Remembering the Dream
Yesterday, former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders came to the University to honor Martin Luther King’s dream. Elder urged students and community members to help King fulfil his dream by being a force for positive social change.
Her speech was part of a day of celebration that included performances from campus groups such as MaJ’N and Soul Umoja Gospel Choir.
Jocelyn Elders, MD, former Surgeon General of the United States, gave the keynote speech for the University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday celebration, January 20 in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.
More than 1100 community members, U of C employees, faculty and students attended.
The ceremony began with a traditional Aztec dance by the Grupo Folklorico Internacional.
The celebration’s speeches were interspersed with singing by Make a Joyful Noise (MaJ’N), the Motet and Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Choirs, and the newly-formed Soul Umoja Gospel Choir.
Alison Boden, dean of Rockefeller Chapel, gave the invocation. Provost Geoffrey Stone welcomed students and community members and Ilya David, a first-year doctoral student at the Divinity School, read King’s famous speech entitled, “Our God is Marching On.”
During her keynote speech, Elders touched such issues as women’s health, child malnutrition, abortion issues and the United State penal system.
“Too many people keep their ‘power’ in their pockets in the form of a gun,” Elders said. “We have too many people who graduate high school whose shoes light up when they walk but whose brains go dead when they talk,” Elders quipped.
Elders was the first African-American Surgeon General, sworn into office in 1993. Because of her controversial liberal views, Elders stepped down from her post a few months later.
The professor emeritus at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the U of C, Dr. Bowman introduced Elders yesterday.
“Dr. Elders was born in South West Arkansas. Her parents were sharecroppers. She was the oldest of eight children,” said Bowman.
“Joycelyn treasures her childhood in a three-room shack. She always says, to people who ask, ‘I did not feel poor as a child because everyone else was,’ Bowman said.
“Dr. Elders is outspoken, and that is an understatement,” Bowman said.
“But [Elders] has drop dead integrity and drop dead honesty on the numerous issues that she courageously tackles,” Bowman said.
“I met Dr. Elders a couple of years back, and although [she] had forgotten her speech in a taxicab, she ended up giving the most dynamite speech that day,” said Jeanne Taylor, assistant dean for Ambulatory Care and Community Health Services.
“I have a lot of admiration for her. [Elders] is fearless.”
During Elders’ tenure as Surgeon General, she tried to combat problems such as teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, violence (especially black on black violence), AIDS, infant mortality and other topics. Elders spoke about her journey.
“I loved being Surgeon General. I did the best I could, and if I could do it again, I would do it exactly the same way,” said Elders. “The problem was that people did not want to accept change, and that is what I stand for.”
“Dr. Elders was a great choice [as a keynote speaker.] She was true to herself and that did not necessarily translate to public office,” said Alyna Chien, a first-year medical student who coordinates health education workshops for Community health initiatives.
“I felt really good to be able to sing for ex-Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders,” said Aaron Reliford, a first-year in the College, who sang with both MaJ’N and Soul Umoja. “Joycelyn Elders is a personal hero of mine,” said Chris Haen, a 1995 graduate of the School of Social Service and Administration.
“She has always been outspoken about sexuality and sexual behavior as it relates to health.”
Students, staff discuss lack of MLK holiday on campus. “I have not seen a concerted push among the students and faculty to have MLK day be a university holiday. Currently, University employees can take MLK day off as a paid holiday,” said Kathy Stell, deputy dean of students and chair of the Coordinating Council for Minority Issues.
“I am reminded of something that my children’s school principal said: ‘On this day, in remembrance of him, Dr. Martin Luther King would want you to go to school [and learn], said Lyn Elzy, a secretary for the dean of students in the University.
“In my Quaker high school, for MLK day, instead of school everyone had the opportunity to attend a variety of workshops. You could pick and choose,” said Joe Ravenell, a first-year medical student.
“I believe that [the] keynote speech and the open community reception [in the Biological Sciences Learning Center from 3:30-5:30 p.m] for Elders are ways of instituting change in university policy,” he said.
“We are hoping to have a MLK day committee which will facility student/administration communication.” Stell said.
Originally published Tuesday, January 21, 1997
Sidebar
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Junior (1929-1968) was a non-violent civil rights leader, a 1964 Nobel peace prize winner, and a well respected member of the African-American community. King graduated from Morehouse College at the age of 19.
Three years later, King earned the Bachelor of Divinity degree at Crozer Theological Seminary.
He was awarded a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955. King led the Montgomery boycott in the mid 50s in order to combat the segregated bus system, as president of the newly-formed Montgomery Improvement Association.
The United States Supreme Court subsequently declared Alabama’s segregation laws unconstitutional. King, an advocate for non-violent change, always said of the African-American community,
“We will not resort to violence. We will not degrade ourselves with hatred. Love will be returned for hate.” In 1957, King and other southern black ministers founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King serving as the first president. King led countless other demonstrations in response to church bombings, segregated conditions in the South, and to mobilize voter registration in the Black community.
Mass demonstrations culminated in the march to Washington that attracted more than 250,000 protestors, on August 28, 1963. It was there, on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, that King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while seeking to assist a garbage worker’s strike in Memphis.
Congress established the third Monday of January as a federal holiday in 1983, in his memory.
