’t already been said.

I thought about how this was not the right time to write.

I thought about how my body physically resisted any attempt to write.

Even if I wanted to, my body was saying “No.”

And probably for the first time in my 26 year old life (the same age, I remember, Breonna Taylor was when she was murdered in her sleep), I listened to my body and I took time to grieve. Mourn. Reflect.

The expectation is that you come out of these moments of deep introspection with answers. I have none. I only know I am indebted to those who have given me the strength to go on. Those folks range from my parents to Bethany C. Morrow.

A Song Below Water gave me hope not only for a future of freedom; but a present informed by our ability to embrace our own power. Morrow showed me the way back to my voice– my words. My power. My freedom.

It was a lesson I was glad to learn; and one I can’t wait to share.

Comps, Ravynn, Ravynn: Act 3, Ravynn: Act 3, Scene 2, Readings, The Journey, Uncategorized

How to Make Comps Reading Schedules

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One question I’ve gotten since I published my last post was how I structure and organize all of my Comps readings. With my total number of “To Read” items coming in at 282, I knew I was going to have to get organized. So, this week, I’m going to share with you how I’ve been creating weekly reading lists for myself.

BIG PICTURE

  1. Find your preferred site for your organizing. For me, it’s an Excel spreadsheet that I haven’t closed since September 2018. I have a workbook page for each of my four lists, anda final page for my reading schedule.
  2. Divide each of your lists into smaller subsections. My lists are sometimes divided chronologically, and sometimes by theme. For example, my African American Literature list, from Slavery to the Civil Rights Movement is divided like this: Slave Narratives, Reconstruction and Nadir, Harlem Renaissance, Interwar Period, and Criticism. Each block of texts is color coded. I do this because tackling smaller subsections are easier than tackling a list of 50+ texts; and it makes preparing for meetings with your faculty easier. When I finish all of my Slave Narrative texts, I can schedule a meeting just to talk about that subsection. It helps if you don’t jump all over the place, but rather work with texts that can speak to each other at one time.
  3. PROTIP: I mark texts that I have read in a grad level setting, and have good notes on as “Read, to Return to,” so that I can review those more closely during my designated review period before exams.

WEEKLY PLANNING

Here’s the thing: every week is going to be different. Some weeks you can body several 600-page tomes, and some weeks you’ll barely be able to get through an article. The key here is to pay attention to your body and mind so that you don’t overwork yourself.

  1. Decide how you want to present your weekly lists. As I’ve said, my excel sheet is my life line.
  2. Know roughly how many texts you need to read per week to get through everything. For me, it was 10-12 texts per week.
  3. Assign yourself readings based on what you’ve got going on each week/how you’re feeling. Weeks where I don’t have any meetings, I usually assign myself 12 texts and they are typically on the longer side. Weeks where I have out of town conferences, meetings, etc. I assign myself closer to ten readings, and some of them might be on the shorter side, like poems, articles, and book chapters.
  4. Plan your readings for three or four weeks at a time, then give yourself a week to catch up on anything you missed. I know that reading 12 books a week is ambitious, particularly when I err on the side of reading every page. (PROTIP: have a better reading practice than I do.) So I if I don’t meet my goal in a given week, it’s fine– I’ll have an opportunity to catch up.
  5. Plan how you’re going to tackle your readings. Are you going list by list? Are you reading all monographs? Or a mix of articles and chapters? I’ve found that having variety in my weekly schedule keeps me focused and interested. I don’t know that I could have read all of one list and moved onto the next, but if that’s what will work for you try that. As I am typically trying to read 12 texts per week, I assign myself three texts from each of my four lists to read during the week. To keep myself from burning out, I try to mix and match monographs with poems, articles and book chapters. Some days, I simply can’t get through a monograph, but I can read and annotate three poems. And I work through my lists methodically, aiming to finish a subsection before moving onto the next and meeting with my professors.
  6. Then Read! (Blog post on how to read forthcoming)
  7. Take good notes! (Blog post on taking good notes forthcoming)

TIPS

  1. Mark off your readings as you finish them. It’s super satisfying and encourages you to work towards the next mark off on a finished text.
  2. Take advantage of the fact that you’re not confined to a classroom. Read in new places. Don’t stay cooped up in your apartment (unless that’s what you want to do.)
  3. When you can, talk to people about what you’re reading. My parents are the bomb.com when it comes to this. I’m an hour from home so I’ve spent a lot of comps in my childhood bedroom reading. When I’m done with a book, I revert to my childhood practice of telling my mother what I’ve just read, if I liked it, main arguments, things that made me uneasy. My mom’s a great listener and if I catch her while she’s doing the dishes, I’m free to chat about the text in great detail. My dad’s the questioner. He’ll ask me questions I never thought about and make me rethink my entire relationship with the text. I’ll read him quotes, and he’ll take the book, read it for himself, and come to his own conclusion. My family and I are definitely in this PhD game together.

There you have it, a short reflection on how I’ve been planning, organizing and tackling my readings! If you’re also reading for comps, best of luck to you! We got this!