⭐ Featured Citations
“I keep hearing people wrestle with an important but never-ending question: ‘Does change happen from the bottom up or the top down? If I am doing my thinking work in my corner, where does it go—does it radiate up/down/outward/anywhere? Who is organizing it all?’ I think these questions come from a feeling of isolation—like, who is paying attention? Who is listening? Is change happening?
This intro to the special issue of BCRW’s Scholar and Feminist beautifully celebrates and honors the work of Ntozoke Shange -- and in doing so, lovingly reorients, maybe even rejects, the above questions. As I read, I see references to and contributions from all the people I love and admire at Barnard—people I otherwise would not have realized are entangled with each other. My internal dialogue is a loop of: ‘Oh my gosh! So-and-so knows so-and-so! And look at what they made!!’ This intro is proof that collaborative, meaningful change is more playful and imaginative than top-down/bottom-up.”
Prof. Cecelia Lie-Spahn English & First Year Foundation View full citation ➡️
“I’d recommend this as a reading in so many contexts: In creative writing workshops, in literature seminars, in a methodology course in the social sciences, in any context where the reader is thinking about the ethics of researching and creating across social and political difference--or more specifically about the ‘obstacles to a meaningful and respectful integration of certain, often women’s, postcolonial bodies into a global citizenry that is hierarchized.’
Glover articulates how Danticat is able to tell stories across categories of boundedness and freedom by insisting that ‘the Haitian woman’s body and mind must be tended to in their individuality, and that Black women must be allowed safe spaces within which to bear witness to their own experiences and to tell their own stories, should they decide to do so.” Martha Tenney Director of Barnard Library Archives & Special Collections View full citation ➡️
