The Black Geishas - About Us Page

 Nǐ hǎo to all of you.  Welcome to our Black Geisha page.
On the left is Hissie.  On the right is Ana Lucia.  That's me - Arish - in the middle.
By reading our pages in CANVAS groups, we invite you to follow our journey through English 110.
 For us, Writing is Magic.  Writing is Power.  Writing is Freedom. 
Below are our student profiles as they appear in our class blogs:

	My name is Ana Lucia.  I’m from Bogota, Columbia.  I look forward to sharing with you this semester on my brand new  The Double Life  I like to read,  I like to write,  and  I like to cook, but with this blog, I hope to  stand up for important social issues regarding equality, immigration reform, and drug and alcohol abuse.  Look for me this semester to write about women’s rights. I’m excited to have a voice and a place to use it.  Count on me as your IVC Friend of the Earth.
My name is Hissie Chrynde.  These are my interests: Cooking without meat, Long bike rides, Spanish-language telenovelas, Antique typewriters.  I'm studying art on this campus.  I want to transfer to Hofstra University in New York.  I want to see the world.  This semester I'm writing a research paper about Frida Kahlo. She inspires me with her spirit and determination.  Very Cool!  Are you ready for my blog?  Whenever I get real down and depressed, I try to write down what I feel.  It's not a very complicated or sophisticated process. I just type and type and type until the sadness goes away. When I began to think of an appropriate title for a blog, I came up with "Stop Your Sobbing.""  I think it just might work.
	My name is Arish.  Actually, my real name is Sira – that’s Arish spelled backwards.  I was born in Spain, but my destiny led to me to  Morroco.  That’s my story. I grew up as Sira in peace time and ended up Arish when World War II broke out. Sira is my softer, youthful self.  Arish is my harder edge.  I need them both.  In my blog, I hope to share a diversity of experience and emotion.  I can’t write one without the other. In English 009, I’m basing my research paper on the film Girl, Interrupted.   The film is a true-to-life story about a young women who struggled with mental illness.  She was intelligent, compassionate, and pretty, but she had developed bipolar personality disorder. Her parents committed her to a mental hospital.  My goal is to be nurse some day.  I want to be there to help people in need.  There are a lot of people suffering out there.  We have to open our eyes. Be more understanding.

Remember: Black is Beautiful!
Con mucho carino,
Hissie, Arish, and Ana Lucia.

The Black Geishas - Homepage

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About Us Page - The Black Geishas

 Nǐ hǎo to all of you.  Welcome to our Black Geisha page. 
On the left is Hissie.  On the right is Ana Lucia.  That's me - Arish - in the middle.
By reading our pages in CANVAS groups, we invite you to follow our journey through English 110.
 For us, Writing is Magic.  Writing is Power.  Writing is Freedom. 
Below are our student profiles as they appear in our class blogs:

	My name is Ana Lucia.  I’m from Bogota, Columbia.  I look forward to sharing with you this semester on my brand new  The Double Life  I like to read,  I like to write,  and  I like to cook, but with this blog, I hope to  stand up for important social issues regarding equality, immigration reform, and drug and alcohol abuse.  Look for me this semester to write about women’s rights. I’m excited to have a voice and a place to use it.  Count on me as your IVC Friend of the Earth.
My name is Hissie Chrynde.  These are my interests: Cooking without meat, Long bike rides, Spanish-language telenovelas, Antique typewriters.  I'm studying art on this campus.  I want to transfer to Hofstra University in New York.  I want to see the world.  This semester I'm writing a research paper about Frida Kahlo. She inspires me with her spirit and determination.  Very Cool!  Are you ready for my blog?  Whenever I get real down and depressed, I try to write down what I feel.  It's not a very complicated or sophisticated process. I just type and type and type until the sadness goes away. When I began to think of an appropriate title for a blog, I came up with "Stop Your Sobbing.""  I think it just might work.
	My name is Arish.  Actually, my real name is Sira – that’s Arish spelled backwards.  I was born in Spain, but my destiny led to me to  Morroco.  That’s my story. I grew up as Sira in peace time and ended up Arish when World War II broke out. Sira is my softer, youthful self.  Arish is my harder edge.  I need them both.  In my blog, I hope to share a diversity of experience and emotion.  I can’t write one without the other. In English 009, I’m basing my research paper on the film Girl, Interrupted.   The film is a true-to-life story about a young women who struggled with mental illness.  She was intelligent, compassionate, and pretty, but she had developed bipolar personality disorder. Her parents committed her to a mental hospital.  My goal is to be nurse some day.  I want to be there to help people in need.  There are a lot of people suffering out there.  We have to open our eyes. Be more understanding.

Remember: Black is Beautiful!
Con mucho carino,
Hissie, Arish, and Ana Lucia.

Kiss Out of My Past

I think Stephen King said it: The best way to become a better writer is to become a better reader.  It makes sense. Stephen should know.   Mr. Lewenstein encourages us to read outside of class.  Here he has asked us to share a "Book Out of Our Past."


I love Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig, but not for why you think.  It’s one of those books teachers might tell you to stay away from.  In fact when it was first published it was banned from Argentina for its graphic sex and violence.  It’s about two men locked up together in a horrible Argentine prison.  One is a macho Marxist rebel leader, and the other is a flaming homosexual hairdresser.   They’re stuck together suffering the same  in humane  punishment,  eating the same gruel.   Obviously they are so different in stature and attitude,  and you would think that if they don’t learn to love one another, they’ll kill each other.  

I probably read this to escape from my own misery.   All my life, it seems that  I’ve been bedstricken by one disease or injury after another.  I look to reading as an escape from my loneliness, and  when I’m at my lowest, reading startles my mind and churns my heart.   It makes me forget about myself and look beyond my problems – that’s what I looked forward to in reading “Kiss” even if the story looks really nasty.

