2nd Panel-- "Who Are You?"

First Presentation-- ZuZu Federer "The Living Museum Piece". ZuZu's creative non-fiction essay dealt with the story of a Pygmy from Africa's capture and display at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. Listening to Otebenga's journey to America, and the terrible misreading of Darwin's theory of evolution by social-Darwinism (justifications for white supremacy arguments). Otebenga was placed in a cage with Orangutans on display for the general public. Some creationist Christian groups became angered by the move; not because of the entrapment of a human being, but for the juxtaposition of what they believed was a presentation of Otebenga as the "missing link". Eventually, after being freed, he lived in America for a while and eventually committed suicide. Zuzu's research was extremely well founded and presented in an interesting and accessible manner. This piece was a great balance between fact and feeling and really depicts the power of cnf to convey facts.

Second Presentation-- Poetry. The poetry she presented was very Western and it really dealt with issues that arise for the western rodeo woman; the poems were very autobiographical. My favorite line about drunken sexual relations in the West- "He said he thought he talked to me Wednesdy night and he asked if he was a gentleman".

Third Presentation-- Story about presenters father from the first person. Before the piece she acknowledged how this story is important for her to understanding of the story. For me, this is a very interesting move in confronting the classic "how is this writing about you" question. For the listener this move really sets up the reader as vulnerable and makes the story seem much more "real". This story ends up revolving around the characters conflict of faith with the Jehovah Witnesses. This is an interesting memoiresque piece that puts the author in the voice of her father. Q&A- Someone asked a really interesting question if she has shared the piece with her father. This brings up really interesting ethics questions about writing about others, especially in this potentially inflammatory context.

Fourth Presentation-- Twilight Chaos...