Mary E. Weems

Not in Our Name

Born out of anger and frustration with the Bush administration’s unilateral intervention in Iraq and the attendant mediated responses to such action that question the patriotism of peace activists and those who dare speak out against the draconian neoconservative agenda currently dominating American cultural politics, “Not in Our Name!” marks an ongoing conversation about and critical interrogation of the post-9/11 moment. Re/presented as a symbolic interactive messy performance text that crosses generations, races, and genders, the authors seek to police this crisis of global uncertainty and imagine radically free utopian spaces where the promise of progressive democratic values are not overrun by corrupt political ideologies masquerading under the guise of jingoistic patriotism, the “War on Terror” marketing slogan, and an “Us” versus “Them” mentality. The authors’ active words and voices of resistance and passion envision an end to this national nightmare and a dawning of a new day of hope.

Speak Truth and Shame the Devil: An Ethnodrama in Response to Racism in the Academy

This ethnodrama examines how two African American women experience racism in the academe. Both scholars examine the social/political context of racism in higher education and its manifestation in institutional practices. Both authors seek to “speak truth and shame the devil” by examining institutional responses to the racism they encounter in their courses. The authors conclude by sharing how educational leaders, particularly chairs, deans, and other academics can address racism institutionally.

Heartbeats: Exploring the Power of Qualitative Research Expressed As Autoethnographic Performance Texts

One of the ways to participate as change agents in the struggle toward a true participatory global democracy is constructing spaces in which to communicate across race, ethnicity, religion, class, and culture. This collaborative, auto/ethnographic performance text was started during a pre-conference workshop titled “Heartbeats: Writing Performance Texts,” I designed and facilitated with the help of my colleague Carolyne J. White. The purpose of the workshop was to encourage colleague participants from around the globe to construct spiritual and physical spaces for creating sacred, performance texts grounded in their lived experiences both as researchers and as socially conscious beings in the world; and to share them out loud in an ad hoc learning community environment. The environment was created in part, by transforming a traditional university meeting space into a space filled with cultural artifacts, photographs, music, and the voices of men and women gathered together for a brief period of time, in the hopes of encouraging the construction of more sessions like this in traditional university conference settings.

For Trayvon Martin

Continuing Laurel Richardson’s call to use writing as my method and specifically utilizing poetic inquiry, “For Trayvon Martin” represents my interpretation of this tragedy filtered through a lens shaped by an epistemology of color, the history of racism, and local and national news reports both in print and on-line, as well as informal conversations with a wide variety of family, friends, and colleagues. The work’s theoretical frame incorporates critical pedagogy, critical race theory, and imagination-intellect theory. This piece investigates the impact of racial profiling and a Stand your Ground law supposedly designed to protect Florida citizens who are instead falling victim to it.

Love, Peace, and Soooooul The Fire This Time Writers’ Group

The Fire This Time (TFTT), a Black writers’ collaboration which uses multiple genres of writing as our method is grounded in what Don Cornelius used to call Love, Peace, and Soul. Love, because our love for writing and the complexities and challenges of the Black experience, coupled with a passion for connecting with other Black scholars in ways that have the potential for making a difference in the world, is at the heart of this work. Peace, because through collaborative engagement with our experiences, we are reaching a deeper spiritual understanding of ourselves leading to a greater sense of inner peace, as well as how sharing our critical reflections, poems, and stories will help others make meaning out of the importance of peace in their own lives. Soul, because our souls bear witness to what it means to Black, and alive in a racist, sexist, homophobic society, from lenses informed by our race as well as our different genders, ages, and sexual orientations. This article will share the origin of TFTT, and excerpts we will construct from the larger body of work to give the reader a sense of what happens when Black scholars write to and with each other on a monthly basis.

Room 329: Silencing the Voices in the Cleveland School of the Arts

Rm. 329 chronicles an unexpected experience during a playwriting residency at a Cleveland, Ohio arts school. It’s an exemplar of what’s possible when student activists organize to protest against institutional racism and for education as the practice of freedom.

Finding Your Poem

In spite of the ongoing, periodic efforts by social justice advocates to ‘reform’ public education, public schools continue to grapple with issues pertinent to student success including the need for an increase in reading, writing and analytic abilities.

Don’t Be Afraid to Fly: Using Drama to Inspire Self-Esteem

Ten years ago I created the F.L.Y. (Finding Love in Yourself) Girl Workshop to help high school girls discover the power of their own beauty. Using my own life as an example, I realized that I spent many years of my youth looking for love in all the wrong places, including the wrong men, the wrong job and self-destructive behaviors, because I didn’t love myself.

Race Is *Not* an Additive

Continuing Laurel Richardson’s call to use writing as my method (1994, 2000) Race is ‘not’ an additive uses the African American woman author’s experience during a visit to a lynching memorial to frame a discussion about racism in the United States, including whether or not this country is post-racial since the election of President Barack Obama.

W: A Legacy of Shame

This autoethnographic text takes a critical look at the aftermath of the George W. Bush era from an African American female’s, lived experience perspective. It references three specific and unforgettable defining moments: No Child Left Behind, The War on Terror and Hurricane Katrina.