-Kate Olsen and Pamela Miller (Appea)
Originally published Tuesday, January 21, 1997
Tuesday, January 21, 1997
Friday, November 01, 1996
Ishiguro discusses time, love in latest novel
Ishiguro discusses time, love in latest novel
Remains of the Day author gives insight into the new genre his writing created
The Chicago Maroon
Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of the Day, read from his new novel The Unconsoled, and answered questions Wednesday at the Oriental Institute.
“I thought it was very interesting,” said Sharon Ruta, who came from Kenosha, Wisconsin to see Ishiguro. “[Ishiguro] is very easy to relate to. The time went by very fast.”
Ishiguro said he is often compared to other authors, particularly Kafka, and he thinks this is because his writing is somewhat hard to classify.
“If you step out of the standard writing tradition, you get sucked into this vortex; Franz Kafka over here and Samuel Beckett over there.”
He emphasized that, perhaps in style, he was not much influenced by Kafka. “I never felt I could understand what the hell The Trial was about,” he said. “Kafka never spoke for me and I can’t relate to him emotionally.”
Ishiguro described his literary endeavors as a personal odyssey, “ I feel with every novel I write, I am closing in on a little territory in which I am interested,” he said.
“So, my search will look like a career in the meantime/ When I get to the bottom of it—if I ever do—I guess I will have to retire.
“You rarely get the opportunity to meet an author who you like to read,” said Lakshmi Kishore who attended the event. “I’m glad that his new book was not exclusively written to be made into a Hollywood movie.”
The event lasted an hour and a half and was part of a book tour to promote The Unconsoled. Ishiguro will be in the United States for several days for the tour.
The Unconsoled details the complexities of life that Mr. Ryder, a concert pianist, endures. Due to a lack of an official schedule for his music tour, Ryder begins to experience a complex and disturbing sense of reality.
Ishiguro explained that his novel is an attempt to encapsulate the anarchic nature of everyday life.
He said the main difference between the experience of living and his novel is that, in the book, he compresses and distorts time and space.
For example, at one point in the novel, Ryder encounters a child and promises him a favor. However he then forget the promise and the child moments later.
Ishiguro said the same kind of thing happens all the time in real life, only over a period of years.
“Someone may be loyal to their wife, to their company, but then five years later everything is completely changed,” he said. “It’s not insanity, just the way life is,” Ishiguro said.
Ishiguro said, “The world Ryder is describing is an extension of his interior world. [This could include] people from his past or even the person who he was before that moment.”
The transient and fleeting nature of reality is a common thread in Ishiguro’s four other books, he said.
A Pale View of the Hills was published in 1982. An Artist of the Floating World was short-listed for the Booker Prize when it came out in 1986.
His third novel, The Remains of the Day, became a bestseller in 1989 and was later made into a movie starring Anthony Hopkins. His books have been published in 24 languages. The Unconsoled, released in 1995, has also been well received.
Ishiguro born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954, moved to Britain with his family in 1990. He attended the University of Kent at Canterbury where he received a BA in 1978. Ishiguro then went on to the University of East Anglia in 1980 to earn his MA in Creative Writing. He is a resident of London, England.
Originally published November 1, 1996
Photo Caption: Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Unconsoled, appeared at the Oriental Institute on Wednesday as a party of a book tour across the United States.
Photo Credit:
Luke Swistun/Maroon Staff
Remains of the Day author gives insight into the new genre his writing created
The Chicago Maroon
Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of the Day, read from his new novel The Unconsoled, and answered questions Wednesday at the Oriental Institute.
“I thought it was very interesting,” said Sharon Ruta, who came from Kenosha, Wisconsin to see Ishiguro. “[Ishiguro] is very easy to relate to. The time went by very fast.”
Ishiguro said he is often compared to other authors, particularly Kafka, and he thinks this is because his writing is somewhat hard to classify.
“If you step out of the standard writing tradition, you get sucked into this vortex; Franz Kafka over here and Samuel Beckett over there.”
He emphasized that, perhaps in style, he was not much influenced by Kafka. “I never felt I could understand what the hell The Trial was about,” he said. “Kafka never spoke for me and I can’t relate to him emotionally.”
Ishiguro described his literary endeavors as a personal odyssey, “ I feel with every novel I write, I am closing in on a little territory in which I am interested,” he said.
“So, my search will look like a career in the meantime/ When I get to the bottom of it—if I ever do—I guess I will have to retire.
“You rarely get the opportunity to meet an author who you like to read,” said Lakshmi Kishore who attended the event. “I’m glad that his new book was not exclusively written to be made into a Hollywood movie.”
The event lasted an hour and a half and was part of a book tour to promote The Unconsoled. Ishiguro will be in the United States for several days for the tour.
The Unconsoled details the complexities of life that Mr. Ryder, a concert pianist, endures. Due to a lack of an official schedule for his music tour, Ryder begins to experience a complex and disturbing sense of reality.
Ishiguro explained that his novel is an attempt to encapsulate the anarchic nature of everyday life.
He said the main difference between the experience of living and his novel is that, in the book, he compresses and distorts time and space.
For example, at one point in the novel, Ryder encounters a child and promises him a favor. However he then forget the promise and the child moments later.
