Ask, Tell: Documentary Poetry on the Experiences of LGBTQ Military Members
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Authors
Donofrioo, Gabriella Lyth
Issue Date
2013
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
This project was conceived as an exploration of the experiences
of LGBTQ military members serving under Don't Ask, Don't Tell. When I first
asked to meet with Di, I didn't have a notion of how my interest in the subject
could (or would) turn into a creative writing project. Immediately upon
mentioning my desire to speak directly with the people who were affected by
this policy, Di reached for a book on the bookshelf in her office - Mark Nowak's
Coal Mountain Elementary. In this text, Nowak weaves excerpts from various
texts into a revealing narrative on the lives of coal miners and their families after
mining incidents in both China and West Virginia. The sources of the text are
published interviews with miners' families, news articles on the mining
disasters, and the American Coal Foundation's curriculum for schoolchildren.
The testimony that Nowak uses are verbatim from the people being interviewed,
a concept that inspired both my project and the SIP of one of Di's previous
advisees: Genevieve Leet Gigi traveled to Thailand to study coral reef decline,
during which she interviewed locals, tourists, business owners and park rangers
on Lipe Island in the Adand Archipelago. A portion of her SIP was "'quote
poems,"' as she called them, taken from selected sections of her interviews. Di
suggested that I could do something similar, and thus the project was born.
Description
xiii, 92 p.
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License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.