But , like I said, it isn’t really like that.  In fact, it’s nothing like I ever expected.  These guys in their prison cell, as troubled as they are,  give each other something that goes well beyond their immediate needs and problems.    They give each other something to think and dream about that propels them far beyond the dank cell walls.  Molina, the hairdresser, spends most of the movie relating a his favorite movie, scene-by-scene, to Valentin, the rebel.   I mean, it’s the only thing they have in that cell.  At first, Valentin wants no part of it -  the movie is dark and strange, and according to him, pretty stupid, but  as Kiss of the Spider Woman advances, so does Molina’s storytelling and  so does Valentin’s involvement.

There’s little sex  here.  Maybe a little.  But the intimacy that develops is in the minds and hearts of these two men.  Molina teaches Valentin two things that he can’t rebel against – hope and imagination.  Valentin has lived his whole life distrusting his world, and it’s Molina who teaches him to finally let go.I like books that may be a challenge  to follow.  Here, the main characters remain in place, but their stories are allowed to ramble.   Sometimes, you just don’t know where you are or where the book is going, but why would you read a book if you knew what was going to happen in advance?  How interested could you be if your understood everything?

My favorite part in this book comes in the end.  Molina is dead, and Valentin’s time is coming.  In his last days, he’s still in prison and  they are torturing him unmercifully. In probably the most confusing chapter you’ll ever read, Valentin somehow escapes and ends up on a desert island with the Spider Woman.  You don’t know if it’s a matter of pain, drugs, or pure love, but Valentin finally opens up his heart and soul.

I can’t spoil the end for you, but from the ugliest of existence  comes the most wonderful beauty.  You just want to stop and hold your breath.  Who could ban a book like that?  What teacher would direct you away from it? I say take this “Kiss” and close the door. 

Chuy Blocks Out the Sun in "Let the Sun Shine In"

In English 61, we are reading Motorcycle on the Sea of Tranquility.  Mr. Lewenstein told us it's going to be good.  I believe him.  It's a novel about the sixties, but the subject matter seems to be something we can all care about. The first two chapters are intense.  If the rest of the book is like the first two chapters, this is going to be a crazy ride.  Below I write about the Real Surprise at Chuy's Big Surprise Party.

Everyone was so happy that Chuy was returning from Vietnam safe and in one piece, but all it took was one look at him to know that something was missing. The Sahagun family had planned a "Welcome Home" party for their favorite son, Chuy.  He had gone to fight in the Vietnam War.  The event is a big deal for everyone.  It's clear everyone loves Chuy.  They are all so happy to see him again. 

But, here is the surprise:  Chuy doesn't look too happy to be back.  Clearly something has happened to him, but no one knows what. When Chuy stepped through the door, the house was packed with people.  They were so excited for his return.  There was food and drink and a picture of La Virgen Guadalupe hung between the flags of The United States and Mexico. A white frosted cake was decorated with the words, "Welcome Home CHUY!" Everybody was so happy for Chuy's return.  They were singing "Let the sun shine in." But, the only one who wasn't happy was Chuy.  He had a "stern and disapproving" look on his face, like this was the last place he wanted to be. I believe no one there could possibly understand what Chuy had seen and done in the war.  Most of all, Chuy himself.  He wasn't the same guy anymore. Today we might mention PTSD in this discussion.  Soldiers coming home from war zones often bring long-lasting trauma with them.  Back then, however, I'm not sure how much we knew about PTSD.  I'm sure Chuy's family - especially Yoli - is going to find out a lot more about it as the novel continues.

"Only Daughter" - Nothing "Only" about Sandra

This was the first week of class.  Mr. Lewenstein shared one of his favorite authors.  Her name is Sandra Cisneros.  Mr. Lewenstein said she writes with an edge.  We all agree!  We worked in groups to respond to her essay "Only Daughter."  She writes about her life-long struggle to gain acceptance from her father.

Sandra’s childhood experience of being “the only daughter” proved to be a great training ground for a writing career. In fact, it was her feelings of isolation and abandonment from her fathers and brothers that pushed her towards reading and writing. When she grew older, her skill for transferring her plight to the page enabled her to enter UC Berkeley and later become on of our most renown Latino authors. Her “ House on Mango Street”, for example, reflects many of the same childhood frustrations she describes in her essay. One story after another boasts the voice of a poor young girl struggling to make sense of her loneliness. When she writes in “Only Daughter” that she values her mistreatment from being an only daughter, We believe her. She learned how to convert her pain and confusion into beautiful, meaningful stories. In my opinion, her anger is her juice.

My Parents Divorce: Living Life Under Water

To begin the semester, we read a "Tuff Stuff" story about a young girl bullied and abused by her first boyfriend.  Mr. Lewenstein asked us to think about the causes and effects associated with this type of experience.  We all thought back to a challenge in our lives that we had to confront. The following is part of my own personal "Tuff-Stuff" essay. 

      The sudden news of my parents divorce shocked and confused me . I just didn't see it coming.  They never really argued or fought in front of us.  I thought we were one big, happy family.  I didn't know how to handle it.  Nothing in my life had prepared me for the deciding which parent to live with.  Everything I thought I knew turned out to be a lie.  For weeks, none of my brothers or sisters would even talk about it.  I mean, the more we thought about it, the more distant we became.  I remember eating dinner together like we always did, but no one would say a thing.  We ate in total silence.  It's like our house was underwater.  A sadness just drowned us out. When I look back now, I realize I must have been very naive to think I lived in the perfect family.  Statistics say 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce. But, that doesn't make me feel any better.