Ishiguro said the same kind of thing happens all the time in real life, only over a period of years.
“Someone may be loyal to their wife, to their company, but then five years later everything is completely changed,” he said. “It’s not insanity, just the way life is,” Ishiguro said.
Ishiguro said, “The world Ryder is describing is an extension of his interior world. [This could include] people from his past or even the person who he was before that moment.”
The transient and fleeting nature of reality is a common thread in Ishiguro’s four other books, he said.
A Pale View of the Hills was published in 1982. An Artist of the Floating World was short-listed for the Booker Prize when it came out in 1986.
His third novel, The Remains of the Day, became a bestseller in 1989 and was later made into a movie starring Anthony Hopkins. His books have been published in 24 languages. The Unconsoled, released in 1995, has also been well received.
Ishiguro born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954, moved to Britain with his family in 1990. He attended the University of Kent at Canterbury where he received a BA in 1978. Ishiguro then went on to the University of East Anglia in 1980 to earn his MA in Creative Writing. He is a resident of London, England.
Originally published November 1, 1996
Photo Caption: Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Unconsoled, appeared at the Oriental Institute on Wednesday as a party of a book tour across the United States.
Photo Credit:
Luke Swistun/Maroon Staff
Tuesday, October 22, 1996
Muslim Students, SASA perform, encourage unity, peace, harmony
Muslim Students, SASA perform, encourage unity, peace, harmony
The Chicago Maroon
By Pamela Miller (Appea)
The Warsi Brothers, led by Ustad Zahir Amhed Khan Warsi, performed sacred music of Northern India and Pakistan at Goodspeed Hall.
The South Asian Students Association (SASA) and the Muslim Students’ Forum sponsored the event. Over 100 people attended.
The brothers, inheritors of this sacred musical tradition, are known as Qawwali Bacche. The performance setting is a style called Mehfil e-Qawwali: an intimate concert of Qawwali music.
“[We sing] about Sufism, unity among all people, harmony and peace,” a spokesman for the group said.
Philip Bohlamn, a professor of ethnomusicology at the U of C, introduced the program. “[Their] music becomes a gateway to something more powerful than the music itself,” he said.
The Warsi brothers’ music combines the instrumental and the vocal. The harmonium, the tabla, and the dolok are the traditional instruments for Qawwali music.
Charles Earl, a computer sciences student said, “[Qawwali] music really jumps out at you.”
“When they are singing, they are singing for 800 years of ancestry,” said Asif Dhar, a UIC first year medical student, and Former Muslim Student Forum President at the U of C. “[This] integrates a concert with [the] spiritual.”
The Warsi brothers have toured throughout the Far East and the West. They are part of the Tanrus school, one of the 12 disciples of Amir Khusrow, the founder of Hindustani and Qawwali music. The Warsi brothers are often called monumental figures in South Asian music.
“We such have them again,” said Mumtaz Dhar, a community resident. “They are not doing it for money but rather because they love Sufi music.”
Originally published Tuesday, October 22, 1996
The Chicago Maroon
By Pamela Miller (Appea)
The Warsi Brothers, led by Ustad Zahir Amhed Khan Warsi, performed sacred music of Northern India and Pakistan at Goodspeed Hall.
The South Asian Students Association (SASA) and the Muslim Students’ Forum sponsored the event. Over 100 people attended.
The brothers, inheritors of this sacred musical tradition, are known as Qawwali Bacche. The performance setting is a style called Mehfil e-Qawwali: an intimate concert of Qawwali music.
“[We sing] about Sufism, unity among all people, harmony and peace,” a spokesman for the group said.
Philip Bohlamn, a professor of ethnomusicology at the U of C, introduced the program. “[Their] music becomes a gateway to something more powerful than the music itself,” he said.
The Warsi brothers’ music combines the instrumental and the vocal. The harmonium, the tabla, and the dolok are the traditional instruments for Qawwali music.
Charles Earl, a computer sciences student said, “[Qawwali] music really jumps out at you.”
“When they are singing, they are singing for 800 years of ancestry,” said Asif Dhar, a UIC first year medical student, and Former Muslim Student Forum President at the U of C. “[This] integrates a concert with [the] spiritual.”
The Warsi brothers have toured throughout the Far East and the West. They are part of the Tanrus school, one of the 12 disciples of Amir Khusrow, the founder of Hindustani and Qawwali music. The Warsi brothers are often called monumental figures in South Asian music.
“We such have them again,” said Mumtaz Dhar, a community resident. “They are not doing it for money but rather because they love Sufi music.”
Originally published Tuesday, October 22, 1996
Tuesday, October 15, 1996
Hispanic month celebrated
Hispanic month celebrated
The Chicago Maroon
By Pamela Jane Miller (Appea)
October is the second annual celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month at the University of Chicago.
The Hispanic Association for Cultural Expression and Recognition (H.A.C.E.R.) has joined forces with the Womyn’s Union, Sigma Lambda Gamma, Coordinating Counsel for Minority Issues (C.C.M.I) and the International House for the series of lectures, films, and other events that deal with the diversity of Latino culture.
One of H.A.C.E.R’s main goals for the month is to transcend stereotypical notions of Latino culture by addressing the development of identities through issues affecting Chicanismo, Latinos, and Puerto Ricans.
