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Heavy first draft

With today’s social and political climate, it is arguably more important to be informed on various modern day issues that are faced by other communities, especially those that are underrepresented, and marginalized. I want to read Heavy, by Kiese Laymon in order to help others and myself enrich our understanding of the issues within the black community and the black experience in America. By doing so, it is much easier to better support Them.

Jennifer Key, an author who did a  detailed book review of the memoir Heavy (Kiese Laymon), and  highlights Laymon’s account of the plight of poor black Americans, specifically the challenges that Laymon faced in his adolescent, young adult years and young middle aged years. In the American memoir, it is explained how long held secrets can possibly destroy families, relationships and even his own body. There are secrets, traumas, and  within the black community that are so deep rooted from decades ago which are weighted so heavily on the black body and the African American experience. Laymon emphasizes that there is  actually no power in keeping secrets, and it is tougher to tell the truth because of the potential risks and challenges that follow. He eventually rose above, and freed himself from the shackles of the secrets and took control over them, instead of letting the past traumas control him. Key says that he really hones in on his family members, and their painful history and reveals the truth, even if risks the relationship with the ones closest to him. In an honest discussion of his life, he spares few details and explains how much his reputation and his place in society is affected by his honesty, especially in a world where black men are often ostracized and scrutinized for almost everything that they do. Even as a young black woman in America, I still do not experience a lot of what Laymon went through on a day to day basis. So although I have a good understanding of black culture, it is always insightful to listen to other people and amplify their voices. 

To begin, In an video interview with PBS, Kiese Laymon breaks down some of key topics of discussion in his memoir Heavy. He describes it as a letter, written to his mother with whom he has a complicated relationship with. Laymon reads a small passage in his memoir titled “Hulk” which describes the disciplinary beatings he used to receive from his mother, then he proceeds to question the effectiveness of this culturally learned behavior passed down through generations in the black community. Physical abuse was often seen as preparation for the real world, which is often kept quiet because of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” nature of the subject. Laymon reveals that he exposed a heavy secret by trying to end the taboo, and beginning a conversation about the matter. He is almost afraid of how white people will view black families, especially black women as he knows not everyone will understand the complexity of black women and how layered they are.. From here, he navigates the world of toxic masculinity, battling stereotypes and what it means to have a black body in white America. Laymon knows that not everyone, mostly white Americans, may not understand because they don’t go through these experiences, but that doesn’t mean we still should not respect each other just because it is an issue they may not be a person’s immediate concern. It may be difficult to understand the culture that has been passed down through several generations. But by reading Heavy, you can better understand how to be an ally, and not judge black families for the way that they run their households because a lot of issues are caused by the deep rooted dark history of African Americans. It allows readers to question how they can contribute to demarginalizing them.

In conclusion, the book review of Heavy written by Jen. Key gives a summary of what Laymon says he went through. In  a PBS interview, Laymon First hand account of what it’s like to be black in America. You can get to the real issues and recognize how much the history of this country and racism has embedded itself into African American households, and how we can collectively move forward and do better. 

Pick a Book Peer Editing Draft

Choosing to read a book is a big commitment. Our time is our most precious nonrenewable resource and committing to a book means allotting hours of time, emotional investment, and brain power. To ensure the best use of one’s time, one must choose carefully when contemplating a book. It is important to zero in on topics of interest and research whether the author’s writing style is compatible with one’s preference. Luckily, there are several resources available today to learn about an author, and ample research can be done ahead of time before choosing a book to read. After consulting multiple sources, I have decided that Ordinary Girls by Jaquaria Diaz is the right choice for me to read. I am interested in stories about overcoming childhood trauma, relationships between mothers and daughters, breaking generational cycles, and the prison industrial complex, and all these topics seem to be covered in Ordinary Girls.

