Today in class Latrice and Cristina came in. Howard arrived as they were leaving. We decided to cancel classes until Monday of next week. Students will respond to the following questions related to Evolution of a Revolutionary. I will be here if you need one-on-one consultation tomorrow. If I haven't seen you in over a week, please call me. I have not dropped you from the course, which means I expect you to complete it :-) with a passing grade, so I need to hear from you: Al, Jay, Samili, Zareth, Chantha.
We are planning a dinner party for all my classes next Thursday, NOv. 13, 6 p.m., at Delancey Street Restuarnt in San Francisco. However, we can have our final presentations over lunch at a near-by resturant for those who can't make the dinner party. Let me know. That would be fun.
Weeks of December 3-12, respond to 5 of the following questions in separate essays here. Each essay response should be about 250 words (at least three paragraphs with a clearly stated thesis). Please edit your essays before posting them. Use Evolution of a Revolutionary to support your claims with page numbers (MLA).
Oh, if there is something you'd rather comment on that I have not listed here, please send me an email with your recommendation and I can add it to the list.
Essay topics
1. Talk about the structure of the book and whether or not you think it works given Guy's purpose. Hint: read the preface. Use examples.
2. How does the author use her life to help tell Afeni's story? The two women seem so different: Guy is a new mother, Afeni's children are grown, one is dead; Guy had a good relationship with her parents; Afeni didn't; Afeni grew up poor; Guy did not. Yet, the two women are also the same. How does getting to know Afeni, help the author, Jasmine Guy, get to know herself?
2. Evolution of a Revolutionary is the story of a friendship. There are many examples of friendship given in the book, that between the two women and elsewhere. What is friendship as defined in the pages of Evolution of a Revolutionary?
3. How is Afeni a product and a victim of her environment both historically and presently?
4. Talk about how the similarities between Afeni and her son Tupac Guy are uncovered as she converses with her friend.
5. One of the themes in Evolution of a Revolutionary is family. Related to this are the themes: forgiveness and responsibility. Talk about the theme family and forgiveness, family and responsibilty. Do you think Afeni will ever be able to forgive herself? How is telling this story theraputic?
6. Evolution of a Revolutionary is also a story about self-love and acceptance. Talk about how the Black Panther Party allowed Afeni the space to be herself in all of her black majesty. Who was she prior to this transformation.
7. How does Afeni's name change reflect a new outlook? Who was she prior to this transformation? What remnants are left of the old self?
8. Choose a chapter or two and discuss what you liked, what worked and also what didn't work.
9. Guy is an eloquent writer; share a few passages spanning 3-5 chapters that you felt captured an idea beautifully and tell us why. Talk about Guy's writing style.
We are planning a dinner party for all my classes next Thursday, NOv. 13, 6 p.m., at Delancey Street Restuarnt in San Francisco. However, we can have our final presentations over lunch at a near-by resturant for those who can't make the dinner party. Let me know. That would be fun.
Weeks of December 3-12, respond to 5 of the following questions in separate essays here. Each essay response should be about 250 words (at least three paragraphs with a clearly stated thesis). Please edit your essays before posting them. Use Evolution of a Revolutionary to support your claims with page numbers (MLA).
Oh, if there is something you'd rather comment on that I have not listed here, please send me an email with your recommendation and I can add it to the list.
Essay topics
1. Talk about the structure of the book and whether or not you think it works given Guy's purpose. Hint: read the preface. Use examples.
2. How does the author use her life to help tell Afeni's story? The two women seem so different: Guy is a new mother, Afeni's children are grown, one is dead; Guy had a good relationship with her parents; Afeni didn't; Afeni grew up poor; Guy did not. Yet, the two women are also the same. How does getting to know Afeni, help the author, Jasmine Guy, get to know herself?
2. Evolution of a Revolutionary is the story of a friendship. There are many examples of friendship given in the book, that between the two women and elsewhere. What is friendship as defined in the pages of Evolution of a Revolutionary?
3. How is Afeni a product and a victim of her environment both historically and presently?
4. Talk about how the similarities between Afeni and her son Tupac Guy are uncovered as she converses with her friend.
5. One of the themes in Evolution of a Revolutionary is family. Related to this are the themes: forgiveness and responsibility. Talk about the theme family and forgiveness, family and responsibilty. Do you think Afeni will ever be able to forgive herself? How is telling this story theraputic?
6. Evolution of a Revolutionary is also a story about self-love and acceptance. Talk about how the Black Panther Party allowed Afeni the space to be herself in all of her black majesty. Who was she prior to this transformation.
7. How does Afeni's name change reflect a new outlook? Who was she prior to this transformation? What remnants are left of the old self?
