Category: Uncategorized

Having taken a poetry course in high school, I have a fondness for poetry that I feel really effects the way I look at reading in general. I have enjoyed all the poetry we’ve read so far this semester, but there was something that really struck me about Kuppers’ “disabled lilacs.” Firstly, the title intrigued me before the page loaded, there was a great paradox between the two words that struck me. Disability paints one imagine in the mind and lilac paints something that is almost on the entire opposite side of the spectrum of thought. Second, the repetition of “disabled” in the first eight lines stuck out because it was something that I have never seen in poetry before. Lastly, there was something even more interesting about the fact that Kuppers’ didn’t continue this repetition throughout the entirety of the poem, but chose to end with four verses that I felt were more weighted than the other verses.

My first reading was not easy. There was something about the wording that made me feel like it was too hard to read. In fact, the reason I chose this poem as my sole response topic was because it made me think more than any other reading. Removing the word “disabled” as I read made it feel more comprehensible but I found that it took out the meaning of the word. Then, I was as guilty as those who overlook disability because they don’t understand it. So I reread again and included the word as I read and found the greater power of the word that time. When you exclude the word “disabled” you can still read it as a poem but the addition makes an impact that you can feel. Kuppers’ uses the lilac to represent the disabled individual, they are seen as delicate like flowers, like they are an object that has to be tended to and carefully dealt with the keep it growing. Her verses are filled with incredible imagery that seems like an incredible dream or an adventure out of a Disney film. It’s a bold stance that says that the disabled are not the incapable. They can still live full and true and worthwhile lives that are worthy of being told like a story.

The final four lines are quite possibly my favorite lines of poetry I’ve read. “I float on my pillow, navigate the veins, sing to you, dance a disabled world.” To me, this illustrated someone having a dream of fantastic adventure, leaving out the word disabled from this section makes for the the two “worlds” of able and disabled people to intersect. These four lines allow for anyone to see themselves in this place and be able to know that feeling of a fantastical dream where you felt removed from the world you know. There is something special about Kuppers’ saying “navigate the veins” I once heard someone say that the veins are the bridges of the body and arteries are the tunnels and this reminded me of that. As people, it feels like life is a journey and for disabled people it can feel like they have had a more difficult journey than others but it’s not always about the journey, but the destination.

Word count: 544

Unlike most youth I was never required to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” in grade school or to analyze it through the looking glass of racism. As an adult, it has been much simpler to see the injustice of the time or that it is set between people of a certain color. However, to look at this novel and all of the other works this semester with the mind of seeing more than just the what is in the center stage has been interesting and enlightening to say the least. We often see things that we identify with, but will undoubtably ignore things that have little to no effect or commonality to our lives. This is true when reading a book and noticing characters. You can without a doubt notice the protagonist, but will disregard the connection of a lower character. We are only interested in these lower characters when the protagonist is.

This is true for Arthur “Boo” Radley. When Scout isn’t thinking of him our thoughts aren’t drawn to him. “Boo” Radley I would even say is different still. In the story the children are the only ones who care to think about this man who is considered to be “different”. How he is different however is never actually stated in the book. Harper Lee has created a fantastic development of a character throughout the novel. This does not allow for “Boo” Radley to be a relatable character with his disability because the disability is never named. But then the character is relatable because the “wrongness” is never pinpointed.

Does having the assumption that something is “wrong” with you by societal norms make you disabled? This was possibly the motive behind this lack of labeling of Harper Lee’s. One of my fellow classmates said it best when she spoke about focusing on naming one “disability”. Too often we tangled in the idea of needed to fit in a box and for everyone around us to fit in said box as well. That we forget that there are many different sized boxes in the world. “Boo” Radley cared for the children that is evident, from leaving them gifts, to covering Scout with a blanket, and finally fighting for them against Bob Ewell.

Disability or not he was still human because all of those acts are out of caring and love, with human emotion. He was unknowingly willing to put his very life on the line for these children who had been afraid of him being “different”. We have to remember that we can have multiple identities or disabilities. But this allows us to look at the world with a different perspective, with different glasses, if you will. What one person sees as a disability, another can see a strength. What “Boo” Radley does might have not been accomplished by someone with all abilities, because they did not see it the same way he did. It is why we use the term “rose colored glasses” or the “grass is greener on the other side.”