I am interested in these topics for a few reasons. Last semester, I took a classed called Youth in the Prison Industrial Complex. We learned about the exhaustive ways that the prison industrial complex is designed to keep people in poverty, particularly people of color. In cases of young people, juvenile detention centers, though incredibly costly, rarely provide any sense of rehabilitative care or skills to succeed upon release. Educational services are inadequate. In Ordinary Girls, Diaz describes sleeping on the floor (Diaz 2020). Recidivism is common because services are denied, keeping the imprisonment process cyclical. This is disturbing, and reading Diaz’s first-hand account will help me learn more about this country’s flawed punishment system.

I come from a family with a matriarchal structure, and I frequently look to my relationship with my mother and her relationship with hers for answers to my own problems. I am frequently told that I am my mother’s daughter, and Diaz mentions a similar phrase in La Otra, however, with a less positive connotation (Diaz 2018). La Otra is a short story written by Jaquaria Diaz, which touches on her childhood experience with a loving, albeit volatile mother, and a father who lets her family down (Diaz 2018). Diaz allows a glimpse into her relationship with her mother, a woman who is direct, unafraid, and though she loved her children, did not provide an example of positive coping mechanisms.

In New Memoir ‘Ordinary Girls,’ Jaquira Díaz Searches For Home, an interview with Steve Inskeep, first heard on Morning Edition is a National Public Radio (NPR) interview created for radio and edited for the web (Inskeep 2019). This interview elaborates on author Jaquaria Díaz’s life, including the hardships and traumatic experiences she endured in her childhood and eventually overcame. When asked about returning to her home of El Caserío, after all the author has gone through, she mentioned that a local boy told her she did not belong. She agreed that she didn’t belong, and this signifies her acceptance of her newfound stability (Inskeep 2019).  It was interesting to hear a selection of Ordinary Girls read aloud in the author’s voice. This source is reliable because it is an interview directly with the author, allowing for insight into the author’s inflection when writing her memoir.

Lastly, the Page 99 test for Ordinary Girls piqued my interest. The Page 99 test is a way to assess a piece of writing based only on reading page 99 (Wikipedia 2021). This method allows for the reader to get a feel for the story in just one page, while avoiding spoilers toward the end of the book. To me, the Page 99 test is comparable to a movie clip on a talk show before an actor gives an interview. For the purposes of my research, Ordinary Girls passes the Page 99 test. The story drops in while Diaz is describing her experience in the juvenile detention center. She explains the dehumanizing conditions within the detention center, the invasive corrections officers, and general lack of tools to succeed, rehabilitate, or heal (Diaz 2020).

 After examining several sources and an extensive preview process, Ordinary Girls is my book preference. This book will help me understand Diaz’s perspective as a queer woman of color with a difficult upbringing, who broke a cycle of instability. Based on my research, Jaquaria Diaz’s writing style is descriptive and conversant, and I look forward to exploring Ordinary Girls in depth.

Works Cited

Diaz, J., & Longreads. (2018, June 25). La Otra. Longreads. Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://longreads.com/2018/06/25/la-otra/.

Díaz Jaquira. (2020). In Ordinary girls: A memoir (pp. 99–99). essay, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Inskeep, S. (2019, October 29). In new Memoir ‘ordinary Girls,’ Jaquira Díaz searches for home. NPR. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2019/10/29/774306278/jaquira-d-az-on-her-memoir-ordinary-girls.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, May 30). Page 99 TEST. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_99_test.

Pick A Book Activity

Many authors have their own unique ways to present themselves to the audience. To be more specific, their very own way to present their stories through their writing. In class we’ve been given the opportunity to do our research on any of these authors: Jaquira Diaz, Meredith Talusan, and Kiese Laymon, before choosing one of their books to read. At the beginning, I was interested in reading Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz, but I found myself researching more about Meredith Talusan. I’ve come to the conclusion that I would like to read Fairest by Meredith Talusan because it will help me know more about the transgender population.