8. Choose a chapter or two and discuss what you liked, what worked and also what didn't work.
9. Guy is an eloquent writer; share a few passages spanning 3-5 chapters that you felt captured an idea beautifully and tell us why. Talk about Guy's writing style.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 11:52 AM
3 Comments:
Latrice Collins-Lampkins
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
Talk about how the similarities between Afeni and her son Tupac Guy are uncovered as she converses with her friend
Tupac and his mother Afeni were very much alike. The similarities were easily detected after reading Jasmine Guys book Evolution of A Revolutionary and Eric Dysons book Holler If You Hear Me. Reading the books in succession was an excellent way to get compare and contrast mother and son.
Afeni said “her father was a small man, but unafraid. He was stubborn and arrogant” (Guy16) those personality traits were passed down to her from her father and she passed them on to her son. They both were very strong willed individuals that walked different paths in life together. Afeni attended the New York School of Performing Arts for a brief period of time before she dropped out. Afeni’s life didn’t follow the artistic path that her son chose to walk although Guy said “Afeni you have a soul of an artist (Guy 40). Ironically years later her son attended a performing arts school which unknowingly became the platform for his career.
Afeni’s quest for knowledge was insatiable. She loved to read, one of her favorite authors was Shakespeare. She said” I was totally fond of everything he wrote, not as an assignment”. Tupac loved Shakespeare just like his mother and he couldn’t understand people that didn’t. Jasmine says “I thought that Tupac got his affinity for Shakespeare from the Baltimore School of the arts but he got it from you” (Guy 42)
It was clear that both of them were articulate, smart, headstrong and sensitive people. Yet their lives were full of conflict. Afeni and Tupac fought with inner demons that stemmed from their childhoods. Afeni had resentment for her abusive father and the men that had betrayed her in her life. Tupac had resentment for his mother’s substance abuse and the absence of his father.
Afeni says:
That’s why I understand my son so much. As a girl, I just hurt. I spent so much time searching for the cause of what was wrong with me in my parents; I could see what was fucked up about them. My mama was week and sweet. My dad was mean and arrogant. We were black and poor in a place where that meant you weren’t shit and I wasn’t going down like that. So, I understand Tupac. He looked for reasons in me just like I looked for the answers in my parents.
Throughout the book you get the connection between the two of them. They were connected by blood and spirit. They had similar beliefs and convictions about life and how they it was playing out for them. Afeni wasn’t always present in Tupacs life, but she was his mama and in his eyes she was his black queen.
Latrice Collins-Lampkins
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
Choose a chapter or two and discuss what you liked, what worked and also what didn't work
Chapter six got to the meat and potatoes of what became Afeni’s breaking point. The chapters prior worked its way up to the downward slope of her crack addiction. Afeni had experienced an unhappy childhood, childhood delinquency the Panther movement, betrayal, Jail and the birth of her son all by the time she was 37.
When Afeni moved her family to Marin City, California to live with friends Asante and Cochise she lost her footing and so did Tupac. Asante was an alcoholic and mean, which made for an unfavorable environment.
Cochise introduced Afeni to his friend Hassan that was incarcerated in San Quentin. She visited him in prison often and he would beg her for sex. She declined until one day she gave in. She later found out the he had another woman that was visiting him in prison. She had been used and betrayed before but this time was different. Afeni got pregnant from that encounter. She says “This is the one thing I said I would never do. Fuck a man behind bars-and I did it, what happened after that was I hated myself”( Guy 140).
Afeni initially wasn’t able to get an abortion because she had fibroids and it wouldn’t be safe to perform the procedure, so she decided that she would take matters into her own hands. Afeni smoked crack for five weeks straight, something she had never done. She tried to kill the baby. Her pregnancy topped of with shame betrayal and self hated was the beginning of her crack addiction.
This chapter worked for me because it made me understand her lapse of strength feelings of despair and decision to give up. Afeni lost faith in herself. She had managed to survive her past filed with adversity, poverty and unhappiness but she had reached her breaking point.
The fact that Afeni never told this story to anyone before this book was written means that she had been carrying her secret around like extra baggage. Sharing her story may help someone else that has experienced a similar situation, which was Afeni’s objective for allowing the book to be written. I’m glad that she didn’t give up completely on herself. She fell down got back up and has been drug free for over nine years.
Latrice Collins-Lampkins
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
Talk about the structure of the book and whether or not you think it works given Guy's purpose. Hint: read the preface. Use examples
I loved this book. It was an easy read compared to Eric Dyson’s book. Jasmine Guy really wrote this book well. She detailed it in a way that made me visualize that I was sitting in her NY apartment listening to Afeni tell her story.
Afeni wanted to make sure that this book detailed her life in its truest form. She didn’t want it to be padded with rainbows and stars.
Afeni said:
I want to reach people that have big problems. People that look like they wont get through. I want to talk about how to get through the garbage just putting one foot in front of the other, I want to talk about how you can survive without destroying yourself”( Guy x).
Guy says in her preface “
Let me begin by saying my life has been empowered by the strength of black women. African American women are vulnerable. They hurt. They fear. Yet, they fight for freedom in their own personal ways. They create babies and they nurture them. They make love to their men and they love them. They laugh and sing and dance, they are not crybabies. So it is no wonder that once I knew the story of Afeni Shakur. I wanted her story told.