Veronica Gonzalez, the political chair for H.A.C.E.R. said, “[Latinos] are all ethnically, culturally, politically different.” She stressed that diversity and transnationalistm are the main theme for Hispanic Heritage month.
One of the larger events planned is The United States Leadership Conference (USHLC.) It will take place October 18-19 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago.
Kayo Granillo, a third-year double major in public policy and Latin American studies, “I will be leading the U of C’s Hispanic Leadership Training program [a mentorship program for first years.]”
Events on campus include a series of lectures which will be held at the International House. Topics to be addressed include the status of Puerto Rico and the reproductive role of Latinas. These lectures are open to the public.
“I think it’s definitely a good idea to have some type of event showing respect or honoring the Hispanic people,” said Robyn McCoy, a fourth-year anthropology major.
“Sabor Latino” (a “taste” of Latino culture will end the month-long celebration. The event, held at the International House, will have lots of food, fun and excitement.
For more information on H.A.C.E.R. and Hispanic Heritage month, contact H.A.C.E.R. (hacer@uchicago.edu), or access the H.A.C.E.R. Website at http://student-www.uchicago.edu/orgs/hispanic-association/.
Celebration Schedule for Hispanic Heritage Month
All Events unless otherwise noted will be held at the International House. Contact the International House or H.A.C.E.R. for more information.
October 18-19
United States Hispanic Leadership Conference (USHLC.) Location Downtown Chicago.
October 22-24
Three Party Symposium.
Part I: October 22nd dealing with issues pertaining to Latinas and the reproductive role of Latin American women as assigned by the Catholic Church and supported by culture.
Part II: Clarifying the role of Latina women in the welfare state and its relationship with anti-immigrant sentiment.
Part III: If and how Latinas can maintain their cultural identity or whether it is necessary to create an identity independent of that instilled by culture in a society that allows a more liberal approach to autonomy.
October 23.
A debate on the status of Puerto Rico in relation to the United States, which often conflicts with its national identity.
November 1.
“El Sabor Latino!” a gala of food, music and dance. Among the entertainment provided that evening will be groups performing folklore dances from Central America and the Caribbean.
Originally published Tuesday, October 15, 1996
The Chicago Maroon
By Pamela Jane Miller (Appea)
October is the second annual celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month at the University of Chicago.
The Hispanic Association for Cultural Expression and Recognition (H.A.C.E.R.) has joined forces with the Womyn’s Union, Sigma Lambda Gamma, Coordinating Counsel for Minority Issues (C.C.M.I) and the International House for the series of lectures, films, and other events that deal with the diversity of Latino culture.
One of H.A.C.E.R’s main goals for the month is to transcend stereotypical notions of Latino culture by addressing the development of identities through issues affecting Chicanismo, Latinos, and Puerto Ricans.
Veronica Gonzalez, the political chair for H.A.C.E.R. said, “[Latinos] are all ethnically, culturally, politically different.” She stressed that diversity and transnationalistm are the main theme for Hispanic Heritage month.
One of the larger events planned is The United States Leadership Conference (USHLC.) It will take place October 18-19 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago.
Kayo Granillo, a third-year double major in public policy and Latin American studies, “I will be leading the U of C’s Hispanic Leadership Training program [a mentorship program for first years.]”
Events on campus include a series of lectures which will be held at the International House. Topics to be addressed include the status of Puerto Rico and the reproductive role of Latinas. These lectures are open to the public.
“I think it’s definitely a good idea to have some type of event showing respect or honoring the Hispanic people,” said Robyn McCoy, a fourth-year anthropology major.
“Sabor Latino” (a “taste” of Latino culture will end the month-long celebration. The event, held at the International House, will have lots of food, fun and excitement.
For more information on H.A.C.E.R. and Hispanic Heritage month, contact H.A.C.E.R. (hacer@uchicago.edu), or access the H.A.C.E.R. Website at http://student-www.uchicago.edu/orgs/hispanic-association/.
Celebration Schedule for Hispanic Heritage Month
All Events unless otherwise noted will be held at the International House. Contact the International House or H.A.C.E.R. for more information.
October 18-19
United States Hispanic Leadership Conference (USHLC.) Location Downtown Chicago.
October 22-24
Three Party Symposium.
Part I: October 22nd dealing with issues pertaining to Latinas and the reproductive role of Latin American women as assigned by the Catholic Church and supported by culture.
Part II: Clarifying the role of Latina women in the welfare state and its relationship with anti-immigrant sentiment.
Part III: If and how Latinas can maintain their cultural identity or whether it is necessary to create an identity independent of that instilled by culture in a society that allows a more liberal approach to autonomy.
October 23.
A debate on the status of Puerto Rico in relation to the United States, which often conflicts with its national identity.
November 1.
“El Sabor Latino!” a gala of food, music and dance. Among the entertainment provided that evening will be groups performing folklore dances from Central America and the Caribbean.
