Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Virtual Museums and Poetry with Xanath Caraza and Zeega

Greetings, Class Community.

Recently poet Xanath Caraza recorded her poem "Before the River" in her book Conjuro (Mammoth Publications) using a Zeega with the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum. The poem is based on the La Llorona.

Consider how "Before the River" in this format affirms, complicates or changes our considerations about creative writing and remix theory. Also consider how Zeega can help an artist begin to express her/himself using 21st Century tools and modes of interpreting information.

Yours truly,

Dr. Hill



Xánath Caraza is a traveler, educator, poet and short story writer. Caraza is an Award Winning Finalist in the 'Fiction: Multicultural' category of the 2013 International Book Awards.  Her book Conjuro was awarded second place in the ‘Best Poetry Book in Spanish’ category and received honorable mention in the ‘Best First Book in Spanish, Mariposa Award’ category of the 2013 International Latino Book Awards.  She was named number one of the 2013 Top Ten “New” Latino Authors to Watch (and Read) by LatinoStories.com. She won the 2003 Ediciones Nuevo Espacio international short story contest in Spanish and was a 2008 finalist for the first international John Barry Award.  Originally from Xalapa,Veracruz, Mexico, she has lived in Vermont and Kansas City. She has an M.A. in Romance Languages. She lectures in Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Her upcoming poetry collection, Sílabas de viento  (2014) is from Mammoth Publications.  Her short story collection, Lo que trae la marea/ What the Tide Brings (2013) is from Mouthfeel Press.  Her full-length book of poetry Conjuro (2012) is from Mammoth Publications and her chapbook Corazón Pintado: Ekphrastic Poems (2012) is from TL Press. Caraza is a writer for La Bloga and she writes the US Latino Poets en español column (http://www.periodicodepoesia.unam.mx/).  In addition, she writes the poetry/narrative section for Revista Zona de Ocio. She curates the National Poetry Month, Poem-a-Day project, for the Con Tinta Literary Organization since 2012.  Caraza was a judge for the 2013 José Martí Publishing Awards, The National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP).   Caraza has participated in Festival Latinoamericano de Poesía de New York City de 2013, X Festival Internacional de Poesía de la ciudad de Granada, Andalucía, España de 2013, Floricanto Barcelona 2011 and 2012, Festival de Flor y Canto 2010, USC.  Caraza is an advisory circle member of the Con Tinta literary organization and a former board member of the Latino Writers Collective in Kansas City.

31 comments:

  1. I found this more up my alley as far as inspiration is concerned. I have found myself writing poetry more now, due to a breaking dam of creativity that refuses to stay reigned. The way that she recites with feeling and real emotion is something that I strive for. Only I want my readers to be able to sense the emotion right off my written words. The feelings that drive me to write these poems are very raw, and I try to convey that through them. The way that this poet puts her heart into the words is what inspires me.

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    1. Deanna, I think you are commenting on Xanath's narrative tone. See more information on narrative tone here : http://classroom.synonym.com/narrative-tone-1888.html . Even though narrative tone usually leaves some mark on every work a writer composes. Specific narrative tones, like Xanath used in "Before the River", must be crafted.

      As a jazz writer, I recognize Xanath's tone being very close to a musical timbre (tambre). It is important to remember that in ancient times poetry and music were one, referred to as lyric (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyric_poetry) Timbre is a tone quality and is specific to the voice. Xanath's poetry has tone and timbre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbre)

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  2. I personally liked the Before the River poem better than the twitter. I liked that it was read in Spanish (although I only knew a few words), then was translated to English. The Ted talk was relatable but I couldn't keep interest in it. With Before the River, I was interested because I was waiting for her to tell it in English, I wanted to know what was being said. The motion image of the big black crow turning its head back and forth was a little creepy but it gave the poem a somber feel. With that image, and the poem being in Spanish first made the audience really listen and try to decipher what the poem was about. I found it intriguing.

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    1. I agree that Twitter has gotten old to me after being on it for only a few months. People are either bitching about something or "subtweeting". That's also one reason I tuned out during his presentation.