Guy was able to write this book so eloquently. She didn’t try to sugar coat Afeni’s dark secrets that may make one think “Why did she do that”? She wrote the book with a sister friend understanding. Guy was able to relay Afeni’s realistic outlook on life and her adamant explanations on what happened in her life even when Guy wanted to downplays the story with her interpretations.
Latrice Collins-Lampkins
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
Guy is an eloquent writer; share a few passages spanning 3-5 chapters that you felt captured an idea beautifully and tell us why. Talk about Guy's writing style.
Jasmine Guy’s added writing to her list of talents, which include acting and dancing. The details she used to narrate the book made it easy for me to place myself in the scene. To me a sign of a good author is when I can close my eyes and place myself in the story.
In chapter two Guy starts the chapter off by describing the way she feels, its almost like the beginning of a poem. She says “I never know if I reflect the New York gray or if it reflects me. It is gray today, misty and I am blue from all the gray” (Guy 27). She is a very descriptive writer, which isn’t the norm for non fiction books. It was important for Guy to use the detail that she did to tell Afeni’s story that was filled with so much emotion.
Their friendship must have been what made this book happen. Afeni the proud woman that she is trusted Guy to tell her story. She had to have known that her words would be written the way she wanted her message to be told. There were several instances in the book that Guy would chastise Afeni for putting herself down, but Afeni wasn’t accepting any sympathy, she made sure that Guy understood her message. Guy said: “I hate when Afeni puts herself down so completely, so unforgivingly. “(Guy 61)
Guy wrapped up Afeni’s strengths, weaknesses and bad choices into a book that I will read again. This book clearly details “the strength of African American women and their fight for freedom in their own personal ways” (Guy x). Afeni may have faltered several times but she kept getting back up. She is no longer addicted to drugs, monitoring her son’s legacy and most of all she is still standing.
Latrice Collins-Lampkins
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
One of the themesin Evolution of a Revolutionary is family. Related to this are the themes: forgiveness and responsibility. Talk about the theme family and forgiveness, family and responsibilty. Do you think Afeni will ever be able to forgive herself? How is telling this story theraputic?
The theme family and forgiveness is discussed a lot in the book Evolution of a Revolutionary by Jasmine Guy. Afeni Shakur’s life choices affected her family negatively in many ways. She speaks about her actions that hurt her children. It’s evident that she carries a deep sadness about her choices as she details them emotionally to Guy.
Family dynamics come in all shapes, sizes and conditions. Afeni’s family structure started of on shaky ground most likely due to the relationship she had with her parents. The instability that she experienced and the anger and resentment that she carried primarily for her father set the tone about how she felt about herself. She felt that her father didn’t give her the nurturing and guidance she needed growing up.
Afeni said:
Here I was this bright little girl who wanted so much for her father to find her special and wonderful, and he never did. I mean he probably gave me the best that he could give me but that had nothing to do with what I needed. I needed a father that was there.
I needed a father that was not a threat to my mom. (Guy19)
Afeni took the anger and rage that her father berated her mother with and carried it into her adult life. Afeni’s anger was very destructive. She said. “I paid dearly for being a bitch. I confused anger with strength and ran everybody off” (Guy 37).
History repeats itself in many ways. The foundation that you grow from can play a big part in the way that you perceive the way that things in life should be done. The Panther Party seemed to help Afeni find an outlet to channel her anger in a positive way, which helped her with the raising of her children in their younger years.
Unfortunately the abandonment and betrayal of the Panther Party brought back feelings from her past. Drug addiction became the major culprit of the dysfunction she caused for her family. They moved from place to place living with different people. Her kids saw her do things that they shouldn’t have, which caused them to be resentful and angry. History was repeating itself with her children.
Afeni said:
That’s why I understand my son so much. As a girl, I just hurt. I spent so much time searching for the cause of what was wrong with me in my parents; I could see what was fucked up about them. My mama was week and sweet. My dad was mean and arrogant. We were black and poor in a place where that meant you weren’t shit and I wasn’t going down like that. So, I understand Tupac. He looked for reasons in me just like I looked for the answers in my parents.
Afeni anguishes over the negative things that she did in her life, but she seems to take full responsibility for them. The way that she told her story to Guy is clear and concise. She wanted to make sure that Guy wrote the book truthfully, she didn’t want anything sugar coated. She knew that many things she had done were wrong and she couldn’t go back and change them. Her gut wrenching tears during the writing process showed the deepness of her pain. I don’t know if she will ever forgive herself, but I do feel that she has accepted responsibility. Writing the book had to be therapeutic for her. She let out many of her dark secrets with the hopes of possibility helping someone that may be carrying similar burdens.
The thing about family is they are all that you have, good or bad and you can’t change exchange your family. Tupac loved his mother and her daughter Sekyiwa loves her mother. They both had to fight demons that were passed down due to some of the negative things that happened in their childhood. I believe that Afeni may never forgive her self, but she will actively work to help others alleviate going through the hardships she has experienced.
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