When I first laid eyes on the books, I really loved the color Talusan used for her book cover. Turns out there’s a meaning behind the way it is designed, which I learned while annotating the article named “The Cover of My Face,” written by Talusan herself. In the article, she expressed the idea of how so many trans authors would put their face on the cover of their memoirs, and it was a common trend. She did her own research and found out as to why this might be the case. To the authors, they are well aware that by putting their face in their covers, it attracts more people because they focus on the looks of the person. On the contrary, that’s not what Talusan wanted her readers to focus on. What I loved about her is the fact that she is capable of putting herself in her reader’s shoes in order to see what her readers would understand from her memoir. The eyelash on her cover is simple but it very well represents who she is even without a photo of herself. The white background also demonstrates how her skin is white and how even that factor takes a part of her life experience or transition.

According to her, her memoir is not only about her transition to becoming trans but also the many transitions she’s been through in her whole life. Madeline Ducharme, a Slate assistant producer for podcasts, had interviewed Talusan about her memoir and in the published online magazine, Talusan described that she felt pressured into writing her book only about her trans experience. At the time, she felt as though people were more interested in that subject and wouldn’t really care about anything else in her life. Just because she’s trans, it shouldn’t be the only reason as to why people are interested in her. She’s a human being, and she has gone through other problems she would love to share. I am glad that in the end, she did end up writing about her other transitions- besides becoming trans- in life like from being a rural to urban citizen, or from being poor to being in a relationship with someone rich. In her book I’m curious to see what other problems she encountered before discovering her gender identity. In other words, I’m genuinely curious about who she is because there just aren’t that many authors out there that care about their readers.

While reading a book review she read and wrote about, I analyzed the way she searched in depth of Sarah McBride’s way of writing. Many people would say that McBride’s important moments from her book was the fact that she made “public history” with it, however, what Talusan sees as her important moments is the many private moments McBride went through in her personal life with the people around her during her transition, you could say. For Talusan, it’s the fact that McBride was able to find her voice through her tough experiences. She continues and explains that this is what she would want the readers to focus on. She points out the different messages in the review in order to communicate just how the readers would interpret it. This caught my attention in general because if she pays attention to the interpretations the readers would make, then that means her goal in her memoir is to be able to speak the right message through to her audience.

Meredith Talusan picked a good book cover for her memoir Fairest because she caught my attention even without putting her face in it. After doing research on her, the symbolism behind her book cover, the consideration she gives to her readers, and idea of writing about who you are and not completely giving the public what they want, are reasons as to why I choose to read her book.

Bibliography:

Ducharme, M. (2020, May 26). Do queer memoirs have to be political? Slate Magazine. Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/05/meredith-talusan-fairest-memoir-interview.html.

Talusan, M. (2020, March 13). The Cover of My Face. Guernica. Retrieved September 20, 2021, from https://www.guernicamag.com/the-cover-of-my-face/. 

Talusan, M. (2018, March 25). Lost in Transition. The New York Times Book Review, 18(L). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A532125861/LitRC?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=5916dc9c

Pick a Book- Ordinary Girls

Weiting Zhou

Writing for the Social Sciences 

Professor Dalton

21 September 2021

In Jaquira Diaz’s memoir Ordinary Girls, she discusses her life experiences, how she grew up, what she went through, and how it impacted her. Jaquira was born to a white mother and a black father in Puerto Rico, as a child she didn’t have the “typical” childhood that most children had. She grew up in a neighborhood with a dangerous reputation, her experiences in this neighborhood included being threatened by men carrying machetes and police raids were common occurrences. All this had an impact on her because she started acting out and her life became difficult. While she grew up in that milieu, I grew up in a very different one which made her stories interesting to me. After doing some research about her and reading her short story Season of Risks, I fell in love with her writing style and her story. I was intrigued to understand more about her life because it was so different from mine and anyone else I know. I was drawn into her life by her seemingly lack of fear and desire for freedom. 

