Sharpening Mind, Body, and Heart
During the past five years, I’ve presented a conference paper or two, annually. The conference paper is the bridge that connects the teacher, researcher, scholar, and writer I have become as well as taught me how to enjoy free time.
The conference paper is a 15-minute presentation, about seven typed pages, that has allowed me to discuss my research, analysis, and pedagogy to an audience of like-minded people. The conference paper helped me not only develop my dissertation years before writing it but also gave me critical feedback about my research. For example, at the 2015 CEA Conference, I talked about black women diary writers I had discovered. An audience member inquired about the difference between the slave narrative and the black women’s diary. I didn’t have an immediate answer; however, 10-15 pages of my dissertation discusses the difference. The diary is personal and introspective. The slave narrative is public and polemic. The diary reflects a series of events that cause the diarist to remember, learn, create, and talk to herself. The slave narrative contains specific information from the past and debunks the myth of the institution of slavery: black folks neither appreciated nor were they happy with the system. In the words of Zora Neale Hurston “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”
In 2014, I received a grant to research Verna’s Dozier’s archives part of the funding included presenting my research. One of the audience members inquired about the difference between male and female journal writing. My response men write more fact-based and women express more emotions. Again, this information helped me expand the theoretical and historical chapter of my dissertation.
However, as a teaching literary writer, my presentations have helped sharpen my teaching skills. I’ve presented papers about writing assignments for first-year students that focus on poetry, film, and identity at NeMLA and Queensboro Community College in 2016, and CIA: Circus of the Senses and CEA Conference and CEA in 2018. I talked about mini-writing assignments that help students write concise, vivid, and rhythmic. At these presentations, instructors have asked to use my assignments in their classrooms. One professor was intrigued with how I merged scholarly and creative nonfiction writing in my college writing course themed: Identity: Race, Language & Culture. These moments and questions affirm my call to teach and remind me I am courageous in the classroom as award-winning Patricia Spears Jones noted at the 2018 CEA Conference “Be courageous in the classroom.” When I have doubts about my call to teach, the conference paper is proof that I have something in common with others who teach as well as a different and sometimes new perspective.
Taking a Break
In St. Petersburg, Florida, had an outdoor massage by Lena, owner of Peaceful Warriors Wellness. At the Dali Museum I met Katy.
When I attend a conference I do not make room for relaxation and meaningful connections with those I meet. However, this year 2018, at both conferences—one in Hyde Park, New York and the other in St. Petersburg, Florida— I focused on sharpening my social and resting skills. During the Lenten season, my challenge was to slow down. Stop and do nothing without feeling guilty. For the past five years, I’ve been juggling life as an adjunct lecturer and a graduate student moving between four campuses. Sometimes teaching six classes and taking three classes. Therefore, after writing and defending my dissertation in one year, I deserved a break. However, I’d grown accustomed to a fast-paced, busy schedule I didn’t know how to pause.
At the one-day conference in Hyde Park, during the lunch session, I enjoyed lunch with two professors I’d met. We had brick oven pizza and a glass of Processo. It is rare for me to have an alcoholic beverage in the middle of a workday. During that hour we laughed and shared womanly things. We were late getting back to the conference.
Two weeks later, I was in St. Petersburg, Florida. Thursday, I dropped my bags at the hotel and shuttled to the conference hotel. I chatted with several people. I visited a few panel discussions. I spent the evening talking and eating with a couple from North Carolina. I returned to my room and crashed. Friday, I did not attend the conference. I relaxed. I slept late. Walked. Read. Wrote. Ate. I drank a glass of wine at two o’clock in the afternoon. By 9:30 that night, I returned to bed ready for a good night sleep. Studies show eight hours of sleep is beneficial and rare.
Saturday morning, I presented my conference paper. I attended a panel discussion. At lunchtime, I headed to the outdoor market. I had a massage, bought homemade spinach bread, and a wraparound skirt. I spent four hours in the Dali Museum. I love art. I had not heard of Salvador Dali. What an interesting, creative, demented artist. While eating in the garden, I chatted with Kelly and her husband. We walked the labyrinth and then ventured to Dali and Duchamp side of the museum. We said our goodbyes in the museum’s store.
I returned to my hotel, ate my spinach bread for dinner with another glass of wine. Facetimed my husband and took advantage of another eight hours of sleep.
When was the last time you took a break without a schedule or an agenda?