I Write Therefore I am
I have been writing in notebooks ever since I was young. In elementary school I wrote stories about the adventures of characters I'd imagined after watching and reading X-Men, dreaming of a world where the impossible was possible. By the time I was a teenager, reality became captivating so I wrote about my own life, using the pages as a way to process the world around me, and to understand my changing self. What I hoped for; things I didn't understand; people I wanted relationship with. Slowly but surely, I became known for my love of writing in notebooks and people began to give them to me as gifts. As I received more and more I slowly built a mental specification for what the perfect notebook was to me: its smell; the thickness of the paper; the way it was bound.
Then, in 2016, at the age of 23, I moved to the US, alone, to enroll in my Ph.D., and I was bombarded with newness. New school culture, new social culture, new religious culture, new people and ways of communicating. While the rush of being somewhere new was thrilling, it was also overwhelming. I needed to process my new life, my mind needed space to write about the world I was encountering, the stories I would tell, the stories that were making me a different version of myself every day.
Prior to my departure from Edinburgh, Scotland, a friend of mine gave me a notepad at my leaving party, a beautiful gift that I knew would be so very useful during that moment in my life. A hard-backed notebook with playful illustrations of kids toys parading across a dining table. It was whimsical and special, and nothing like any I would typically choose, but for some reason it was the perfect notebook for me.
Months after receiving it, I finally opened it and began writing. I wrote and I wrote, everyday, about the things I saw, heard, and learned about this new world that no one from my prior 23 years of life was privy to. As Charlotte Brontë famously said: "I'm just going to write, because I cannot help it." Where I felt lost in translation with people from home and my new home, this notebook became a gift of belonging within myself. The art on the cover made me smile and remember how loved I was, as well as reminding me of the courageous creativity that can be unlocked when we put pen to paper.
This notebook became the place I learned what I loved about my new life; it reminded me that I contain multitudes and am allowed to evolve and grow. I learned that writing, art, whimsy and play, could be pathways to understanding, embracing, and even falling in love with the unfamiliar.
2016
Abena Boakyewa-Ansah, 28, History Ph.D. Candidate
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How Hamilton Restored My Belief In Writing
First, above all else, I consider myself a student of literature. Perhaps I’ve chosen this phrase to generalize my pursuits, or maybe to conceal the small place in the world of literature to which I belong. I am a writer, albeit fairly new to the Creative Writing side of things. My first encounter with serious creative writing was in the Fall of 2013, during a course for the subject. While this is not my focus today, it is important that you understand where my time as a writer began. <br /><br />In the Fall of 2017, after having worked on the same manuscript for the last four years, I lost the will to keep writing every day. That soon snowballed into every two weeks, and soon every six months. <br /><br />Then, something happened to further my pursuit of writing. October of 2016, I was visiting my cousin’s house and heard some kind of music coming from her bedroom. The song was about a woman making a toast to her sister, who was being married to the man that her sister secretly loved, as she soon after explained to me. It was a track called “Satisfied” from <em>Hamilton: An American Musical</em>. I found the idea of the musical odd, but listened to the song anyway. Later that weekend, I took it upon myself to listen to the whole musical. It tells the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton from childhood, to Treasurer and Secretary of the United States. Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the son of Puerto Rican immigrant parents, and a former English Teacher turned musical genius. A main theme of <em>Hamilton</em>, is all of the writing that Alexander Hamilton worked to complete, often writing several pieces of work in little time. He kept with it, and wound up as one of the greatest founding members of our country. But why does a musical about Alexander Hamilton and his work matter to me? Because <em>Hamilton</em> was the answer to my silent prayers for something to keep me writing. Fast forward to May of 2018, I still hadn’t written anything new since Fall of last year and was beginning to worry that my plans for the future weren’t as secure as I’d thought them to be. <br /><br />Then, they announced that tickets for <em>Hamilton: An American Musical</em> had gone on sale for the Utah tour date. My mother decided that we’d try to get some, and hours later on the day of the sale, we wound up with four tickets. The show was absolutely amazing. The music and sound all combined perfectly to create a beautiful performance. At the end of the show, we went to stage door and got our playbills signed by a few members of the cast. Later that night, as I stared at the signed bill, I understood something. Writing wasn’t about not having the time or being too busy, it was about filling the empty space between all of those moments with frenzied and unfiltered words. Writing was fluid, filling in the empty spaces between school and work. <br /><br />That Playbill now sits on my bookshelf, among stacks of hardcovers and paperbacks. The signatures are visible from the top shelf, and when I wake up in the morning, I see them. Those little glossy pages bound together and signed with someone else’s name remind me of a pivotal moment in my life. At that moment, I made the realization that I had been wrong about writing being something that you did sparingly, when you found the time for it or wanted the will to put pen to paper, or quill to parchment. It was, and had always been, about writing like you’re running out of time.