While reading some of Jaquira Diaz’s stories, every sentence captivated me, it felt like I was the “I” in the memoir, it didn’t give me any chance to escape her world. Her writing seemed fiction but was actually nonfiction. It felt like I was the one who moved from Puerto Rico to Miami instead of her. Her writing style made me feel like I was the protagonist and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for myself. Even though I hadn’t actually experienced the same as Jaquira, it felt real to me, I was able to picture what was happening. 

Jaquira, as a gay and brown woman growing up in America, she didn’t get the support and love she wanted which caused her life to be upended by violence. Her mother had bought her barbie dolls, which she despised because they reminded her of who she wasn’t. “But I didn’t exactly like them. They were like reminders of everything I wasn’t —blond-haired, blue-eyed. They always made me feel ugly, the brown kid who would never look like her white mother.” (Diaz, 2019, p.32). Even though her mother was white, she didn’t resemble her which only made her feel worse about herself because at that time, being white was seen as the ideal look.

The freedom and love she craved so much were out of reach, yet she persevered through the help of her friends who are the “ordinary girls” in the memoir. I was able to relate to her in some ways because I never had the support and love I wanted. No matter what I did, I didn’t feel the support or love and that’s when I turned to my close friends. They showed me what it felt like to be supported and loved, which caused me to be a more considerate and amiable person. Before, I was acting out a bit, but was afraid when my parents confronted me about my poor decisions. But I didn’t stop because I wanted some attention. Reading about her life made me realize that no one’s life is exactly perfect, but the imperfections is what makes it worthwhile.  

    Jaquira Diaz wrote Ordinary Girls “for the girls they were, for the girl I was, for girls everywhere who are just like we used to be. […] For the girls who are angry and lost. For the girls who never saw themselves in books.” (Diaz, 2020). Jaquira writes about her childhood friends, they were the definition of ordinary girls, the ones that struggled, were enraged, confused, and supported her through her highs and lows. Even though Jaquira was writing her own story, she includes the everyday girls that she grew up with, who she once was. 

Through Ordinary Girls, the dangerous and exciting life of Jaquira Diaz had sparked my interest in reading her memoir. While reading a bit of Jaquira’s stories, she seemed so carefree even though her life was upended. I wanted to learn more about her life and how she’s still standing tall with courage despite having a messy childhood. I admire her courage in writing about these deeply personal experiences and sharing them with the very opinionated  world. 

Citations:

Diaz, J. (2019) Ordinary Girls A Memoir, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Watkins, J. E. (2020, July 23). Latino Book Review  https://www.latinobookreview.com/8203jaquira-diacuteaz—ordinary-girls-a-memoir–latino-book-review.html

Jaquira Diaz on Place, Ana Maria CARDONA, and Her memoir, Ordinary Girls. Apogee Journal. (2019, November 18). https://apogeejournal.org/2019/11/18/jaquira-diaz-memoir-ordinary-girls/.

Pick A Book Activity

What goes into one’s decision when it comes to picking a book to read? Is it based on how captivating the cover is, or how interesting the synopsis is? There are so many reasons as to why someone picks a certain book to read over another. In this case, books that deal with how we handle complicated human relationships and try to resolve the conflicts that arise is what compels me to read a book. I would like to read Kiese Laymon’s Heavy because this memoir allows us to learn about a narrative that is oftentimes overlooked. It delves into the struggles of trauma, the reality of being a Black boy and man in America, and the emotional turmoil our relationships can put us through. I think that by reading this memoir we can come to understand not only Laymon’s reality, but possibly the realities of others going through similar situations as well.

There were many reasons that went into my decision to read Heavy. When we were completing the judge a book by its cover activity, the synopsis and the reviews immediately caught my attention. Words such as “fearlessly”, “defiant”, “vulnerable”, along with many others were used to describe Laymon’s memoir. These words explain to the reader that this will be a very raw and emotional story that explores different aspects of Laymon’s life. Just from this initial exposure to the book, it’s easy to become curious about the struggles that Laymon went through to have this memoir be labelled as powerful and provocative. In addition, when reading a review about the memoir, this view that Laymon was completely honest about his story is further driven home. This was done in the hopes of relaying his trauma and freeing himself from it (Key, 2019). Writing can become therapeutic, especially when it pertains to such a serious topic. The desire to read this memoir doesn’t only have to do with his struggles, but also the way he used this as an opportunity to address things that were weighing heavily on his mind.