Originally published Tuesday, October 15, 1996
Tuesday, January 10, 1995
Molly Daniels Tuesday Interview for the Chicago Maroon
Tuesday Interview: By Pamela Miller (Appea)
The Chicago Maroon
Originally published January 10, 19995
Molly Daniels, native of India and Hyde Park Resident of 33 years, teaches writing at the University of Chicago’s School of Continuing Education. In addition, she regularly conducts sessions within her own program, the Clotheslines School of Writing, at Hutchinson Commons and the Woodlawn Tap. MAROON Reporter talked with Daniels about her literary personality and her dynamic and controversial teaching style.
Maroon: Could you tell me about the classes you teach?
Daniels: I started the workshops in ’79, in ’83 or I think ’84, I joined the Continuing Studies Program and they were very, very good to me … I published the workbook for that purpose, so that we have 400 exercises and lessons in the workbook for anyone … they will get a great deal [from it.] Class is different, because in class we have some 30, 40 people who are so energized by the method that literally you can feel the electricity in the room. It is very exciting.
We begin first of all with brainstorming exercises. We do sensations and we focus on these things for quite a while, we go visit a primitive place from way back, [and] we get back to childhood.
We try to feel our deepest wounds because as Odin said, “these wounds are an opportunity for further growth.” That is the focus … Odin said that, “the so-called trauma is an opportunity for further growth.” I was very glad when we came upon this because I had always believed this, my whole method is based on the fact that it is only when you touch base that things [begin to] come out … from there, we start moving out.
We go through a great deal of material that has been printed. These materials that have been printed [area[ our greatest consciousness. One cannot step out of consciousness, for creativity comes out of all of this material. There is a transformation that takes place when we use literary techniques, but the substance is our life … [after] we started brainstorming … everyone [in the class] wrote such brilliant stories in the end after we brainstormed for all of these different situations [in our lives.]
Maroon: So you are interested in letting the autobiographical stories come out first, as opposed to fictional work, in order to form your student writers?
Daniels: Well, in the first workshop, we don’t call it autobiographical. We look for images that have the greatest impact on us. [In] autobiography, we are more faithful to this one person about whom we are writing the story, but when we write in our workshop, we move out of that ‘focusing on the self’ to focus on others.
Fiction is the art of moving the camera outwards … but in order to do that well, they must be in touch with concepts … things they understand as conflict. They must know what their own conflicts are … You have to really go to the most dramatic moment. For example, I teach play-writing and it is very successful. My poetry class is the most successful, then my playwriting, then my fiction class. Fiction is the most difficult … Poetry is very easy.
Suppose that you are a playwright and you come to my house, and I say to you, think of a scene that keeps returning to you, a scene: there are people, there is action onstage, action off-stage and you are haunted by the scene. It keeps coming back to you, there are so many players here. Something is about to happen and then it happens. Don’t say anything. Just write the dialogue and tell what happens … if the doorbell rings, let it ring … if someone is knocking at the window, let them knock at the window. Write that scene, once that scene is done, write the scene that came before and then write the one that came after.
Maroon: When did you realize that you were first interested in writing, and what led you to become an educator?
Daniels: Well, when I was very young, my mother recited a proem to me, and I learned that poem by heart … I ran all the way to my uncle’s house to recite the poem, and I had forgotten the poem … so I ran … all the way back. I lived twenty minutes away, and studied it again.
From then on, I studied poetry every day … of course in India you had to recite a poem every week in class by heart. That was enough to start anybody. Some of my poetry was published, in high school, in the Sunday papers. Then I wrote a novella called Yellow Fish. A lot of people have written about it … But then, I don’t like it. I don’t have an English copy, but there are passages that are available.
I noticed when I was teaching in Delhi, that my students became writers overnight—even when I was teaching literature they would write. Two of my brothers wrote, and they claimed that I influenced them. My son writes. Everyone I know writes. But then I go married … it became very clear that there could not be two poets in the house. It was very difficult. I started trying to write fiction. In ’68, I wrote for Saul Bellow—a book, A Salt Doll. He believed in it. He tried repeatedly to get it published. I let some Indian publisher publish it. These Indian publishers don’t even proofread. That got some attention in India.
Then I wrote another novella called The City of Children. I’ve written two books of criticism, one of them is called A Prophetic Novel. Since ’78, I have increasingly become the writing teacher and I do not have a lot of time. When the quarter is over, I try to cool my brain and try to prepare myself for the [new quarter.] It really is emptying my mind of all of the images of the previous quarter and keeping it open for the new set of students.
Powerful things come out in the fiction workshop … I use a lot of poetry in the fiction workshop … the brain is matranomic; when it is exposed to iambic rhythm with variation, it is, capable of more creativity than ever.
We use poetry to open up. They submit it to me … and I select passages to be performed at the Woodlawn Tap. Every Sunday at 3:00—we’ve had 532 performances, and we have poems and short passages from fictions, alternating.
Maroon: With your busy schedule, do you think that you will have any time in the future to write or publish any books in the future?
Daniels: It is the deepest tragedy in my life. I enjoy my work there, and every day I get more rewards for it. My students are always telling me how much it has helped them—it has changed their lives, they are happier … but sometimes I think in another three years, I should stop all of this, if I can manage.
Maroon: You have been a resident in the Hyde Park area for 33 years now, and you mentioned the possibility of going away. Where would you like to go?
