Gemini Ink Writing Lab - Week #2 - Letters

Engaging the Active Imagination: Writing as Activism

Writing prompt

• Write a letter to someone, alive or dead, or to something, past or present

Entry:

Letter Addressed to the San Antonio River Authority

To Whom It May Concern,

We, the people, hereby file a formal complaint against the developers of the Blue Star - Big Tex apartments for obstructing the viewshed of the San Antonio River, its walking/biking trail, and its riparian zone. For decades the afternoon-to-evening daylight has nourished the river banks replete with cypress trees, sunflowers, and other lush foliage. For generations our families have cast out lines from our fishing poles to reap the sustenance this river brings us. We have consulted our beloved sun, we have listened to the wilting leaves on the aging trees, we have conducted in-house community meetings, we have conversed with our affluent neighbors to the north who own river-front property and we have come to this conclusion: The architecture of this development bears no resemblance to the cultural characteristics of our beloved city, it holds no likeness to the lifestyle of the river's inhabitants, and gives no inspiration to the thousands of visitors meandering along the river banks. Each year, at the beginning of each season with weather permitting, we are blessed with an abundance of sunbeams that bring a natural energy to the fish, the birds, the insects, the greenery, the winds along the surface, carrying with them the natural flow of life. All of these natural elements are surely, and sorely, to suffer, with the current state of development with its gospel of urban density that has come to plague our blessed river. Therefore, to the authority, we deliver our demands as follows: We demand these structures be razed, without polluting the surround environment, and rebuilt with ceilings no higher than one and a half stories. And if this is not within the means of the authority to execute, then we demand the artists of our community be commissioned to decorate the exterior walls of this development with murals illustrating the peoples' history of our beloved river...

Gemini Ink Writing Lab - Week #1 - The Classroom

Engaging the Active Imagination: Writing as Activism

Writing prompt

• Write the vision that comes to mind for your ideal classroom

Entry:

We blame the teachers. We blame the parents. We blame the students. We blame the unions. We blame the principals. We blame until there's no one left to blame. Cancel the art classes. Cancel the music funding. Cancel the field trips. Drive the career. Drive the examinations. Drive the promise of debt. Horde as many young people as we can into the confines of social isolation so that they feel they can't connect with anyone. This is what we've done. How many years of dropouts by the multitude before we admit what we've created isn't working, where kids are sent off and packed in and shuffled about and tracked like heads of cattle in what is shaped like prison? And now with this knowing, this knowledge, of our faults, what can we do to heal? To heal the community? What will it take to place the education in the hands of the community? But I can only speak from a distance, for all I know comes from being raised in the church. And even then, the doctrine and dogma of the clergy leaves many feeling jaded with the notion of "faith", turning into Catholic school burnouts. But the nurturing, oh, how the nurturing is there (present).

2016 - New Year Revival

All:

How does the new year find you? Many new beginnings arriving, fumbling the transitions, though remaining ever-hopeful and exercising self-compassion. The celebration of the arrival of the new year is not the ending of seasons but rather a ritual of beginnings. Nothing ever ends; instead, the old energy takes on new forms. God's glory moves from unmarked box to unmarked box, says persian mystic Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi, as rainwater, down into flowerbed, as roses up from ground. So don't grieve for what appears to come to a close. As much as we are seeking, we are also arriving. And so, here, we've arrived.

I will dedicate the following entries to my writing lab with Gemini Ink - Engaging the Active Imagination: Writing as Activism. The laboratory differs from a typical workshop format: any achievements the participants may have are purely their own (as they very well should be). However, the lab does serve a purpose: engaging participants to explore the depth of their imagination, expand the breadth of their creative capacity, and discover self-expression through writing and class discussion.

I thank you all for continuing to follow these efforts. I will be posting the writing prompt with my entry for the current lab topic. I don't know what may come of these writings; the writing itself must continue, must move from the written page to who knows where? So be on the lookout in the coming weeks. Until then.

Essay on Chicano Culture featured in The Curve Report (NBC Universal)

Earlier this year I participated in a focus group organized by Culture-Co-Op. The results of our conversations led to a commissioned essay for NBC Universal's The Curve Report. Words are as follows:

“¡VIVA LA RAZA! ¡HUELGA! ¡VIVA LA CAUSA!”