While learning more about Heavy, I was captivated by Laymon’s storytelling surrounding his interpersonal relationships and how he navigated them. In order to get a better understanding of the author’s work, we were told to read another piece of writing from the various authors. “Quick Feet” details Laymon’s stay with his grandmother and his vulnerable interaction with her. He explains how although he loved his grandmother, he hated having to stay at her house for various reasons. One of those reasons being that he hated seeing her work for a white family. Although this family had the means to afford a washer and dryer, they still made his grandmother wash their filthy clothing . This all led to him resenting the white family, but his grandmother made him understand that this was, unfortunately, one of the only ways to survive in Mississippi (Laymon, 2018). In the same piece, he also addresses how he came to confide in his grandmother about his sexual and physical abuse. It was difficult to do, and his grandmother’s reaction to this was kind of cryptic, but it was a start on his journey of becoming honest about these things. He felt that he could be honest with her because they loved each other. It’s clear that if he didn’t feel safe with her he probably wouldn’t have confessed. Throughout the memoir, he touches on other relationships with those around him and I’m looking forward to seeing how he writes about these relationships. The short snippets that I have read have been very emotional and vulnerable in nature. Laymon’s willingness to address these topics, despite how serious, makes his memoir more compelling and increases my desire to read it.  

Additionally, Laymon’s honesty in telling his story really motivated me to want to read his memoir. While doing the internet assignment, I came across a video of Laymon reading a chapter from his book and then proceeding to answer questions from this audience. Laymon didn’t shy away from the questions that some might label too sensitive. He wanted to get his point across that honesty was the only way to address past struggles even if it was hard to say the words most times. Laymon acknowledged that it’s not often that Black men write stories about love and trauma, and that he wanted Heavy to serve as a story about just that (Strand Book Store, 2018). It’s difficult to find a memoir by a Black man that touches on these subject matters, so it’s important to read these types of narratives to show that people are willing to listen. As Laymon states in the same video, he wanted to feel “heavier” and substantive which is why he shared his story. A whole lot of people and their experiences go unheard of and ignored because they’re hesitant to share stories similar to Laymon’s. This is why it’s important to pay attention to these narratives and uplift the authors who write uncommon memoirs. We can help people with similar experiences become “heavier” as Laymon said, and we can come to understand the realities of people who are typically ignored. Laymon’s honesty serves to make people understand and connect to his story, and this along with the fact that it’s an uncommon narrative are some of the many reasons why I would like to read his memoir.

It’s sometimes hard to pinpoint what exactly makes one want to read a book. In the case of Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, the fact that it’s an uncommon narrative and it addresses various, serious topics makes me more interested in reading it. Hopefully, reading this book will allow us to learn about the struggles he underwent and also understand stories from people who aren’t usually in the spotlight.

Bibliography

Key, J. (2019). Kiese Laymon. Heavy. Prairie Schooner, 93(2), 189. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A607709278/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=cd36a34e

Laymon, K. (2018). Quick Feet. The Virginia Quarterly Review, 94(3). https://www.vqronline.org/memoir-articles/2018/10/quick-feet

Strand Book Store. (2018, October 31). Kiese Laymon | Heavy: An American Memoir [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/_w7xkpQnr24

