LITR 5731: Seminar in American Multicultural Literature (Immigrant)

 Student Poetry Presentation summer 2006

Thursday, 8 June 2006

Poetry reader: Phil Thrash

Poem: Chrystos, “I Have Not Signed a Treaty with the United States Government,” UA 304

I.  PRESENTATION STRUCTURE:

Poem Reading + Poem Visualization (Simultaneously),

Thought Period, Responses, Discussion.

 

II. OPENING QUESTION:

Q:   Why do you think Professor White included Minority Literature in this Immigrant Literature course if Minorities are not Immigrants?

A:

 

 

III. POEM READING + VISUALIZATION:

1.    LISTEN.  Many/Most Indian/Native American Stories were verbal.

2.     SEE.       Visualize the poem’s structure.

3.     THINK.    Get an initial “take.”   

 

                 I Have Not Signed a Treaty
                 with the United States Government

                                                                  ESPECIALLY FOR CELESTE GEORGE

             nor  has   my  father  nor  his father

             nor  any   grandmother

             We  don’t  recognize  these  names  on  old  sorry  paper

              Therefore  we  declare  the  United States  a   crazy  person

                 nightmare     lousy food      ugly clothes      bad meat

                   nobody  we  know

              No  one  wants to  go there      This US  is  theory      illusion

             terrible  ceremony        The  United  States  can’t  dance  can’t  cook

                  has  no  children  no  elders     no  relatives

             They  build  funny  houses  no  one  lives  in   but  papers

             Everything  the  Unites  States  does  to  everybody   is  bad

   No  this  US  is  not  a  good  idea       We declare  you  terminated

      You’ve  had  your  fun   now  go  home  we’re  tired   We  signed

no treaty   WHAT  are  you  still doing here  Go somewhere  else and

      build  a  McDonald’s   We’re  going  to  tear  all  this  ugly  mess

       down  now      We  revoke  your  immigration  papers

       your   assimilation  soap  suds     your  stories  are  no  good

        your  colors  hurt  our  feet      our  eyes   are  sore

         our  bellies  are  tied  in  sour   knots      Go  Away  Now

                We  don’t  know  you  from  anybody

      You  must  be  some  ghost  in  the  wrong  place     wrong  time

                Pack up your toys     garbage     lies

                 We     who  are  alive  now 

                   have   signed  no  treaties

           Burn  down  your  stuck  houses     you’re   sitting

            in  a  nowhere  gray  glow     Your   spell  is  dead

            Go  so  far  away  we won’t  remember  you  ever came  here

                        Take  these words  back  with  you                  Chrystos 

 

IV.  BRAINSTORM:

Each person responds one at a time with 2 – 4 words or a phrase to the poem.

2 Gate keepers record responses.

 

 

V.  CLASS DISCUSSION:

Discuss brainstorming + any other thoughts on this poem with in context of Course Objective 3: “Immigrants vs. Minorities, American Dream or Nightmare,” Similarities vs. Differences, exploitation vs. assimilation and assess/discuss Stages of Immigration possibly applicable:  Journey, Arrival, Shock, Exploitation, Assimilation, Maintenance of Ethnic Awareness/Identity vs. Modernization, and Color Code. 

 

Social Contract or Lack of Social Contract maybe especially pertinent re:  “TREATY.”  

 

 

 

PARTING SHOTS, THROWN SPEARS, RELEASED ARROWS!!!

 

  • **SUDOXE   =   EXODUS BACKWARDS :  Might have been one of CHRYSTOS’S intentions, send this message from the minority to the dominant culture of immigrants. 
  • The minority’s EXODUS / SUDOXE  was  FROM  their promised land TO a hell on earth.
  • Poem’s message (one perhaps) Whites, dominators,   DO A SUDOXE!!

                                                  FINIS