Daniels: Fantasies, Pure fantasies. I have had fantasies [about going away.] I could go to India. I could go to Sri Lanka. I’m waiting for them to finish their civil war. Unrealistically, some days, I think I could go to Mexico, but no it is impossible … maybe I will continue what I am doing, because it is very rewarding.
Maybe, during breaks, I could just continue polishing up stuff. I did not write as much as I could have, because I live here and my material was Indian, and I am not a conventional writer, so I am caught between two worlds. If I wrote more conventional stories, then of course I might have been one of the foreigners that gets published in this country, but I do not write that kind of book.
My readers are usually other writers … I would say
Maroon: Could you tell me a little bit about your education? Where have you studied?
Daniels: Well, I studied in Bombay, and I taught in Delhi. Then I went to Indiana University for a year as a Fulbright [Scholar.] Then I came here and got married. Off and on, I would take a course here at the university. I went off to India twice [then] to Minnesota for a year. There were a lot of interruptions, the kids, the family; it was only in ’86 that I got my degree. My Ph.D. I never stopped thinking. I never stopped caring about literature. It got even more intense from somehow feeling deprived. I never have had a good job in this country like I did in India. Women like me have to create their own world. You cannot expect someone to hand it to you.
Maroon: Through the years, have you encountered any racism or sexism directed towards you? How do you deal with it?
Daniels: No more than I would anywhere else, nor less. In India, a woman has more opportunities. A vast number of women in India are illiterate, so they are not competing for the type of job that I want; the few women who are educated can go anywhere they want, but India is much more prejudiced about everything.
Racism is part of humanity … I think it is good for some of us that we fight against prejudice. It is good for some of us who live in a prejudiced world. It strengthens us, it gives us an extraordinary rhetoric, we develop our personality. I would hate to be a person who thought, ‘I am the best. I come from the best traditions. There is no one better than me.’ I have had to struggle, and it is out of the struggles that I am who I am.
Maroon: What do you have to say about those who criticize your teaching method? People have said that it is too aggressive, too forceful, too intense. Would you say that they are uncomfortable with the feelings that you bring out?
Daniels: Well, if they come regularly to class, they will not be uncomfortable. The people who come to class—who are not prejudiced—who do not run away the very first week will go on talking like that. The people who are there, the record shows, are extremely comfortable, extremely happy, because they are not focused on themselves. The method requires for you to move the camera out. So, I would say, if you take a hundred students, about three quarters would be extremely positive about the experience. If you come to my class, we do not criticize; the writer is not on trial, the listener is.
Maroon: Do you feel you have to be aggressive or assertive as a teacher to get your point across as a student?
Daniels: No I think that is not the way; I believe it comes from inside people. My method is to awaken them spiritually, emotionally and to let them be brave about the material and also to let them have an inner sense.
I don’t need to be aggressive in class or at the Hutch … Each student reads their best piece three times in class. Three times they get themselves reflected back, not critically, but [they hear the stories out loud.] That is the method.
Maroon: I have heard that you met Saul Bellow. What do you have to say to people who believe that his writing is offensive?
Daniels: They are quite mistaken. I think he is the least prejudiced person I know. It is true as a writer that he sometimes gives characters an opinion, he sometimes overstates a case. Bellow is a writer’s writer, he is not a reader’s writer. Bellow is a great craftsman you have to read like a writer, not like a passive reader.
In the Puritan tradition, literature is not looked at as a freeplay of the mind, it is looked at as a treatise for on how to live, as a model dogmatic text … to think of literature as text of how to live is the most dangerous thing in the world. A study of dramatic irony—there is more than one level of meaning—you stop being fascist. You stop being bigoted, if you do not know what irony is in literature, you are likely to end up with extreme opinions that are dangerous.
I think it is a misreading of Bellow. He is not there just to tell you pretty stories. I have learned a lot from him. He is not a perfect writer, but then nobody is.
The Chicago Maroon
Originally published January 10, 19995
Molly Daniels, native of India and Hyde Park Resident of 33 years, teaches writing at the University of Chicago’s School of Continuing Education. In addition, she regularly conducts sessions within her own program, the Clotheslines School of Writing, at Hutchinson Commons and the Woodlawn Tap. MAROON Reporter talked with Daniels about her literary personality and her dynamic and controversial teaching style.
Maroon: Could you tell me about the classes you teach?
Daniels: I started the workshops in ’79, in ’83 or I think ’84, I joined the Continuing Studies Program and they were very, very good to me … I published the workbook for that purpose, so that we have 400 exercises and lessons in the workbook for anyone … they will get a great deal [from it.] Class is different, because in class we have some 30, 40 people who are so energized by the method that literally you can feel the electricity in the room. It is very exciting.
We begin first of all with brainstorming exercises. We do sensations and we focus on these things for quite a while, we go visit a primitive place from way back, [and] we get back to childhood.
We try to feel our deepest wounds because as Odin said, “these wounds are an opportunity for further growth.” That is the focus … Odin said that, “the so-called trauma is an opportunity for further growth.” I was very glad when we came upon this because I had always believed this, my whole method is based on the fact that it is only when you touch base that things [begin to] come out … from there, we start moving out.
