Around, Here

Bell Hooks describes critical fiction as sort of a continually evolving and diverse concept, explaining it as a form of literature that "enriches resistance struggles" and "speaks about the way individuals in repressive, dehumanizing situations use imagination to sustain life and maintain critical awareness." These works go against the grain of what white educators believe literature should traditionally be like, and there are many more of these works of critical fiction that are becoming ever more present in classrooms today. Well, at least, they SHOULD be more common in classrooms. The first text that came to mind for me upon reading this PDF as an example of critical fiction is The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp. This was a book that I read during my undergrad during a World Indigenous Lit & Film course and I absolutely fell in love with it. This story is told from the perspective of Larry, a member of the Dogrib tribe, as he works through his high-sch...

While my multimodal self portrait was not entirely finished by the time I presented, I was able to articulate a detailed outline of my idea (podcast format with music playing in the background from bands I have played in) and the content that I am going to include. In doing so I was able to confirm some of my fears about my content being too long - it is rather easy for me to ramble and go off on a tangent about my life story. However, after listening to the works by Morgan and Jordan I was able to whittle my ideas down to those that I believe to be the most important regarding my identity. Aside from the most blatant aspect of myself regarding my status as a typical white dude from a small town, I thought it would be pertinent to focus on the role music and being a musician has had in shaping my life, as well as my broad range of hobbies and interests that I feel will help me relate to students down the road. As I said, it is easy for me to ramble about my life experiences - the ch...