| Fresh on the heels of a new semester of teaching and the last year of my Master's program I lay in bed wondering why I felt so utterly unprepared. Perhaps it was the fact that I had a class to teach first thing in the morning and I didn't know what room I was assigned. I had no student roster or any discussion plan. To make matters worse my hair was a mess (and that is something Black women just cannot tolerate)! It had been resting peacefully in makeshift cornrows, hidden under hats and head wraps for the last couple of weeks and was beginning to matte. Sounds like a bad dream doesn't it? It wasn't. It was my reality only a few days ago. I lay there in bed on Sunday morning thinking how did I let my life get so out of control? Just the week before I dared complain that I was bored. I was used to being under the pressure of deadlines for my homework assignments and that the graded homework of my students. The summer had been slow and easy filled with pool side chatter, celebrity gossip and music videos. Now, I was back in the fray or moments from it and I had no idea what I was going to do. I pinned for the days of nothingness to return. In an effort to get back in the game I threw on some clothes and headed out to make things right. I went to the only two places that could help me: Office Depot and Sally Beauty Supply. It soon became very clear that I was not the only one frantically trying to make the transition from summer to fall. The aisles at Home Depot were filled with young people and parents doing a mock-scavenger hunt for all the supplies on their school-shopping lists. I managed to secure a pack of pens, a 3- subject notebook, and two folders. The beauty supply store was no better. I had to nuzzle between a pack of teenage girls who were fingering the hair extensions just to shop. Five bags of perm rollers, a wide handled small tooth comb and one final celebrity magazine later I was on my way home. After printing out my student roster, stocking up my book bag, and putting all five packages of hair rollers in my hair, I sat underneath the hair dryer and enjoyed a glass of wine and wrote out my discussion notes. I was ready. I arrived the first day of school in freshly cleaned clothes, equipped with all the necessary books, notes and rosters. Everyone complimented me on how polished and prepared I looked. Little did they know, I had only pulled myself out of the slump of summer barely 24 hours ago. I glided through the day looking as though I had been anticipating everything that came my way. As the long day came to an end I felt drained of all my energy and freshness. I dragged into my apartment grateful that the day was over. Just as I sat on the couch and prepared to zone out to Sex and the City I realized that I would have to do it all over again the next day. And the work would get harder; my teachers and students would begin to expect more and more from me. My charade would need to last for the next nine months. I am sorry I took my ratty cornrows for granted. Poolside margaritas and weekly updates on Bragelina, TomKat and the new nationally-viewed baby Suri will serve as reminders of a much simpler time when things were slow and hot. Why had I yearned for my hectic schedule in those days? Why couldn't I just love what I had when I had it? |
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| Campus-Community Connection |
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| Keme Hawkins |
| Pamela Pfeffer |
| Eric Pritchard, known by many as someone who is thought provoking, dedicated to humanity, and very conscious is this year's Joyce M. Melville Memorial Award recipient. He received this award because of his outstanding scholarly writing. His essay was titled, "If I could take all my parts with me: A Critical Narrative of Black Queer Literacies, Agency, History and Imagination." Joyce Melville was a significant contributor in modernizing post secondary writing at UW-Madison and was a strong advocate for student writers. Mr. Pritchard was born and raised in New York, the second of three male children and the first person in his family to graduate from college. In 2002, he graduated magna cum laude from Lincoln University with a degree in English. In 2004, he received his Master's in Afro-American Studies under the advisement of Craig Werner and the late Nellie McKay. He is currently working on his Ph.D. dissertation in the English Department's Composition and Rhetoric Program. While at Lincoln, he began organizing protest and demonstrations relevant to the African American struggle. This social consciousness followed as he moved to Madison and co-founded the Men of Color Institute. This institute is a support group and service-oriented think tank that became operationalized last fall, addressing issues as they relate to identity and social justice. The institute also works very consciously to support sisters of color on campus at UW. Their mission is to get people of color to take interest in their community, culture, and consciousness. In the spring of 2006, the institute won as the best new program at the Multicultural Student Center's Leadership Award Ceremony. Pritchard lists James Baldwin, Audre Lourde, Nellie Mckay, W.E.B. DuBois, and Ella Baker as his heroes and those he admired most because each risked being ostracized by their communities by being outspoken. They held the Black community to higher standards than what history has said we were or could ever hope to be. His commitment to social justice and the empowerment of all has been the feature for many channels that relate to Black studies, LGBT issues, and access to higher education. "People often want me to prioritize my identity or be silent," Pritchard said, adding that he won&'t do either. "The cost of silence equals the death of who you are as a person." |
| Summer Love Fall |
| Recognizing greatness 2006 Joyce M. Melville Memorial Awardee |
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| Homepage Sept. 6 Archives |
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