"Memory Serves," in Memory Serves: Oratories by Lee Maracle
Listening is an emotional, spiritual, and physical act. It takes a huge emotional commitment to listen, to sort, to imagine the intent, to evaluate, to process and to seek the connection to the words offered so that remembering can be fair and just. Spiritually, words are sacred; this makes listening a ceremony. And because it engages our imagination it is also an art form. Our best selves, the oldest thread of our remembering processes, are invoked and we seek connection with a will.
"Memory Serves," in Memory Serves: Oratories by Lee Maracle Once the story or poem was heard, it was discussed by members of the community, evaluated, and committed or not committed to. Two speakers could present the same story from opposing points of view and both could be considered valid, just as the listener's interpretation of the poem was valid despite the fact that it could be different from the views of both speakers and those of the other listeners. At the same time, individual listeners were expected to find a common point of understanding with the whole. This process of interpretation led, on the one hand, to a tremendous diversity of the meanings of a single poem or story, and, on the other, to community consensus about its primary value.
"Oral Poetry," in Memory Serves: Oratories by Lee Maracle Photo taken in Fellini Pizzeria, Providence RI Peaceful struggle is all about expending strenuous effort to live our lives free from strife, free from war, free from conditions that annoy the mind. It annoys my mind to think about clear-cutting; it annoys my mind to consider the invasion and death of the people of Oka. It annoys my mind to imagine golfers tromping on the graves of Mohawk grandmothers, children and loved ones. So I struggle to put a stop to it. I walk, I picket, and I block the road, and I speak because I cannot watch a people or any of the earth's relatives die an unjust death.
"Peace," in Memory Serves: Oratories by Lee Maracle This arc becomes the meeting place for our two worlds. The desire for this arc, this meeting place, this oneness, does not negate the existence of both worlds. The arc presupposes the harmony of both, not the invasion or the suppression of my world by yours. It invites sharing between them.
"Post-Colonial Imagination," in Memory Serves: Oratories by Lee Maracle An orator is someone who has come to grips with the human condition, humanity's relationship to creation and the need for a human direction that will guarantee the peaceful coexistence of human beings with all things under creation and who can present this as story in ordinary and entertaining language. The point of oratory is to create a passionate feeling for life and help people understand the need for change or preservation as the case may be. No brilliance exists outside of the ability of human beings to grasp the brilliance and move with it. Thus we say what we think. No thought is understood outside of humans' interactions with one another, their condition, and their environment. So we present thought through story, human beings doing something, real characters working out the process of thought/feeling and being.
"Oratory: Coming to Theory," in Memory Serves: Oratories by Lee Maracle Post card in photo is of magpie monarch butterfly, 2016 oil on canvas by artist annie ross, from the series A7xa7 - Sacred Spiritual Intelligence (extinction portraits). Candle holders are West Coast Pottery S14, S14c. Book is Bird Nests, by Sharon A. Cohen and Gerry Ellis, Collins Publishers San Francisco, 1993. |
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