Pick a Book – Ordinary Girls: A Memior

Fatou Kebe

ENGL 21002

09/20/21

Option 3: Jaquira Diaz and Sandra Cisneros

Ordinary Girls: A Memoir is the book that I have chosen to read for our book club. It’s a narrative autobiography written by Jaquira Diaz about the obstacles she had to face growing up with family struggles, poverty, mental illnesses, and her own sexuality. The book covers Diaz’s violence-riddled childhood in the projects in Puerto Rico to her rocky adolescence in the housing projects of Miami. It is a coming-of-age story that depicts girlhood in its rawest form. Doing research and assignments on this memoir reminded me of another female writer that wrote a book that also shows the reality of growing up as a woman. Sandra Cisneros is the author who wrote one of my favorite books, The House on Mango Street. That book is a modern fiction piece that details the story of young Esperanza and her desire to find her place in the world. It tackles identity, womanhood, family, and friendship. The significance of names and the power in language are themes of this literature and it connects to who Cisneros is. To me the topics that both Diaz and Cisneros highlight in their stories are similar in the fact that it connects back to girlhood and the lives women live. Cisneros even commented on Ordinary Girls: A Memoir saying “Jaquira Díaz writes about ordinary girls living extraordinary lives. And Díaz is no ordinary observer. She is a wondrous survivor, a woman who has claimed her own voice, a writer who writes for those who have no voice, for the black and brown girls ‘who never saw themselves in books.’ Jaquira Díaz writes about them with love. How extraordinary is that!” Here she clearly states her admiration for Diaz and the importance of writing her life story.

Jaquira Diaz is a Puerto Rican writer that was raised in Miami, Florida. She is also an essayist, journalist, critic, and contributor to many notable periodicals. She was born in Puerto Rico to a family that lived in the housing projects. The neighborhood was known as a violent place with a lot of crimes occurring. When she grew older into her adolescence phase, her family moved out to Miami where they struggled with similar problems. They faced obstacles with their financial situation and poverty, with Diaz’s mother and her mental illness, with being queer in a neighborhood that was not open to LGBTQ+ people, and growing up being biracial with a white mother. As Diaz grew older writing became such an outlet for her to express herself and her dealings with identity, drugs, and self-harm. 

Sandra Cisneros is a Mexican-American writer from Chicago, Illinois. She is a novelist, poet, short-story writer, performer, and artist that has also been teaching professionally for years now. She was born in the USA and she also holds dual-citizenship with Mexico due to the frequent times her family would go back to Mexico City during her childhood and adolescence. After her parents got married they settled in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago. Soon after when she would turn 11 her family was able to put a down payment on a house in a Puerto Rican neighborhood on the east side of Chicago. This neighborhood and its people would be the inspiration for Cisneros when she wrote The House on Mango Street. As she grew older due to all of the moving back and forth from Mexico City and Chicago, her six only siblings [all brothers] soon departed the household leaving Cisneros to experience and call herself the isolated one. 

Diaz and Cisneros are both Hispanic authors who wrote phenomenal work that I admire. Both writers produce pieces that are showing the importance of finding one’s own identity and the path and courage it takes to do so. In Diaz’s case, she writes in nonfiction about her own voyage to self-discovery and becoming the woman she is. For Cisneros, she wrote about a girl who wanted to escape more than anything, and during her girlhood, she found who she was inside. Both of these women write so that girls, especially those of color, can resonate and know that there are others who go through the same things, that they are not alone. That being a woman is a challenge of its own, never mind how we are treated in society. They both write to be a voice in addition. To let these stories be known to the public about the struggles and barriers women face while growing up. With this comes my deepest commendation because this is not an easy thing to do. To come out with personal stories of suicide, sexual assault, and mental illnesses, is a very brave and courageous thing to do. When I met Sandra Cisneros back in 2018 when she visited my high school, she quoted Plato and said “Courage is knowing what not to fear,” and I will never forget that. 

Citations:

Cisneros, S. (1984). The House on Mango Street. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, April 28). Jaquira Díaz. Wikipedia. from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaquira_D%C3%ADaz.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, September 20). Sandra Cisneros. Wikipedia. from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Cisneros. 