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    2. I loved hearing the Spanish version of the poem too. I used to want my writings to have the flow of Spanish. I had to just settle into the disappointing fact that I write in English and that English as a Germanic language does not have the same ending and internal sounds of Romance languages. I think I will be commenting more on the Spanish/English readings of the poems in other replies.

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  3. I wasn't as big a fan of this when compared to the TED Talk. I'm not certainly sure why that was, but I found it often grating at times while listening to it, and i found myself waiting eagerly for it to end. It's not that it was lacking in merit, but rather I just wasn't a fan.

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    1. Zach, I think you hit it spot on. You may be the type of audience member, writer, reader that likes condensed forms, like twitter and prose poems. In kind this preference may be reflective of your lifestyle and how a writer like you conducts himself in the world.

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  4. I found this piece to be both inspirational and beautiful. I really enjoyed the Spanish and English combination. It was a very emotionally charged poem based on something that spoke to the author because of how prominent it is in Mexican heritage.

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    1. i agree! the combination of languages was confusing for me! would it be different for you also if maybe they would write a commentary you could follow along with?

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    2. Hi, Ashly. I am trying to determine 'it'. Does it mean La Llorona? I do really like that folklore reference. She is a very interesting goddess.

      I also like the use of Spanish and English. Xanath's writing process is to write her poems in Spanish. Then she translates them into English. I think Xanath's choice to use Spanish and English could have been influence by two factors.

      1. This work was shared with Smithsonian's Latino Virtual Museum. For many Latino's, Spanish is their franca lingua or 'mother tongue' (http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/lingua-franca). She may have considered this when remixing and archiving the poem with Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum.

      2. Caraza could have also been considering a larger American audience. She may have used this remix of the poem and archival opportunity to illustrate the challenges of interpreting in information in a language that is not the audience/hearer's lingua franca. For example, Caraza can be showing the larger audience how it may feel to be a second language learner in English class or any formal environment in the US.

      What do you think about either of those?

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  5. I was not as interested or inspired by this presentation, but I still liked how she remixed her poem. Instead of just publishing in online in a text format she remixed it to make it more interesting. By using an image of a crow for visualization and using her voice to read the poem you were able to feel her emotion. It made the poem seem more real and less boring, it was definitely easier to connect with her poem with her reading it compared to you reading aloud yourself.

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    1. The remix was very interesting. The image of the crow did help us visualize and get a feeling for the work prior to engaging with the poem with the ear.

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    2. I agree with you! I found it interesting, considering it was much different than anything else we have seen in class. But it did not grab my full attention and motivate me to create a personal poem. I could feel her intense emotion but I really disliked how she repeated herself over and over, and each time the volume would increase. I found that aspect more annoying and distracting than anything.

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  6. This presentation was more difficult to stay focused on. The audio was a less than clear and the stuttering GIF was distracting when trying to listen to the poem. I like the idea of listening to the poet read her own poem in both Spanish and English but it didn't captivate my interest like the TED talk did.

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    1. I liked the GIF. I thought it was somewhat spooky and added to the poem. But, in kind I can understand your preference for Andrew Fitzgerald's TED talk on the Fictions of Twitter. It was more of a story format, more like television. Caraza's work was a little more artistic in its display.

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  7. This piece of work, Before the River, felt a little dry to me. First i'm terrible at understanding accents, the combination of spanish/english was a lot going on for me, and when she did speak english, i was a little lost in the accent. this was very distracting to me, and hindered my attention towards her actually story she was telling. Ted Talks was more in my zone, Before the River was a little out of reach for me. i wished she had a little commentary so that i could read along, and hopefully understand it better.

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    1. I agree that the use of english and spanish was difficult to for someone to stay focus on the poem. It may have been better if the poem was written so you could follow along with it. it would also be better if she would have transitioned better from spanish to english

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    2. I wonder if you, Joshua and Kathryn, are on to something. In an age of new technologies, I wonder if we are still figuring out how to create the most readable formats for creative writing. Maybe in the next webpage edit the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum may decide to make the written work available to the audience.

