This Pass or Prepared? is based on a poem, Way Down Souf!, by Elliott Blaine Henderson. Dis, dat an' tutter : poems by Elliott Baline Henderson. Scroll about a third of the way down the file, to Way Down Souf!, page 16:

I'd like you to try to see in this poem the means to find empathy through local narrative. I came across the poem on the University of Michigan American Verse Project. I had just been reading Fellman's Rambo and the Dalai Lama, Madelyn Jablon's Black Metafiction: Sefl-Consciousness in African American Literature, and Philip W. Jackson's John Dewey and the Lessons of Art. I thought what a good example this was of literature making it easier for me to empathize with someone whose experiences were very different from my own. I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did.

For further theoretical background: Critical Theory and Art

1. How does this poem relate to story telling?

   One Plausible Answer

   The voices reflect storytelling. There is reference to generations passing, as in "long, long ago." Generations passing on tales, pulling out scrapbooks of memories, and keeping the past alive . . . .

2. How does this reflect "speakerly" style?

   One Plausible Answer

   The narrator addresses the singer, includes himself or herself, the singer, and the audience in his (her) memories.

3. Are the memories all sad?

   One Plausible Answer

   No, the memories are not all sad. Sad memories are included, but so also are the memories of their mischief and their joy.

   "But we had good times
   Miss Mandy!
   Some good ol' times fo' sho'!"
   

4. Can you find anything akin, in this poem, to Goffman's "front stage, back stage"?

   One Plausible Answer

   Yes, there was a clearly delineated front and back stage:

   We didn' let 'em know!
   Yo' bet wees mighty kyarful
   When we had ah dance an' feas',
   Dat dey didn' git an' inklin'"

5. Can you find any evidence of adversarial relationships in the poem?

   One Plausible Answer

   In these lines we see the adversarial pattern of relationships in that time so long ago. The mutuality and sharing described here were communal, but communal with the African American community. Here we see an example of the different memories that accrue from mutuality and from adversarial patterns.

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   Figurine by Rudiger Appel. Notice that you can see three effects in the animation. Either the Variation on the Kandinsky figurine appears to turn in a clockwise direction, or in a counterclockwise direction, or it appears to open and close. Can you see all three effects? Try. Fascinated? Link to Appel's site and then link to the background he provides. Scroll down until you find a link to background.

Copright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata, June 2000. "Fair Use" encouraged.