Respondent: Allison Amaya

Recorder: Karen Solsaa

"Failure of an Invention"

By Safiya Henderson-Holmes

Unsettling America, page 60

Safiya Henderson-Holmes was born in 1950. She is currently on leave as a professor at Syracuse University in the Creative Writing Department. In 1990, she won the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award for her first book of poetry, Madness and a Bit of Hope. Her short story, Snapshots of Grace, was featured in Terry McMillan’s Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Fiction. She also wrote the play, Testimony, which was featured at the Henry Street Theater in New York City.

3c. African American alternative narrative: "The Dream"

The setbacks encountered by African Americans striving for the American Dream

4b. The dilemma minorities face of whether they should assimilate or resist the dominant culture.

5a. The use of poetry to allow others to hear the minority voice and share the minority experience

Interpretation:

The author portrays a vivid depiction of what an African American faces in society. The title, Failure of an Invention, expresses the loss of accomplishing something great. Safiya Henderson-Holmes continues to convey the hardships faced by African Americans with the honesty of her words. She is struggling with assimilating into a culture that is incessantly resisting her. She has been wounded time after time trying to be someone she is not.

She begins abruptly by saying

i am not any of the faces

you have put on me America

every mask has slipped

She is no longer living with the façade that she has had to wear for society. She is becoming her own person and will no longer tolerate the discrimination. She has tried living the lie that many minorities have to live by creating an image that is accepted and welcomed. She has gone to great links to be accepted. She presents an image of trying to change her appearance to be acknowledged and accepted in a society that refuses to do so. She expresses great pain in the loss of approval.

begging entrance through

the needle of your eye

some of me broken

in the squeeze

In trying to become someone she is not, she has been profoundly wounded. She can no longer bear the pain of discrimination. The poem communicates such brokenness and despair. Safiya Henderson-Holmes was raised during the civil rights movement. She was placed on the front lines of discrimination. She was just a child trying to understand a society that did not welcome her. Even though there was not information of where she was born, she was probably a child faced with the issue of integration of schools. Based on this poem, one could only imagine the heartache and frustration she dealt with as a child during a time of hate and continues to deal with as an adult.

The discussion began with individuals relating the poem to themselves. Some related to the poem as parents, as a child, and also minorities. A student noted that the entire poem is written in lower case letters possibly representing a hushed tone even though the poem is not. Students also discussed the issue of the narrow mindedness or path that minorities face. Passages from the Bible were also discussed as relating to the words used by the poet as examples of allusions. (Such as Matthew 19:24, speaking about a camel entering the eye of a needle and Matthew 7:1-5, speaking about judging others before judging yourself.). Students also discussed how minorities carry the burden, pain and frustration of their whole race.