By Rene Jaime Gonzalez (as mentioned above in Texas or Bust)

These were the cries heard on the front lines of the student walkouts at Edgewood and Sydney Lanier High Schools in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1960s and ’70s; in the impassioned calls to action from speakers at neighborhood park podiums addressing crowds gathered at political rallies; in the righteous slogans written on picket signs carried by farmworkers in their pilgrimage march toward the capitol. Residing deep in the heart of what was once the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, Chicano culture in San Antonio has a uniquely urban story to tell.

The genesis of the Chicano movement—an amalgam of working people and middle-class Mexican American students, educators, and community organizers—was founded on principles of reform and revolution in education, politics, and civil rights with the commitment to maintain and strengthen community ties. The seeds of my involvement in Chicano culture started with my parents’ participation in the Chicano movement on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin in the 1970s. In my childhood household on Sunday mornings, the sounds that I heard coming through the kitchen stereo speakers were the canciónes rancheras (ranch songs) and corridos (folk ballads) sung by the prolific Mexican recording artists Pedro Infante and Cuco Sánchez. I dusted off old books and read the poesía (poetry) of Alurista and other literary works focused on the folklore of the mythical region of Aztlán.

In my parents’ day, social movements like the Chicano uprising had to kick down the door of the house of mainstream society for inclusion and fight for any scrap of recognition. Now, with rights won and a new generation moving toward the front lines, we find ourselves rearranging the furniture. Many of the hard-fought demands driving la causa (the cause) were eventually won and institutionalized, but Chicanos gained much more than representation within the system: they redefined their own ethnic identity through artistic innovation and academic self-expression, solidifying a cultural legacy with a foundation of rediscovered historical roots.

When I was growing up in San Antonio, this innovation and expression manifested itself in the four elements of hip-hop culture: B-boys, DJs, graffiti artists, and MCs. By the time I graduated from high school, I had immersed myself in the local B-boy scene, grounded by my identity as a Chicano and battling along with my crew at regional competitions and hip-hop conventions. Spinning all-vinyl funk, soul, and hip-hop records, I’ve also shared the stage with the venerable MC and DJ Marco Cervantes, Ph.D., an assistant professor of bicultural and bilingual studies in the Mexican American Studies Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Outside of the classroom, he performs under the alias Mexican Stepgrandfather with the hip-hop collaborative Third Root, mixing classic Mexican song with new hip-hop and rap. His message is the unification of the cultural crossroads between black and brown (or the “Afro-Mestizo connection”) and the empowerment of disadvantaged youth—an innovation of cultural expression at its finest.

Whether I’m catching wreck on the nightclub dance floor as a B-boy, hosting a writing workshop at a local literary center, or participating in the democratic process at municipal public hearings, the Chicano spirit runs through the lifeblood of my 21st-century community at large. As they have since its inception, activism and community continue to stand as the backbone—the heart and soul—of our contemporary Chicano culture here in San Anto.

Full essay text

Special thanks to Tessa Love, Mai Perches, Bayla Metzger

Community Poem #1 - Brick Bar

Community poem guidelines:

• One line created by one member of the community
• The next writer may not see the previous writer's line, use a cover-up card
• Intended for genuine, original thought
• Improvisation encouraged

Once poem is completed:

• compile lines and revise accordingly for flow and feeling
• create your own line breaks for effect and form
• keep intact the original spirit of community interaction
• refrain from making any additions other than suitable/substitutable prepositions

The following community poem was created at Brick bar in the Blue Star Arts complex:

Community Poem #1

In the resting of nests,
the great white heron bathes
in the waves
of the mallard's call

of pitter-pattered maelstroms,
turn-arounds and right wrongs,

and when the night owl's
tempered sugar skull
begins to rot,
confusion rides like a circle round.

Pick up the telphone
when the actor
from across the aisle
dials your number,

because lively dreams are not at night,

in the meantime
a wrench can fix things.

One-two-three, two-two-three, three-three-three,
we danced by the dim light
of candled chandeliers.

Hays Street Bridge Story Rap (Under Construction)

Now here's a little story that must be told,
about the Hays Street Bridge that was put on hold
by the monied, the cultured, and the powers that be,
another tragic tale of development versus community...

Signpost on Home of Frank Toudouze Before Demoliton (Found Poem)

THIS HAS BEEN

OUR HOME FOR

50 YEARS,

IT'S NOT FOR SALE.

WE CAN NOT SEE

WHY WE SHOULD BE

FORCED TO SELL JUST

TO SATISFY A HAND

FULL OF SO CALLED

BIG SHOTS. SO IF

URBAN RENEWAL

HAS THE POWER

TO CONDEMN OUR

HOME, MAY WE

SPEND OUR NEXT

CHRISTMAS IN A

TENT.