Sunday, March 16, 2014
Diane Burns
Poet Diane Burns was born in 1957 in Lawrence Kansas and grew up in Riverside, CA. Her Father was from a Chemehuevi tribe and her mother Anishinabe taught at a native America boarding school. Burns was educated at Barnard University. She first emerged as a powerful literary voice in the 1970 working as a poet and model in New York city. In the 1980s, she became a member of the Lower East Side poetry community, reading her work at the Bowery Poetry club, the Nuyorican poets café, and the Poetry Project at St. Marks Church. Burns was invited by the Sandinsta Government to visit Nicaragua for the Ruben Dario Poetry Festival. Burns first and only book of poetry, Riding the One-eyed Ford further established her reputation as a unique talent by engaging themes of Native American Identity and stereotypes. In 2006 Burns died of liver and kidney failure
When I first read Burns poem, "sure you can ask me a personal question" I immediately fell in love with it. I liked her directness and humor that she had in the poem. I picked Burns for my blog project because her poem inspired me to stop relying on stereotypes to identify someone. she inspired me to do my research on a culture and only identify that culture based on facts not stereotype from a post colonial perspective.
Her poem is all about challenging Native American stereotypes . Burns uses her tone and structure to show how she feels about the stereotypes that she has to endure every day.
No, not Spanish.
No, I am American Indian, Native American.
No, not from India.
No, not Apache
No, not Navajo.
No, not Sioux.
No, we are not extinct.
Yes, Indian.
This excerpt from the poem shows how after the first introduction the stereotypes were thrown at her. The questions asked were based upon her physical features and an identity that was unknown to the person who was asking the questions. After the authors reveals her identity, "Native America" the unknown person starts naming off different Native American tribes, when all these are turned down the unknown person settles with that fact that her tribe is extinct. this shows how people are not educated about the Indian Culture, and only know of certain tribes, preferably the tribes that are either in the media, or books.
No, I don't know where you can get peyote.
No, I don't know where you can get Navajo rugs real cheap.
No, I didn't make this. I bought it at Bloomingdales.
Thank you. I like your hair too.
I don't know if anyone knows whether or not Cher
is really Indian.
No, I didn't make it rain tonight.
This part of the poem is where the unknown person apologizes to the author for what was done to the authors people. It comes off as being sincere until the unknown person throws another stereotypical question at the author, asking for things that are from her culture and then asking did she make it rain which is inference to the stereotype that Indians perform practices that change the weather.
Some of us can't drink enough.
This ain't no stoic look.
This is my face.
This final part of the poem is where the authors directness and humor comes into play. She gives humor when she says that, "some of us cant drink enough". from her response I took this as if that was the only stereotypes that the author accepted but instead of being upset she turned it into a joke by saying that "some of us cant drink enough". The last part, "this aint no stoic look, this is my face" is where she gets direct. there's no humor in her last statement or wit. Its almost as if she was rude and tired of the stereotypical questions.
Bibliography
Diane Burns "Sure you can ask me a personal question"
Diane Burns, "Alphabet City serenade"
Diane Burns, "riding the one- eyed ford"
www.thevillager.com/dianeburns
www.thepoetryfoundation
www.thebestamericanpoetry
www.boro5live.tumblr.com
www.ipl.org
When I first read Burns poem, "sure you can ask me a personal question" I immediately fell in love with it. I liked her directness and humor that she had in the poem. I picked Burns for my blog project because her poem inspired me to stop relying on stereotypes to identify someone. she inspired me to do my research on a culture and only identify that culture based on facts not stereotype from a post colonial perspective.
Her poem is all about challenging Native American stereotypes . Burns uses her tone and structure to show how she feels about the stereotypes that she has to endure every day.
How do you do?
No, I am not Chinese.No, not Spanish.
No, I am American Indian, Native American.
No, not from India.
No, not Apache
No, not Navajo.
No, not Sioux.
No, we are not extinct.
Yes, Indian.
This excerpt from the poem shows how after the first introduction the stereotypes were thrown at her. The questions asked were based upon her physical features and an identity that was unknown to the person who was asking the questions. After the authors reveals her identity, "Native America" the unknown person starts naming off different Native American tribes, when all these are turned down the unknown person settles with that fact that her tribe is extinct. this shows how people are not educated about the Indian Culture, and only know of certain tribes, preferably the tribes that are either in the media, or books.
Yeah, it was awful what you guys did to us.
It's real decent of you to apologize.No, I don't know where you can get peyote.
No, I don't know where you can get Navajo rugs real cheap.
No, I didn't make this. I bought it at Bloomingdales.
Thank you. I like your hair too.
I don't know if anyone knows whether or not Cher
is really Indian.
No, I didn't make it rain tonight.
This part of the poem is where the unknown person apologizes to the author for what was done to the authors people. It comes off as being sincere until the unknown person throws another stereotypical question at the author, asking for things that are from her culture and then asking did she make it rain which is inference to the stereotype that Indians perform practices that change the weather.
No, I didn't major in archery.
Yeah, a lot of us drink too much.Some of us can't drink enough.
This ain't no stoic look.
This is my face.
This final part of the poem is where the authors directness and humor comes into play. She gives humor when she says that, "some of us cant drink enough". from her response I took this as if that was the only stereotypes that the author accepted but instead of being upset she turned it into a joke by saying that "some of us cant drink enough". The last part, "this aint no stoic look, this is my face" is where she gets direct. there's no humor in her last statement or wit. Its almost as if she was rude and tired of the stereotypical questions.
Bibliography
Diane Burns "Sure you can ask me a personal question"
Diane Burns, "Alphabet City serenade"
Diane Burns, "riding the one- eyed ford"
www.thevillager.com/dianeburns
www.thepoetryfoundation
www.thebestamericanpoetry
www.boro5live.tumblr.com
www.ipl.org
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