We go through a great deal of material that has been printed. These materials that have been printed [area[ our greatest consciousness. One cannot step out of consciousness, for creativity comes out of all of this material. There is a transformation that takes place when we use literary techniques, but the substance is our life … [after] we started brainstorming … everyone [in the class] wrote such brilliant stories in the end after we brainstormed for all of these different situations [in our lives.]
Maroon: So you are interested in letting the autobiographical stories come out first, as opposed to fictional work, in order to form your student writers?
Daniels: Well, in the first workshop, we don’t call it autobiographical. We look for images that have the greatest impact on us. [In] autobiography, we are more faithful to this one person about whom we are writing the story, but when we write in our workshop, we move out of that ‘focusing on the self’ to focus on others.
Fiction is the art of moving the camera outwards … but in order to do that well, they must be in touch with concepts … things they understand as conflict. They must know what their own conflicts are … You have to really go to the most dramatic moment. For example, I teach play-writing and it is very successful. My poetry class is the most successful, then my playwriting, then my fiction class. Fiction is the most difficult … Poetry is very easy.
Suppose that you are a playwright and you come to my house, and I say to you, think of a scene that keeps returning to you, a scene: there are people, there is action onstage, action off-stage and you are haunted by the scene. It keeps coming back to you, there are so many players here. Something is about to happen and then it happens. Don’t say anything. Just write the dialogue and tell what happens … if the doorbell rings, let it ring … if someone is knocking at the window, let them knock at the window. Write that scene, once that scene is done, write the scene that came before and then write the one that came after.
Maroon: When did you realize that you were first interested in writing, and what led you to become an educator?
Daniels: Well, when I was very young, my mother recited a proem to me, and I learned that poem by heart … I ran all the way to my uncle’s house to recite the poem, and I had forgotten the poem … so I ran … all the way back. I lived twenty minutes away, and studied it again.
From then on, I studied poetry every day … of course in India you had to recite a poem every week in class by heart. That was enough to start anybody. Some of my poetry was published, in high school, in the Sunday papers. Then I wrote a novella called Yellow Fish. A lot of people have written about it … But then, I don’t like it. I don’t have an English copy, but there are passages that are available.
I noticed when I was teaching in Delhi, that my students became writers overnight—even when I was teaching literature they would write. Two of my brothers wrote, and they claimed that I influenced them. My son writes. Everyone I know writes. But then I go married … it became very clear that there could not be two poets in the house. It was very difficult. I started trying to write fiction. In ’68, I wrote for Saul Bellow—a book, A Salt Doll. He believed in it. He tried repeatedly to get it published. I let some Indian publisher publish it. These Indian publishers don’t even proofread. That got some attention in India.
Then I wrote another novella called The City of Children. I’ve written two books of criticism, one of them is called A Prophetic Novel. Since ’78, I have increasingly become the writing teacher and I do not have a lot of time. When the quarter is over, I try to cool my brain and try to prepare myself for the [new quarter.] It really is emptying my mind of all of the images of the previous quarter and keeping it open for the new set of students.
Powerful things come out in the fiction workshop … I use a lot of poetry in the fiction workshop … the brain is matranomic; when it is exposed to iambic rhythm with variation, it is, capable of more creativity than ever.
We use poetry to open up. They submit it to me … and I select passages to be performed at the Woodlawn Tap. Every Sunday at 3:00—we’ve had 532 performances, and we have poems and short passages from fictions, alternating.
Maroon: With your busy schedule, do you think that you will have any time in the future to write or publish any books in the future?
Daniels: It is the deepest tragedy in my life. I enjoy my work there, and every day I get more rewards for it. My students are always telling me how much it has helped them—it has changed their lives, they are happier … but sometimes I think in another three years, I should stop all of this, if I can manage.
Maroon: You have been a resident in the Hyde Park area for 33 years now, and you mentioned the possibility of going away. Where would you like to go?
Daniels: Fantasies, Pure fantasies. I have had fantasies [about going away.] I could go to India. I could go to Sri Lanka. I’m waiting for them to finish their civil war. Unrealistically, some days, I think I could go to Mexico, but no it is impossible … maybe I will continue what I am doing, because it is very rewarding.
Maybe, during breaks, I could just continue polishing up stuff. I did not write as much as I could have, because I live here and my material was Indian, and I am not a conventional writer, so I am caught between two worlds. If I wrote more conventional stories, then of course I might have been one of the foreigners that gets published in this country, but I do not write that kind of book.
My readers are usually other writers … I would say
Maroon: Could you tell me a little bit about your education? Where have you studied?
Daniels: Well, I studied in Bombay, and I taught in Delhi. Then I went to Indiana University for a year as a Fulbright [Scholar.] Then I came here and got married. Off and on, I would take a course here at the university. I went off to India twice [then] to Minnesota for a year. There were a lot of interruptions, the kids, the family; it was only in ’86 that I got my degree. My Ph.D. I never stopped thinking. I never stopped caring about literature. It got even more intense from somehow feeling deprived. I never have had a good job in this country like I did in India. Women like me have to create their own world. You cannot expect someone to hand it to you.
Maroon: Through the years, have you encountered any racism or sexism directed towards you? How do you deal with it?
Daniels: No more than I would anywhere else, nor less. In India, a woman has more opportunities. A vast number of women in India are illiterate, so they are not competing for the type of job that I want; the few women who are educated can go anywhere they want, but India is much more prejudiced about everything.
