Louise Glück

“Brilliant, passionate, thwarted women”

– Louise Glück on her public school teachers (brilliant women in her time apparently married lawyers and doctors, unable to have that profession themselves, and instead taught at schools)

I went to the Louise Glück poetry reading at Parker, as well as listening to her speak to my poetry class in school. I was wary going in to the event because great artists are often a bit painful: narcissistic, entitled, pretentious etc. Somewhat surprisingly, she was truly honest, about her experience, her life, and her work. She was definitely intense, suffering bronchitis after a week of not sleeping, writing poetry because she was suddenly inspired. But her poems are very intense, so her character isn’t surprising.

            As a teen, she suffered from anorexia. It was especially interesting to hear from her perspective in her essay, “Education of the Poet,” because at the time, anorexia was not such a common ailment. Glück’s anorexia developed from a need to border and define herself through will. Unfortunately, she had copious stores of will, and realized at sixteen, “at some point I was going to die.” Anorexia is interesting, from a psychological standpoint while being heartrending. But what made Glück’s portrayal of an oft-discussed illness unusual was its defeminization. Never did she mention, ‘body image,’ or ‘media pressure’ (though those causations should not be diminished.) Although the effect of anorexia is to become painfully, dangerously thin, the cause is not usually a desire to become painfully, dangerously thin, rather, a need to take ownership and control over oneself. Men have eating disorders as well, and this feminization of a gender neutral illness is arguably unsafe.

            Louise Glück’s lack of femininity in general was refreshing. Woman poets suffer dismissal even contemporarily (as you can read about here on my friend’s intelligent blogspost: http://civicengagementellory.blogspot.com/2015/04/elise-cowen-archetype-for-sexisms.html), but Glück didn’t discuss this at length, she seemed to define herself first as a human being. I don’t mean to say women who talk about their identity as women are less valuable, but it’s refreshing to hear a woman in a profession speak mainly about her profession, rather than her role as a woman.

            An audience member mentioned that Glück’s work must take courage, to which she responded, “There really is never any courage involved… you grab power from the world.” As well as being an unusual comment (most people vie to mention their courage,) I found it to applicable advice as a woman. You have to take power, whether you have courage, or lack it.

A favorite of her poems, "Mock Orange": http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179759

Some scary truths about women in the art world: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/8971-women-artists-still-face-discrimination#

Sister Helen Prejean on the Death Penalty and Prisons

“If we hide suffering, we can do anything to them (prisoners) behind bars.”

– Sister Helen Prejean

I walk in to a Depaul church: relatively old, but made to look older. It’s full of a mixture of older women and Depaul students (the event counted as class credit.) There was laughter amongst the students and disorganization as it was so packed many had to stand. In the back there was an exhibit with photographs by Lloyd Degrane, and letters from inmates serving exceptionally long sentences to life. The laughter before the event felt out of place, and much of the reverence felt false.

            Sister Helen Prejean’s introducer brought some of the basic questions our society should be asking about prison, but doesn’t. For instance, what the base purpose of prison is. A punishment, a rehabilitation center, or in his words, “a settlement to keep people who would otherwise disturb our society.” The shaky definition of the purpose of prison is what drives many of the issues in prison legislature. Prisons evolved from public torture and executions, which served as deterrents to crime. Floggings and hangings and burning at the stake were brutal practices, but so is prison. Prison just takes away the public element of torture, hiding it so that the public doesn’t have to dirty their thoughts. Arguably, we have prisons to keep things in order. He said, “schools and prisons strive to create docile people.” But they take people out of society, fail to reintegrate them, and then blame them for ending up back in prison.

Is it really ok to take away everything, dignity, privacy, responsibility, friendship, and ultimately life? I don’t think it is. It’s surprisingly similar to the way women have been treated in history. In arranged marriages choice, privacy, and control over your own body is stolen from you. Even today, I see people’s mothers interrogating their daughters more than their sons, and giving stricter curfews and rules. Obviously some degree of that is about safety, being a woman is more dangerous than being a man, but still. Women have been prisoners for a long time.

Sister Helen Prejean began with a gracious thank you in her slow Louisiana drawl to her introducer. She points out that everyone in the audience has agency, agency to attend this event, and to go home afterward. The prisoners she visits don’t, and the six that she accompanied through their trials to their executions never will. She is currently visiting another man on death row, whom she believes is innocent. Actually, 2 of the men she visited with and went to their executions were innocent. This is one of the many reasons the death penalty is so incredibly wrong.

At the end of the event a woman stood up, she had a husband in prison for the third time, and four sons who she lives in fear for. Her pain was so tangible it put the entire event into a real life context. The discomfort in the room was immense. Even though nothing she said was accusatory, the fact she was a black women, and most of the room was white seemed to elicit a defensive response, just off of the body language. She pointed out how ridiculous it is when we say “they were shot down like dogs” about black men, “There would be a national outcry if dogs were being shot like our sons and father are shot down.” It’s a terrifying statement because of the truth in it.

It was definitely an upsetting event, but one I was glad I went to.

Above are some of the letters written by prisoners. They quash the stereotype that prisoners are uneducated and sloppy. The handwriting was beautiful, and the writing was above average.  

The event was a bit too serious to take a selfie, but here's a view of the church.

Below are photographs by Lloyd Degrane. 

The men desperately wanted to be in a picture, make their lives noticed, so they stuck limbs out of their cells. 

Link to one of Sister Helen's saddest most unjust cases: http://articles.courant.com/2005-01-23/entertainment/0501230483_1_dobie-gillis-williams-death-penalty-wrongful-executions

Sister Helen's twitter: https://twitter.com/helenprejean