after tupac and foster d. jacqueline woodson (265)

after reading brown girl dreaming, i was looking up jacqueline woodson's other works online and came across after tupac and foster d.  since i had seen a tupac exhibit at the grammy museum in february, i decided to check out this book.

the novel centered around the narrator and her best friend neeka's life and their friend d foster that entered their lives for a moment.  the narrator and neeka's parents are protective and do not allow the girls to leave the block so part of d's appeal was that she could travel on our own and around the city.  however, the girls learned that her life is not that idealistic.  due to her mother being unfit to take care of her, d had been in and out of foster care.  her foster mother at the time took good care of her but she shared stories with the girls of starving.  due to her experiences, d identified with tupac.  all the three girls love him but for d, his songs were about her life.  

i hate to admit this but i only recently saw for myself how tupac's work was pretty high brow considering he was a rapper. i mean he had a song about van gogh!  and i know that there are college courses based on his songs and poetry, but i never look into his work like i should.  this novel and the grammy exhibit reminded me that his writing is an important part of sharing the black experience of the nineties.  it is important that the history of others is told and i am glad that woodson lets young adults know that music can be a means of self discovery and expression.  i think about how much music was important for me in high school, how i would listen to songs that seemed to understand me.  it's important for kids to know that they have this outlet.

though i have to admit i am disappointed that tupac did serve time for sexual asault. the novel does address it but played up the fact that tupac only touched some girl's butt and that the judge was bias. i googled to look up what happen but i mean no one will really know. and as a feminist, i believe we can't blame the victim or try to slut shame her.

the thing that i liked most about this work was that one of neeka's brother, tash, was gay. they did call him sissy which i found as tat offensive but perhaps it was trying to be authentic. i mean woodson did use queen which i didn't bat at eye at but which i use.  i think it was great to see a strong gay character in this book.  granted he was incarcerated (though it wasn't his fault and he was released early because it was finally realized that he was not involved with the assault and robbery), his message was about being yourself and not trying to act like a thug and ending up in jail.  also tash was gay and proud and i was happy to read about it.

all in all, a great novel for young adults.  it demonstrated that not everyone and their experiences are the same but what is important are the connections that you make.

brown girl dreaming. jacqueline woodson. (260)

i checked out jacqueline woodson's brown girl dreaming after i read that it won the national book award for young people's literature.  i remember seeing articles about someone making an offensive joke at the awards ceremony but regardless was still excited for

it's win and couldn't wait to read it.

this book was truly amazing.  it is a collection of poems which made me weary, because i am not good with poetry. however, it was free verse and read more like prose then poetry.  as a whole, the poems are a memoir, sharing woodson's life growing up in both the north and south during the civil rights era.  the poems also share woodson's childhood dream of becomig a writer.

i initially considered getting this book as a gift for my friend tiffany but figured i should read a book first before i gift it.  i really wish i had just given it to her.  the beginning of the book reminded me of her parents.  her father grew up in the south and her mother in california and just like jacqueline's parents, their experiences with discrimation and racism in america differed.  papa gibson is always telling us stories about how it was in the south and mama gibson shares how she never experienced any of that.  woodson's father's family in the north lived in a very different america then her mother's family in the south. it was inspiring to see how woodson's family from the north had a long string of professionals in their family which fueled a desire for success for the younger generations.  yet at the same time it was frustrating to see her mother's family still suffering from discrimination due to jim crow laws. 

brown girl dreaming is more then just a memoir because through her poems woodson tells a part of america's history that normally goes untold or unstudied.  her poems covered the meetings held by marchers, the training necessary for lunch counter sit-ins, the rise of the black panther movement, choosing to wear one's hair natural, there was even a poem about angela davis.  woodson gave voice to the black experience in america. 

her poems also shared woodson's personal history, her time as a baby in ohio, then in the south when her parents divorce and finally in new york.  due to this i connected to the poems personally. since woodson was raised by her grandparents in the south, i related to the poems about them.  some of her poems reminded me of my grandma bea and grandpa jimmy.  "the blanket" woodson shared how when her mom first left for new york, they were not sad because:

. . . the weight 

of our grandparents' love like a blanket

with us beneath it

safe and warm.

though my mother was a single mom, i never felt at a disadvantage because my grandparents' love was greater than i would have had from my father.

"two gods, two worlds" reminded me of my grandpa jimmy.  he was a muslim and i was raised mormon.  as i have shared before, i didn't understand why we would be separated in heaven simply because of our faiths shouldn't our love for each other be more important?  in this poem, woodson who is jehovah wondered what will happen to her grandfather based in lessons she learned about armageddon.  the poem ended with

but i want the world where my daddy is

and don't know why

anybody's God would make me

have to choose.

"bubble-gum cigarettes"

this is exactly how i felt when i realized that my grandfather and i could never be sealed together as the lds church believes is the way for families to stay together in heaven.  i couldn't believe god could be so heartless in dividing up families when we have no choice in who we are sent to and then develop love for each other only to be split up in heaven based on faith.

and since jill was technically my grandpa's favorite all of the poems woodson shared about her grandpa reminded me of my sister and my grandpa.  

the other poems i enjoyed were:

"south carolina at war" in which her grandfather explained to woodson and her siblings why the protesting was going on in the south.  it closes with 

Because you're colored, my grandfather says.

And just as good and bright and beautiful and free as anybody.

and nobody colored in the South is stopping,

my grandfather says,

until everybody knows what's true.

"ghosts" which shared how "whites only" signs were painted over in greenvills except for the bathrooms when a lot of paint wasn't used so the words were "like a ghost standing in front still keeping you out."

"lessons" about how woodson's mom never learned to cook because instead of learning, she wanted to play outside like the boys.  mama realized it wasn't fair that the boys played while the girls were inside, a step forward for feminism though a step back for mom (because know she doesn't know how to cook.)

"stevie and me" in which at the library, woodson discovered stevie which featured characters that looked like her.  she shared:

I'd never believed 

that someone who looked like me

could be in the pages of the book

that someone who looked like me

had a story.

"learning from langston" in which woodson demonstrated how she mimicked hughes' poems to learn how to write.

"music" which shared how woodson's mom didn't let them listen to songs that had the word funk, so they listened to white radio stations.

how too listen #8 

do you remember . . .?

someone's always asking

and someone else, always does.

"the revolution" which likens the revolution to a merry-go-round.

"every wish, one dream" in which woodson wishes on everything to be a writer. (which we all know comes true!)

reading this book was a wonderful experience and i learned so much from it, i can only imagine what young adults will gain.  i highly recommend this book and hope you enjoy it as i much as i did.