{"id":104,"date":"2009-11-04T23:42:06","date_gmt":"2009-11-05T03:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/?p=104"},"modified":"2009-11-04T23:42:06","modified_gmt":"2009-11-05T03:42:06","slug":"i-am-always-eating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/?p=104","title":{"rendered":"I AM ALWAYS EATING"},"content":{"rendered":"
I AM ALWAYS EATING<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I am eating my lunch.\u00a0 Seems like I am always eating.\u00a0 I am hungry when I get to work and I\u2019m hungry when I get home from work and I\u2019m hungry when I go to bed, and when I wake up.\u00a0 It\u2019s not as bad as it sounds, I don\u2019t always eat when I\u2019m hungry, and I\u2019m only ten, okay fifteen pounds overweight, but if you imagine a bowling ball in my tummy, the rest of me looks kind of good\u2014I\u2019m not a kid anymore as the saying goes, though the new sixty is the old what?\u00a0 Twenty?\u00a0Okay thirty. \u00a0Okay, sometimes I eat when I\u2019m not hungry.\u00a0 And, no, I don\u2019t eat what I should, I eat what I want.\u00a0 I like comfort food.\u00a0 And I like food that reminds me of childhood, which is interesting because we were poor\u2014need I say more.\u00a0 Okay, our neighbor worked for Wonder Bread so we had our fill of Hostess Cupcakes and Twinkies.\u00a0 Forget the Snowballs, none of us, my four siblings and I, liked coconut!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nWhere is this leading?\u00a0 To storytelling.\u00a0 Recently my friend Lori and I taught a storytelling\/writing workshop.\u00a0 We used various prompts to encourage the participants to write about women in their lives:\u00a0 mothers, grandmothers, sisters, friends, mentors!\u00a0 One of the storytelling prompts was food.\u00a0 Who would have guessed that food would be the specialty of the day.\u00a0 The hot lunch provided us provided all the sensory sensations we needed to get started:\u00a0 taste, smell, sight, touch, sound!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We started by listing the foods we grew up with.\u00a0 Amazing.\u00a0 Naming.\u00a0 What do the foods we listed tell us about who we are, about our families, about our race, our class, etc., etc.?\u00a0 And yet, don’t try to assume who we are by the food we ate. We\u00a0may have eaten Jell-O, but\u00a0we may also have eaten drunken string bean chop suey!\u00a0 Here\u2019s my shout out:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Food Shout Out<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Drunken string bean chop suey<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nankin Special Chow Mein<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

White<\/span><\/span> Castle Hamburgers<\/p>\n

Scrambled Hamburger<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

White rice<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hostess Cupcakes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell<\/span><\/span> Chicken Noodle Soup<\/p>\n

Gingerbread<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Swiss Steak<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Goulash<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Egg Fou Yung<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jell-O<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Gov\u2019t canned meat, powdered milk, and cheese<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Salvation Army turkey at Thanksgiving<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Have some fun, write your own list.\u00a0 Have your friends write a list.\u00a0 Pick something on the list and write a story about it.\u00a0 See where that story meanders.\u00a0 Discover a deeper meaning of White Castle Hamburgers!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And, to end where I should have started, I include here as reference, my intro to the hour presentation the participants and co-teacher guides gave, sharing\u00a0our stories.\u00a0 Food being one of them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Also, check out these food Web sites.\u00a0 They\u2019re not just about food.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nhttp:\/\/fairychef.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/tanglednoodle.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.lakitchenchicana.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to thank the UWOC council for inviting Lori and I to participate in today\u2019s annual Fall Welcome and I would like to thank the women who participated in the workshop.\u00a0 Lori and I met in a writing class in 1996, the year I graduated from the University of Minnesota\u2019s MFA program.\u00a0 I had never taught a class before, but Carolyn Holbrook gave me permission, and I taught my first class in a neighborhood coffee house.\u00a0 Lori and I lost touch, but later reconnected at the first ever teleconference for Women in Education, organized by Dr. Nancy Barcelo.\u00a0 Since, Lori and I have collaborated on a performance, Chinese Black White Women Got the Beat<\/em> which we performed at several venues, including a reading sponsored by UWOC.\u00a0 And we have <\/span><\/span>been co-teaching interdisciplinary writing workshops for women of color.\u00a0 Our workshops balance critical thinking and creative writing with in-person and online discussions.\u00a0 Storytelling is the backbone of the workshop process as each participant recognizes the truth and substance of her stories, as well as the stories of other colorful women.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We examine the words\/the lives of writers who have paved the way–wise women who have sorted through the muck, survived the muck, and risen above it:\u00a0 Toni Morrison, Nikki Finney, Shay Youngblood, Ed\u00e9n Torres, Cherr\u00ede Moraga, Gloria Anzuld\u00faa, Wang Ping, Linda Hogan, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, Leslie Marmon Silko, Toi Derricotte, Joy Harjo, Evelina Galang, Michelle Cliff, Sandra Cisneros, and many others. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Our workshops incorporate a holistic mapping process, written and visual.\u00a0 We embrace our stories in all of their complexity in order to understand and challenge social or cultural obstacles to living healthy and productive lives.\u00a0 We look in a mirror and see beauty, strength, wit, and wisdom.\u00a0 We look at each other and see the same. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Storytelling.\u00a0 It\u2019s monkey mind.\u00a0 It\u2019s conversation.\u00a0 It\u2019s crafting our lives by crafting our words.\u00a0 It\u2019s claiming the past and imagining the future with no rules of craft or politics except<\/span> the ones we, individually, choose, the ones that work for us.\u00a0 Stories that save our lives enter the world like angels flapping their wings, creating music, something like jazz.\u00a0 Someone will be listening.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The goal of our workshops is to break silence and invisibility by reading, writing, contemplating, and conversing; and, to imagine a future by breaking through barriers that have shut us out and shut us up.\u00a0 Participants look within and without–and shout out, bringing their stories of survival and growth to others.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The UWOC storytelling workshop focused on the colorful women in the lives of the participants.\u00a0 Lori and I did our best to condense our usual 3-4 day\/ 4-6 hour sessions into a one day, six hour session.\u00a0 Lori will tell you how that process worked.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I AM ALWAYS EATING \u00a0 \u00a0 I am eating my lunch.\u00a0 Seems like I am always eating.\u00a0 I am hungry when I get to work and I\u2019m hungry when I get home from work and I\u2019m hungry when I go to bed, and when I wake up.\u00a0 It\u2019s not as …<\/p>\n

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