A live performance of <em>Hamilton: An American Musical</em> written by Lin-Manuel Miranda
In May of 2018
Brianna Whitney, 18, Student
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Learning How to Read a Poem
<p>Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California, reflects on her life growing up in New Mexico and how a low grade on a poetry analysis assignment in college encouraged her to master the craft of writing. She notes how her writing abilities and exposure to the humanities served her well in a career in government and higher education.</p>
<p>To celebrate its 40th year anniversary of grant making, programming, and partnerships that connect Californians to each other, California Humanities invited a group of 40 prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. For more information visit <a href="http://calhum.org/about/we-are-the-humanities" title="California Humanities: We Are the Humanities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">California Humanities: We Are the Humanities</a>.</p>
"Batter My Heart, Three-Person'd God" by John Donne; <em>Death Comes for the Archbishop</em> by Willa Cather
Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California
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Growing Up with the Humanities
Building on their shared love of Shakespeare, Horowitz’s mother taught her daughter how the act of writing can cultivate ideas, prompt questions, and nurture a deeper appreciation for literature. In this light, Horowitz reflects on how the practice of reading and writing about works such as <em>King Lear</em> and <em>As You Like It</em> provided an opportunity to engage with the world in a meaningful way.
Mirah Horowitz describes the lessons imparted from her mother, an English professor, on reading and writing as ongoing practices of critical inquiry. Building on their shared love of Shakespeare, Horowitz’s mother taught her daughter how the act of writing can cultivate ideas, prompt questions, and nurture a deeper appreciation for literature. In this light, Horowitz reflects on how the practice of reading and writing about works such as <em>King Lear</em> and <em>As You Like It</em> provided an opportunity to engage with the world in a meaningful way.
William Shakespeare's <em>As You Like It</em> and <em>King Lear</em>
Mirah Horowitz, Russell Reynolds Associates
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Deciding Not to Be a Doctor
<p>Larry Kramer, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, went to college expecting to become a doctor, but taking a course on religious ethics and moral issues shifted his direction. To him, the humanities allow us to be introspective and to understand our lives from a larger point of view, which leads to a more revealing and enriching human experience.</p>
<p>To celebrate its 40th year anniversary of grant making, programming, and partnerships that connect Californians to each other, California Humanities invited a group of 40 prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. For more information visit <a href="http://calhum.org/about/we-are-the-humanities" title="California Humanities: We Are the Humanities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">California Humanities: We Are the Humanities</a>.</p>
California Humanities
Larry Kramer, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
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Writing is My Activism
<p>Luis Rodriguez, Poet Laureate of Los Angeles in 2014, explains how his love for books and libraries rescued him from a life of trouble. He notes that through books, he discovered more about people and their lives, which encouraged his interest in writing about injustice and activism.</p>
<p>To celebrate its 40th year anniversary of grant making, programming, and partnerships that connect Californians to each other, California Humanities invited a group of 40 prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. For more information visit <a href="http://calhum.org/about/we-are-the-humanities" title="California Humanities: We Are the Humanities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">California Humanities: We Are the Humanities</a>.</p>
California Humanities
Luis Rodriguez, Poet Laureate of Los Angeles in 2014
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Making the World Bearable
<p>Author and publisher Malcolm Margolin shares how the telling of stories helps shape and give meaning to the world. He also reflects on his time documenting American Indian life in the Bay Area and becoming captivated by the stories and histories from this experience.</p>
<p>To celebrate its 40th year anniversary of grant making, programming, and partnerships that connect Californians to each other, California Humanities invited a group of 40 prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. For more information visit <a href="http://calhum.org/about/we-are-the-humanities" title="California Humanities: We Are the Humanities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">California Humanities: We Are the Humanities</a>.</p>
California Humanities
Malcolm Margolin, author, publisher, and founder of Heyday Books
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