      Also, refer back to my reply under Ashly Pennington's post. There I try theorize and understand how reading the Spanish version of the poem, prior to the English may work better for the author of the poem.

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  8. Because Caraza spoke in both Spanish and English it was hard to focus on it. I did like how she used the audio aspect.

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    1. What did you like about the audio, Joshua? Was it the GIF or maybe the tone and timbre? I took a long while to comment on the audio under Deanna's post. Read that over and let me know if "tone and timbre" are what you are referring to.

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  9. I think "Before the River" was very pretty at times. The reader had a very soothing and attractive voice. Throughout the reading I was just wishing that I could understand what she was talking about because of her emotional tone. The mix of English the few Spanish words I caught were a tease. The twitter video did not catch my interest or make me really think about it further than listening to him present. I don't really get into twitter that much I would prefer something visually or audibly appealing.

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    1. The voice..... Xanath Caraza's voice is good. I think the emotional tone is a huge aspect of poetry. Under Deanna's post I took a minute to elaborate on 'tone and timbre' use in poetry and how I think Caraza uses it. You may want to add to that thread.

      I also agree that Xanath Caraza's remix and Andrew Fitzgerald's talk are very different and appeal to different mediums. I'm interested in what you think.

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    2. I agree! This piece sounded pretty and although I'm sure most of us could not understand what was being said, we knew it was emotional and powerful. I have a twitter account but like you, do not really get into it.

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    3. I agree completely with your assessment of both of the posts. I felt exactly the same way about the twitter post.

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    4. I agree about understanding what she was saying! Her voice made the poem more enjoyable but I wish I knew exactly what she was saying!

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    5. I agree about understanding what she was saying! Her voice made the poem more enjoyable but I wish I knew exactly what she was saying!

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  10. I found this piece very interesting. Although it is not my favorite piece we have viewed within class, I could feel her emotion through their words. I could not understand what she was saying in Spanish, but I could feel her intense emotion through her words and expression. I also found it interesting because it started in Spanish and then switched to English. This poem did a great job of displaying the emotion she wanted the audience to receive.

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  11. Erika, I enjoyed how you touched on the impact of the two different languages that Caraza uses in her poem. I feel as though it is important to understand that emotion can be expressed in all languages, and Caraza does an excellent job of doing so, while still emotionally appealing to her intended audience.

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  12. I enjoyed this poem. Her recitation (repetition) speaks to some elements of latin american mourning tradition. For those of us who are bilingual and live in two worlds of literature, of language of culture it is easy to have one aspect seep into the other. For me her bilingual recitation of the poem is a natural occurrence. I did have a bit of difficult with her English translation (maybe my computer speakers are not good enough) But also her voice became softer in English which made me think she was not as comfortable with that presentation. There is emotion that is lost in any translation. The bird GIF was confusing because I don't think that the poem is about a bird but more about the representation of death.

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    1. Thank you so much for your contribution, Lalomadelviento.com. Your insights about the bilingual approach to creative writing and 'natural occurrences' were very helpful. I find it particularly enlightening that you feel the poem is a part of a Spanish literary mourning tradition AND I am equally interested in your thoughts about emotion being lost in translation. It makes me consider my own work in a translation context.

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  13. I think Caraza is really linking her telling of the poem with the theme of the story and the landscape. I hear the sound of soft, slow, heavy waves of a river echo in how she speaks "aye de mi." The "aye de mi" also functions like a cry (the "llorar" in llorona). I love that she doesn't translate the "aye de mi" in the English version. I don't really think it's translatable (neither in sound or rhythm as much as in words).

    I also think it might be important to consider her accent as being a part of this poem. A lot of Mexican-American or (Chicana) writers theorize about how writing comes out of your body ("theory in the flesh"). So, her accent might matter in this regard. Additionally, a lot of folks use their accents to create rhythm and rhyme in their poetry, playing off of certain kinds of pronunciations.

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