Literature Corner Blog

July 23 Weekly Book Chat Update: Notes / Readings on Returning Home

Following last week's discussion of Orientalism, we're shifting our focus to the idea of homeland — as culture, as concept, as a real or imagined place. In an era where xenophobia and racism reign and mass consumption has reduced “culture” to a corporate buzzword, the question we want to focus on this week is: what does a meaningful connection to homeland look like? “Here on the earth where bones are buried, the question remains: if the birds of history alight by a ritual of body…

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07/21/2020

July 16 Weekly Book Chat Update: Notes on “Orientalism”, Chapter I

Our first book for our Weekly Book Chats is Orientalism, by Edward Said. You can find the registration link for the Book Chats here: https://linktr.ee/1882Foundation under "Weekly Book Chat Registration" Why we chose this book: Said’s Orientalism paved the way for modern studies of colonialism. Using the term “Orientalism” to refer to depictions and fabrications of the “East” by Western colonial powers such as the late British empire, Said outlined a theory of cultural imperialism, arguing that Western depictions of “Eastern” culture were driven by a false…

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07/14/2020

1882 Internship / Literature Corner Blog / Programs

1882 At: The Premiere of “Be Water,” A Documentary About Bruce Lee

“Be Water,” a documentary that chronicles the personal and professional life of Bruce Lee, premiered on Sunday, June 7th. ESPN aired it for “30 for 30,” its 30th anniversary celebration highlighting notable sports happenings covered by the network. The documentary’s symbolic title takes its name from a line of Lee’s poetry: “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water… Be water, my friend.” Water’s fluid state enables it to penetrate barriers and take many shapes. Emulating water, Lee navigated a path into the film…

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06/27/2020

Literature Corner Blog

Literature Corner Blog: A Little Life

I first picked up A Little Life almost two years ago. The novel follows a group of four men in who originally meet in college into their middle-aged years, and their personal journeys in their respective fields to eventual success. Their friendship is affected greatly by the main character, Jude, who suffers from increasingly severe physical disabilities and has an extremely traumatic past that is slowly revealed to the readers throughout the piece. A Little Life is immensely powerful, and is one of the best novels I have…

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06/11/2020

1882 Internship / Literature Corner Blog

1882 At: Beatley Library’s Author Talk with Adrienne Berard

Beatley Library in Alexandria, Virginia hosted a discussion with Adrienne Berard, the author of Water Tossing Boulders. This book explains how a family of Chinese immigrants fought to desegregate schools in the Jim Crow South. Racism deeply influenced Southern policy during the Jim Crow era, a time period that spanned from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the 1950s civil rights movement. Many public places were segregated along a black/white binary, which Ms. Berard displayed in a photo slideshow at the beginning…

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06/10/2020

Literature Corner Blog

Paper Son

When I became aware of this novel, it became a “must-read” for me. It certainly met my first prerequisite for my reading tastes, i.e. it was an Asian American story. But I learned that the story is set in the Mississippi Delta region - the place where I was born and raised, the place that impacted my life so profoundly, the place for which I will always have strong and mixed feelings – and I knew I had to see what the book had to…

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09/27/2019