Racism is part of humanity … I think it is good for some of us that we fight against prejudice. It is good for some of us who live in a prejudiced world. It strengthens us, it gives us an extraordinary rhetoric, we develop our personality. I would hate to be a person who thought, ‘I am the best. I come from the best traditions. There is no one better than me.’ I have had to struggle, and it is out of the struggles that I am who I am.
Maroon: What do you have to say about those who criticize your teaching method? People have said that it is too aggressive, too forceful, too intense. Would you say that they are uncomfortable with the feelings that you bring out?
Daniels: Well, if they come regularly to class, they will not be uncomfortable. The people who come to class—who are not prejudiced—who do not run away the very first week will go on talking like that. The people who are there, the record shows, are extremely comfortable, extremely happy, because they are not focused on themselves. The method requires for you to move the camera out. So, I would say, if you take a hundred students, about three quarters would be extremely positive about the experience. If you come to my class, we do not criticize; the writer is not on trial, the listener is.
Maroon: Do you feel you have to be aggressive or assertive as a teacher to get your point across as a student?
Daniels: No I think that is not the way; I believe it comes from inside people. My method is to awaken them spiritually, emotionally and to let them be brave about the material and also to let them have an inner sense.
I don’t need to be aggressive in class or at the Hutch … Each student reads their best piece three times in class. Three times they get themselves reflected back, not critically, but [they hear the stories out loud.] That is the method.
Maroon: I have heard that you met Saul Bellow. What do you have to say to people who believe that his writing is offensive?
Daniels: They are quite mistaken. I think he is the least prejudiced person I know. It is true as a writer that he sometimes gives characters an opinion, he sometimes overstates a case. Bellow is a writer’s writer, he is not a reader’s writer. Bellow is a great craftsman you have to read like a writer, not like a passive reader.
In the Puritan tradition, literature is not looked at as a freeplay of the mind, it is looked at as a treatise for on how to live, as a model dogmatic text … to think of literature as text of how to live is the most dangerous thing in the world. A study of dramatic irony—there is more than one level of meaning—you stop being fascist. You stop being bigoted, if you do not know what irony is in literature, you are likely to end up with extreme opinions that are dangerous.
I think it is a misreading of Bellow. He is not there just to tell you pretty stories. I have learned a lot from him. He is not a perfect writer, but then nobody is.
Tuesday, November 29, 1994
U of C, Michigan hospitals form partnership to improve care
U of C, Michigan hospitals form partnership to improve care
The Chicago Maroon
Pamela Jane Miller (Appea)
The University of Chicago Hospitals (UCH) recently formed an alliance with four Michigan hospitals in the Lakeland area.
The UCH and the Michigan hospital systems have a history of conferring and exchanging ideas. UCH sources said that not only does this merger facilitate this process, but it also allows a broader range of patients to receive a higher quality of hospital care.
Ralph Muller, president of UCH, said in a statement, released by the Office of Public Affairs, “The Lakeland affiliation will convert a friendship [between the two Chicago and Michigan hospitals] into a partnership.”
He added that the community-based Michigan hospitals and the University-based Chicago hospitals will most probably complement the other.
The four hospitals in Michigan are the Berrien General Hospital, the Mercy Medical Center, Mercy Memorial Nursing Care Center and the Pawating Hospital.
This new affiliation allows patients the specialized care of The U of C’s hospitals.
The U of C Hospitals are known for specializing in treatment of many diseases and as well as organ transplants.
Susan Philips, UCH vice president of government and public affairs said that the U of C’s hospitals are particularly strong in liver transplants, as well as radiation treatment and bone marrow transplants for the treatment of cancer.
She went on to say that the U of C does work in the testing of clinical drugs, “where more conventional methods have failed, drug trials are used,” in order to combat an illness.
Originally published November 29, 1994
The Chicago Maroon
Pamela Jane Miller (Appea)
The University of Chicago Hospitals (UCH) recently formed an alliance with four Michigan hospitals in the Lakeland area.
The UCH and the Michigan hospital systems have a history of conferring and exchanging ideas. UCH sources said that not only does this merger facilitate this process, but it also allows a broader range of patients to receive a higher quality of hospital care.
Ralph Muller, president of UCH, said in a statement, released by the Office of Public Affairs, “The Lakeland affiliation will convert a friendship [between the two Chicago and Michigan hospitals] into a partnership.”
He added that the community-based Michigan hospitals and the University-based Chicago hospitals will most probably complement the other.
The four hospitals in Michigan are the Berrien General Hospital, the Mercy Medical Center, Mercy Memorial Nursing Care Center and the Pawating Hospital.
This new affiliation allows patients the specialized care of The U of C’s hospitals.
The U of C Hospitals are known for specializing in treatment of many diseases and as well as organ transplants.
Susan Philips, UCH vice president of government and public affairs said that the U of C’s hospitals are particularly strong in liver transplants, as well as radiation treatment and bone marrow transplants for the treatment of cancer.
She went on to say that the U of C does work in the testing of clinical drugs, “where more conventional methods have failed, drug trials are used,” in order to combat an illness.
Originally published November 29, 1994
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