Pick a Book Assignment

Kevin Guaman

ENGL 210

Professor Dalton

9/17/21

         Writing a memoir can be a challenge. The author is exposing their stories to the world while also trying to make it something that will attract audiences to want to read it at all. However, Heavy by Kiese Laymon, Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz, and Fairest by Meredith Talusan are examples of memorable memoirs that audiences could relate to and enjoy reading. Out of the three choices, the book I choose to read is Talusan’s memoir. I would like to read Fairest because it will help me know more about transsexuality, race, and immigration. The activities and research done for class allowed me to learn more about Talusan and her work.

         The topic of transsexuality is one of the focal points in Talusan’s memoir. After looking at the cover of the book in one of our activities, the book was bright, a rainbow color, and had a large eyelash in the front. The rainbow represents the LGBTQ+ flag due to her story involving the community. The blurb confirmed that she transitioned from a boy to a girl. This interested me because it relates to my past. I considered transitioning just like she did. However, I never ended up going through with it. The part where a person must decide what to do with this revelation is where our paths diverge. Reading more about the journey she went through as she transitioned and the changes in her life that came from her decision makes for an interesting story. For example, in her article “The Cover of My Face”, Talusan brings up how the thought of how her looks would be perceived if she did transition was a factor in her decision (Talusan, 2020). This is an interesting thought because I thought the same thing. I went through the same process. It helps me know that it was not just me experiencing this. I believe this would help me better understand the life of those who decide to transition from one gender to another. Another topic that is touched upon in her memoir is race.

Race is a factor in Talusan’s journey that she discusses in her book. According to “The Cover of My Face”, She mentions how albinism made her appear whiter and how that gave her more advantages (Talusan, 2020). The usual stories involving race are about the discrimination they suffer due to their skin color and culture. However, Talusan went through a unique situation where she was perceived as white because of her condition. This brought benefits to her that she may have never received if she looked Filipino. This is a unique perspective that no one can really experience. It makes me want to read the memoir to know more about what the advantages are, how did it start, and how did she handle it emotionally. Finally, she mentions in her memoir how she is a first-generation immigrant.

          Immigration is a topic Talusan had to experience that is a part of her memoir. Talusan had to leave her home in order to go to the United States. During an interview, she discussed how it was difficult leaving her home and her family to have more opportunities in the United States (CNN Philippines, 2021). This doesn’t directly relate to me because I was born in the United States. However, my family is full of immigrants that had no choice but to leave their homes at a young age in order to get the opportunities they couldn’t find back home. I heard the stories and the struggle of having to grow up quickly and learn how to survive while also providing for the rest of the family back home. During our Page 99 activity, there was a part of her book where she discussed leaving the Philippines and how even with the opportunities, would she be happy if it meant leaving all she loved behind. It is interesting to hear these stories to know what it felt like because it is something I would never truly understand. I can never go through that same exact experience, however, reading it can help me learn to understand it better.

         Therefore, Fairest by Meredith Talusan is the book I choose due to it helping me understand immigration, race, and transsexuality. Her memoir goes through each of these topics and I can relate to them due to my experiences growing up. This is significant because her memoir can help me understand the topics through a different point of view.

Citations

CNN Philippines. (2021, July 12). Fil-Am author Meredith Talusan talks about her memoir “Fairest” | New Day [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTBPKGQVJx0&t=11s

Talusan, M. (2020, March 10). The Cover of My Face. Guernica. Retrieved from https://www.guernicamag.com/the-cover-of-my-face/

