{"id":18282,"date":"2007-04-24T10:01:58","date_gmt":"2007-04-24T14:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/?p=18282"},"modified":"2016-04-16T18:04:16","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T22:04:16","slug":"coping-in-a-time-of-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/2007\/04\/24\/coping-in-a-time-of-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Coping in a Time of Tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Literature can provide powerful support for us in times of trauma and sadness. In  the <i>Teaching English in the Two-Year College<\/i>  article &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncte.org\/library\/files\/Free\/Inbox\/bonus\/TE0342Literature.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Literature  of Survival: A Literature Class as a Place for Healing<\/a>,&#8221; Kate Dailey  explains how literature can provide models and guides for readers searching  for ways to make sense of traumatic experiences. When Nikki Giovanni was asked  to speak at the Convocation at Virginia Tech (<a href=\"http:\/\/filebox.vt.edu\/users\/news\/convocation_giovanni.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">audio  of poem <\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vt.edu\/tragedy\/giovanni_transcript.php\" target=\"_blank\">transcript  of poem <\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/hokiesports.com\/convocation.html\" target=\"_blank\">convocation  video<\/a>) a week ago, she could never have predicted the way that her poetry would prove  a healing salve for the community. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/giovanni-poem.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/giovanni-poem-258x300.jpg?resize=258%2C300\" alt=\"Photo of a poster with Nikki Giovanni&#039;s poem\" width=\"258\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-18284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/giovanni-poem.jpg?resize=258%2C300&amp;ssl=1 258w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/giovanni-poem.jpg?w=841&amp;ssl=1 841w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 258px) 100vw, 258px\" \/><\/a>Overnight, words from Giovanni&#8217;s poem appeared on handwritten posters,  on professionally-made banners, on tshirts, on full-page newspaper  tributes, and on car windows. When I visited the Virginia Tech Department of  English yesterday, a colleague confessed that Giovanni was  amazed by the way the poem has been adopted by the community. As an English  teacher, I too am amazed. It&#8217;s rare to see a poet&#8217;s words splashed  across an entire community, but Giovanni&#8217;s reading at the Convocation has  become the rallying moment for students, faculty, staff, alumni, related families,  and the greater community. When Giovanni said, &#8220;We will prevail,&#8221;  we  all believed her. <\/p>\n<p>Dailey&#8217;s <i>Teaching English in the Two-Year College<\/i> article emphasizes  why literature can have such a powerful effect: it provides a model for healing,  guiding readers through the process of remembrance, mourning, and reconnection.  English teachers know that literature touches lives. In this last week, we&#8217;ve  gained powerful evidence of just how deeply literature can touch us all. <\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>This entry was originally posted <a href=\"http:\/\/ncteinbox.blogspot.com\/2007\/04\/healing-power-of-literature.html\" target=\"_blank\">on the NCTE Inbox blog<\/a> on April 24, 2007.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Literature can provide powerful support for us in times of trauma and sadness. In the Teaching English in the Two-Year College article &#8220;Literature of Survival: A Literature Class as a Place for Healing,&#8221; Kate Dailey explains how literature can provide models and guides for readers searching for ways to make sense of traumatic experiences. When [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[397,396],"class_list":["post-18282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inbox","tag-nikki-giovanni","tag-virginia-tech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqzI8-4KS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18282"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18291,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18282\/revisions\/18291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}