Revision and retrospect

Over the course of this year, I read my poetry to an audience (at least five times), wrote a few short stories, fantasised about my future (ah shoot, I'm graduating next year), took extra classes in script writing and life writing, suffered a crisis of age, and went through a load of other stuff that kept my October posts pretty quiet (whoops).

I learnt a lot. I did a lot. I wrote - a lot. Did I achieve my objection of speaking out more? Yes. Yes I did. I did the poetry reading, told my family I'm dating a girl, spoke a decent amount in class (only in the ones I like though), and I am now totally unafraid of making small talk - and eye contact - with my fellow students. All in all, a successful year as far as resolutions go.

So what are my plans for next year? I won't set a vague goal this year and hope for the best I can fit obscure events into it (I bet you had no idea that's what I've been doing for the last couple of years - right? Right?). No, this year I'm feeling positive and hopeful. I feel like I could set myself some concrete goals and achieve them. I feel like I want to make a schedule list!

Terri's Plans for 2015

January: Get a tattoo.
February: Send WIP to beta readers.
March: No idea.
April: Have a confirmed summer job.
May: Hand in all university essays.
June: Enjoy life. Relax. DO NOT READ BOOKS.
July: Maybe go to Trinidad? This can also be done in August.
August: Turn 21.
September: Attend graduation ceremony. Be graceful and stylish.
October: Go to America.
November: Read at one of those cool jazz poetry places that probably exist everywhere in New York.
December: Figure out where my life is going in 2016.

Now that that's settled, I guess this is a good time to break the news that this is my last post of 2014! I'll continue to keep up the Sunday posts for the new year because they seem to be working with my timetable. So, I'll see all you lovely readers on the 4th of January, 2015!

Happy New Year to all! (And to all a goodnight?)

The nerd files

An anthology of writing from Goldsmiths.

Do you want to write gay romantic narrative low fantasy/mythology-esque ballad poems??

Apparently I do, and I want to submit them for my next creative writing assignment (which isn't due until mid-February). I know, I know: I'm a nerd. My friends don't stop reminding me of that fact - and that they hate me for having written so much of my dissertation already.

But I digress.

I realised that to take on this project properly, I was going to have to do some serious research on form, other similar work, practice and mythology. What I couldn't do was leave my first draft ideas as they were and change a word or two in each stanza. That might be good for lazy tweaking, but it wasn't going to get me anywhere near a respectable grade.

Like any other respectable writer would in my position, I started with an internet search, closely followed by a library catalogue search. The internet search was to find out any key words that I would need to put in to my catalogue search, as well as to gain a little bit more of a basic understanding of what exactly I wanted to write. The catalogue search quickly became a frustrating process of trial and error, in which I tried to search for a bunch of poets and the catalogue erred in telling me it had no idea what I was talking about.

In the end, we settled our differences and I found a handful of titles that could possibly help, and one book that would not help but seemed like it would be a good read. Which I also decided to read first, because I'm now on break for Christmas and it seemed a waste to begin the holiday by working too hard. The other books I took out were Quartet of Poems and Afro-Greeks*. Before writing this post, I thought I had taken out more than these books but I was wrong. Thinking back, I did pick up two or three more while in the library but after skimming through them, rejected them on the grounds that they bored me to tears. According to the introduction to the introduction (I'm not kidding) of Quartet, the book is arranged "to support my work towards GCSE". Super. Exactly what I was after.

Ha, no, but it is a slim volume which is comforting to me over the Christmas period, as it means I don't have to slog too hard to get through it. Also it's poetry, which by its nature is quite quick to read. The other book, Afro-Greeks, is thicker at 250 pages, and is full of essays rather than poems, but it doesn't look too difficult either. There's a whole chapter dedicated to 'Trinidadian Models of Athenian Democracy', which I'm really looking forward to reading.

I've just got to work myself up into actually doing some constructive work over the holiday period. Which is a mission in itself.

Black. British. Feminist.

Although I didn't see her, Angela Davis
was also on campus that same day.

On November 28th 2014, I got paid to attend a talk at my university on which the topic was 'Black British Feminism'.

Okay, it wasn't exactly like that. I was working at the event through my student ambassador job but I would have gone to it anyway. It just so happened that I was asked to work that day. What followed were two hours of inspiring, moving and revolutionary talks from Sara Ahmed, Joan Anim-Addo (who is the professor of Caribbean Women's Writing at my university), Claudia Bernard and Heidi Mirza.

The stage was set. The lights were dimmed. The audience hushed. The heater was a beautiful invention that I stuck to like it was giving me life.

Unfortunately, because I was working I wasn't able to take any notes on the talks, which was disappointing. All I could do was stand in the shadows and listen to these women talk about how they came to understand where they fit in a society that had rejected them. I listened to them talk about stretching the limits of their society, stretching the narrow misconceptions that followed them around like a dark cloud. I listened to them talk about the books that kept them going throughout their childhood, adulthood and day-to-day lives.

I learnt so much from those four strong women, the self-professed feminists, in such a small amount of time. Around me I could feel the aura of respect flowing from the audience towards the stage. In the Q & A portion of the evening, the room became a community of lost souls, all searching for a way to unite and stand together.

Although I had to leave before the event was finished (it ran over time and my supervisor ushered me and the other girl working out of the room in a misguided attempt to "save" us), I like to think they reached some sort of understanding. I like to think everyone there came to an unspoken agreement on how they were going to perceive the world, and what they were going to do about the world's perception of them.

I also like to think I'll have time to read some of the work written by Sara Ahmed, Joan Anim-Addo, Claudia Bernard and Heidi Mirza. Too bad I know I won't have free time until May 2015. Ah well. I'll just keep adding to my ever-growing to-read book list.