Jaquira Diaz on place, Ana Maria Cardona, and her memoir, Ordinary Girls

In an interview with Jaquira Diaz from Apogee Journals, interviewer Crystal Hana Kim asks a few questions about the book “Ordinary Girls”. The questions were primarily based on Diaz’s thoughts behind organizing her book and what kind of message she really wanted to send to readers and aspiring writers out there. In one part of the interview, Diaz is asked about the meaning behind the title “Ordinary Girls” and explains it is how she and her friends used to refer to themselves. At the same time, when she was younger it was something she didn’t want to be. Later in life, the meaning of being an “ordinary girl” was altered to her own meaning which was girls who are just like her when she was younger; shy, and invisible to society. She also talks about other topics with the interviewer such as struggling to stay true to herself. Diaz was unsure for years whether she wanted the book to be non-fiction or not. She felt like she was exposing the secrets of not only herself but the ones closest to her. In the end, she wanted the book to be real and made sure her friends and family were comfortable with what she was going to be sharing. I know this source is reliable because of its relevance and authority. The interview seems to be very related to the book and the interviewer also seems to have done a lot of their research beforehand. 

Jaquira Diaz on Place, Ana Maria CARDONA, and Her memoir, Ordinary Girls. Apogee Journal. (2019, November 18). Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://apogeejournal.org/2019/11/18/jaquira-diaz-memoir-ordinary-girls/.

Jaquira Diaz on place, Ana Maria Cardona, and her memoir, Ordinary Girls

NPR /// In New Memoir ‘Ordinary Girls,’ Jaquira Díaz Searches For Home

For the assignment, I chose the 2019 National Public Radio interview In New Memoir ‘Ordinary Girls,’ Jaquira Díaz Searches For Home that features Jaquira Diaz touching on her book Ordinary Girls with Steve Inskeep, hosted by Rachel Martin. In the 7 minute interview, Diaz touches on the difficult portions of her childhood and a specific chapter detailing her life at 14, where she learned ways to protect herself and keep herself alive in a traumatic and violent environment. Ordinary Girls is a memoir detailing the discovery of a atypical identity in an environment where that might have some extremely severe consequences. Listening to this source and reading the transcript has helped me to understand Diaz’ perspective and her position on her childhood. She mentions a moment where she returned to her home in El Caserío and a boy told her that she doesn’t belong there anymore and needs to leave right now. She says that she agrees, and this shows that she has processed her trauma and developed the ability to move on from such a difficult environment and move forward with her life. This has made me want to read the book combined with my previous research into other works by Diaz with last week’s assignment.

This source passes the CRAAP test. It is an interview with the author herself, Jaquira Diaz, Morning Review, a section of the popular well-regarded nonprofit media organization National Public Radio. Diaz herself is speaking about her own book with questions prompted by the presenter, and being that she is the primary source, this makes the information credible and reliable. The information is current as it comes from a very recent broadcast (2019) and does not require further information as a result.

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/774306278

Martin, R. (2019, October 29). In New Memoir ‘Ordinary Girls,’ Jaquira Díaz Searches For Home . Morning Edition. Washington D.C., District of Columbia; National Public Radio.

PBS Interview with Kiese Laymon on “Heavy”

In a video interview with PBS, Kiese Laymon breaks down some of key topics of discussion in his memoir Heavy. He describes it as a letter, written to his mother with whom he has a complicated relationship with. Laymon reads a small passage in his memoir titled “Hulk” which describes the disciplinary beatings he used to receive from his mother, then he proceeds to question the effectiveness of this culturally learned behavior passed down through generations within the black community. Physical abuse was often seen as preparation for the real world, which is often kept quiet because of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” nature of the subject. Laymon reveals that he feels as if he exposed a heavy secret by trying to end the taboo, and beginning a conversation about the matter. He is afraid of how white people will view black families, especially black women as he knows not everyone will understand the complexity of black women and how layered they can be. Despite the hardships, he says he’s learned not to hold resentment toward those who have inflicted such physical and emotional abuse onto his body and mind, and focus on the importance of being a better person tomorrow than he was yesterday. From here, he navigates the world of toxic masculinity, battling stereotypes and what it means to have a black body in white America. 

Public Broadcasting Service. (2020, August 1). Kiese Laymon on his Poignant memoir, “heavy”. PBS. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/kiese-laymon-on-his-poignant-memoir-heavy/.