083126 / REHEARSING OTHERWISE
a revised rehearsal note
REHEARSING OTHERWISE is a series where I share experiments in writing rooted in black study1. These are dispatches from the rituals of play I facilitate in my own writing practice, embodying disobedience (or, dis-embodying obedience)2 through methods of reading and writing Otherwise34. I publish these tangential5 drafts with commentary as a gesture toward the revision process.
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For this rehearsal, I’ll be focused on reading Writing Otherwise, using prompts6 to respond to the text chosen below.
[The text: A digital photo of a job application cover letter with redactions and revisions to the words. Black boxes cover name and contact information, while the words in the letter are replaced with long strings of punctuation. The spacing of the letter remains intact, as if you could read it as it was originally written.]
i.) How do you write ???????????????????????
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,write,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, “““““““““““““““““““““““““““““ “‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘’ “““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““” ‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘’,,,,, just writing ……………………………………………………………………... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, creative expression, through writing, ………………………………………………………. But that is, in fact, ………………………………………………………….. ???????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????? ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, …………………………………………………………. In this case, ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..this tense writing process, …………………………………………………………………………………………………. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘ ‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘ if the legible words weren’t there. What if ????? words were ????????????? underneath? ????????????????????????
ii.) How do we read a text ????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
I …………………… see ………………………… this text. ‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’ I’m interacting with ,,,,,,,, material,’’’’’’’’ it’s interesting (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( (legible writing) as well as (((((((((( (illegible documentation). ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, —————————-………………………………... ,,,,,,,, something more generous has happened ……………………………………………………….………………………………………… on the Other side …………………...
iii.) In the reading process what brings you pleasure?
…………………………………………………….. repetition …………………………………………..
Um, and texture—————————————!
Thanks for rehearsing & studying alongside me,
Thanks for witnessing my rehearsal,
Paris
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REFLECTION7 : What feelings and sensations came up for you while you were reading this newsletter? For example, did you feel curious, tense, or stimulated? How did these feelings show up in your body? For example, did you sense these emotions in your breath, your hands, or torso while reading this newsletter?
P.S. This is a revised version of a previous entry of Rehearsing Otherwise. To see the original draft, check out the journal entry 022326 / REHEARSING OTHERWISE.
“…there is a distinction to be made between black studies and black study. Despite its radical origins, Black Studies as an academic discipline is now assimilated into the corporate university and too often reduced to performative reform. Alternatively, study is ‘a mode of thinking with others separate from the thinking that the institution requires of you.’ As a mode of practice, as Stefano Harney puts it, study is happening with and against the university and, most importantly, outside the university…I would posit that black study is the practice of refusal of Western civilization.“ — djones, Black Study as Practice: Claiming the B-Side as Black Study. (2023). ↩
“There remains some aspect of my speaking that expects a different mode of expression than English provides…This comes from a desire to resist assimilation, but equally, it arises out of a sense of exploration or adventure, a sense of puzzlement: as if something has happened to my occupation of the language, where a kind of split occurs. I move through it and see myself moving at the same time. It’s a double consciousness, a questioning that simultanates my rendering of experience.“ — Renee Gladman, The Sentence as a Space for Living: Prose Architecture ↩
see footnote 3I came into the concept and praxis of ‘Reading Otherwise’ through Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s Keynote on Visibility for Center of Book Arts 2022 Conference. ↩“I think these ideas of world building really gives this freedom of also trusting what you already know and what you're already carrying, but also try to imagine other ways of being together, or other ways of encountering something. …thinking about alternative histories that is not through the lens of colonialism…there’s always a possibility to think of other ways of being together.” — Sandra Mujinga, “"I cheer for the monsters." | Artist Sandra Mujinga | Louisiana Channel.“ (2023). ↩
“A tangent can be a generative digression that invites learning or an abrupt change in course that introduces you to new ideas. Tangents are not mistakes rather, they are offerings…A tangent is a form of waywardness…” — Kameelah Janan Rasheed for Orange Tangent Study ↩
see footnote 3↩The format for this reflection question is a riff on those featured at the end of each chapter of Making & Being by Susan Jahoda & Caroline Woolard of BFAMFAPHD. ↩