Word Count 504

Daniella, David, Karlie, and Nichlas second breakout room added Alaina 

• reminded of Sound of Metal
  • Talking about the system of social models in disabilities and how there is stigmas even around communities like the deaf community and the stigma against being able to slightly hear 
• Alternative exercises were being done by students with the bathroom and measuring tape with a blindfold on and showing stepping into their shoes
  • This brought up architecture and how a lot of places wont help to make them accessible while keeping it historically accurate or how it is historically protected

• We all thought it was funny when Scout called out the teacher (without actually saying it to her) about being hypocritical 
• The excessive nature of how many times Tom was shot was clear that they were looking for an excuse to kill him. 
• Mrs. Tutti and Mrs. Frutti the prank was one that harmless but brought about a big commotion

Karlie, Haley, Faith, David, and Alaina:

To kill a mockingbird:

• Reading or a second time has opened the eyes to the disabilities that are actually throughout
• We had only talked about the race aspects never the disability lens
  • Arthur was seen as weird when it was done through race versus when it was done with disability we see he is way more then that and that his character is interesting
• Reading it for more times and seeing from the different points of view
  • We see the forced otherness of all the characters including Scout and Arthur

The article:

• “Everyone is disabled”
  • Probably not a literal claim but could be a there is no “normal”
  • To make the idea of disabled as a outside thing that’s abnormal
  • Everyone is a part of that otherness and that some are just more so than others
  • Trying to create a sameness instead of otherness
• Severely disabled
  • May be trying to bring the world to a new meaning of “severely disabled”
• Ocd seems to be the reason he is a jerk in the movie
  • It seemed the author had no idea if he liked or hated the movie with his writings
  • It seemed like a very neutral stand point at some points

Brianna, David, Karlie, Shane, Nicholas

• Disability is nothing to push people away because of it is a thing that brings people together into a community
• Fenty and the activism with them having a “little person” ambassador
  • This was a really big thing to see more of the everyday people and less of the unrealistic person
• Unrealistic expectations of nobody wants disabilities and they are curable is such a toxic mindset
  • “The goal is to conform to be normal” not having an uniqueness 
  • Normalizing the “cure” of disabilities to be “normal”
• Feminism is treated as a disability and so is race 
• Being blind is not the end all be all of disabilities but rather being in a society that isn’t accommodating is one of the hardest parts of being blind or deaf

Daniella, Karlie, Nathalie, Lily, Salem:

• Talking about chicken little and how he died young
  • This relates to power dynamics
  • When you have more power you can get away with anything
    • It was disturbing to read
  • Nobody went after him and went to check
    • This seems like an literary choice
    • Its strange no one went after him
• The death of Plum fits into kill or cure 
  • The addiction part was a very sad part where it was just you knew there was no coming back from this
• Hannah’s burning to death scene was one were we saw Sula react and not in the way anyone would expect her too 
  • People would think that Sula would react more violently but rather the fact she was “interested” causes one to ask if it that she has something else going on in the disability spectrum
• Nel is sort of the caretaker for Sula like George and Lennie
  • Sort of like the chicken little scene where Nel is protecting Sula even after she throw him in

Nathalie, David, Faith, Karlie, and Arden

• BLM and Disability movement was an unlikely pair
  • We had never heard about the people involved before
• We see a lot of movements about race, sex, and gender
  • It isn’t really intersectional or there is a lot of people who don’t talk about disability
  • A lot of police brutality is against disabled people
• The movements were separated but also together and that was confusing
  • It was a separate movement but they were intertwined with the end game
  • One or the other part will get lost in the movements
• Some thought it was a bad idea to intertwine the movements because they may all be in a person they all are different levels 
  • One person is not the focal point but rather a general population
• ADA movement is all done with different disabilities but the common goal was more equality with people for disabilities
• Things need to be separate in movements but there is a grey area that needs to come through to create the right movement 
• Maiming isn’t being put into statistics its only about killing 
  • It feels like they are put on a back burner 
  • Societies don’t make thing easier for them it really is to each their own

Nathalie Luciano, Karlie Jahn, David Claeson, Lily Mae

• The amount of student debt and how disabled students have to deal with so much more in the way of debts at an almost 60% higher rate
• Disabled students have a long and more difficult time getting through to their graduate degree
  • This causes a lesser want to go to college 
• A lot of things are very inaccessible 
• Dorms are not all wheelchair accessible and this causes a lot of problems 
• Colleges will say they are accessible but the arch doesn’t allow for students that can’t use them

Karlie Jahn, Arden Jones, Salem Smith, David Claeson, Nathalie L

• Over compensation is awful 
• Using terms that make you feel better isn’t how you should go about it 
• Disability versus person first shouldn’t be so over done
• People who are marginalized understand but those that don’t face opposition don’t understand how they put those into separate categories and “othering” them
• Special education and putting into separate rooms makes the children feel different and more ostracized 
• Things that are normalized shouldn’t be and are making things worse for those that might not be able to communicate 
• A lot of times people talk over those that are disabled when in reality they should be able to talk 
• Reclaiming words seems to sometimes be ignored because people feel uncomfortable
• Some reclaiming is super positive but you have to be careful 
• Words are only reclaimed for those that they relate to 
• Not every slur is being taken and reclaimed 
• Some words are only slightly reclaimed and trying to see what is seems as a slur vs a reclaimed word
• Disabled is not the same for everyone