Boricua on Sabbatical: Conversations on the Land: Indigenous and Scientific Principles for Sustainable Communities

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Conversations on the Land: Indigenous and Scientific Principles for Sustainable Communities

Conversations on the Land: Indigenous and Scientific Principles for Sustainable Communities

Date: Friday, November 7 and Saturday, November 8, 2008

Location: Alumni Lounge (Nifkin), Marshall Hall, SUNY-ESF

Hosted by: The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF)

See you there.

No comments:

Just Sayin'

English is my jet lag

One word

Per time zone.

Spanish is peanut butter

Stuck to the top of my mouth.

Spanglish criollo mix

¿Que, que? No way.

¿Vihte? I told you so.

OMG. Ay, dio' mio.

This is my language.

A language that is not

my mother’s tongue

Or my grandmother’s

It's the craaaazy mix of dis place ment.

Ven pa' ca' que tengo platano y una hamaca

Vamo pa' la barbacoa, you know, the bar-b-q

Bring something sweet.

No te preocupes. Just bring yourself.

Talk some of that mezcla. It's easy.

¿You going back?

¿Cuando vienes?

Las cosas estan bien malas.

And when I talk in English

And when I talk in Spanish

¡Ja! I’m flying through the time zones

I’m chewing down the ground up nuts

I’m choking it out como agua sala’

Gone down the wrong way.

Talk with me in this third tongue

Mix it up with me

Llora. Cry. Mira como todo cambia.

Oh, well. Bendito. Nevermind

Porque de tripas corazones

And sure I’ll do that.

Mañana.

Just as soon as I get home.

Un dia de estos. Okay.

"White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack"

"I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group... I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was 'meant' to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks... In proportion as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups were likely being made inconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated. Whiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit in turn upon people of color."
Peggy McIntosh

Boricua on Sabbatical

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Conversations on the Land: Indigenous and Scientific Principles for Sustainable Communities

No comments:

Henry James

But, really, enough about me