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Heavy Syllabus August 2020 © 2019 BHK LLC Heavy Syllabus August 2020 © 2019 BHK LLC. All Rights Reserved. #SmartBrownGirl is a Registered Trademark of BHK LLC. For the Black girls in the forgotten spaces. Bringing together an international community of women of color through reading and dialogue. All SmartBrownGirl® Book Club syllabi and reading guides are curated by a cohort of graduate level #SmartBrownGirl researchers. Your membership and participation in the #SmartBrownGirl Book Club ensures that we can pay all Black women who help run this book club an equitable rate. Smartbrowngirl.com Heavy Syllabus Author: Bry Reed Editor: Morgan Holloman-Bryant. Facebook | Instagram Table of Contents 06 Author History 07 Book History 08 Reading Tips 10 Overview & Motifs 11 The Discussion 25 Final Thoughts 26 Further Reading/Resources Author History Kiese Laymon is a Black writer born and raised in the American south. His work is informed by his life in Jackson, Mississippi as he chronicles the history and culture of Black southern folks. Laymon attended Millsaps College and Jackson State University before graduating from Oberlin College with a Bachelor’s of Arts. Following his time at Oberlin, Laymon obtained his MFA in fiction from Indiana University. He has written three books, Long Division, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others, and Heavy: An American Memoir. In addition to his published works, Laymon taught English and Africana Studies at Vassar College before going on to teach Creative Writing at University of Mississippi as the Ottilie Schillig Professor of English and Creative Writing. 6 Book History Released in 2018, Heavy: An American Memoir is a memoir exploring Laymon’s coming-of-age story amidst the realities of the southern US for Black folk. The narrative dives into poverty, family, sexual violence, and addiction as Laymon uncovers his own secrets, his mother’s fears, and pushes readers to interrogate their own battles. In three parts, Laymon reckons with failure, harm, and violence while leaving room for grace, healing, and growth. The book received critical acclaim, winning the Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction, LA Times Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, Barnes and Noble Discover Award, and Audible’s Audiobook of the Year in 2018 while also being a finalist for The Kirkus Prize. Heavy was also named one of the Best Books of 2018 by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, NPR, The Washington Post, Southern Living, Entertainment Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle and The New York Times Critics. 7 READING TIPS Tips for Fresh Readers TIPS FOR RETURNING 1. You do not have to have profound thoughts right away: Everyone reads and digests at a different pace. Take your READERS time in understanding the text but you do not need to dissect it immediately. Make a note of any points that are significant to you and move on. 1. Put the book in context: Times have changed and so have you. Before rereading 2. Set aside 15-20 mins a day to read: Much like power think about who you were, and where you nap — a power read — can energize your reading and were in life the first time you read the book. help you focus. You do not need large chunks of time. Set Think about who was influencing you/your aside 15-20 mins to read a day and make sure you have no thoughts. (School, friends, family, news etc.) distractions during this time. 2. Be Critical: First reads are a time to be 3. Reflect on what you read: a) What were the open-minded and give the author lead themes and/or major events that had taken place in way to understand their thoughts. Second your selected readings? reads you can be much more critical of the work and its intentions. So get on your 4. Take notes: a) Highlight terms, phrases, quotes etc soapbox boo we got some boxes on that may immediately grab your attention reserve too. 5. Build a personal glossary: If you don’t know a word, 3. Focus on Few Chapters at a Time: circle it, get the definition and reread the section in For non-fiction (and some fiction) it’s not context. This may help you come to a new understanding totally necessary to reread the book of the text or discover concepts you didn’t notice before. chronologically from start to finish. Try focusing on themes that you may have 6. Discuss the book: Healthy discussion on what you grazed over the first time around and already know can entice you to read more and that’s what choose a few chapters to lean into at a time. the #SmartBrownGirl Book Club is here for. Join in on our discussions. Post your questions to the Facebook Group. 7. Author Background: When approaching a text that you’re unfamiliar with, it may be beneficial to do some quick background research on the author, as it can help provide insight on what the text may be discussing. 8 Trigger Warning(s): This book is full of Laymon’s lived experiences with abuse, disordered eating, manipulation, misogynoir, and racism. This book contains several scenes of child sexual violence, disordered eating, and violence between intimate partners. Please be gentle with yourself as you read these sections. Reflect as necessary. Rest as necessary. There are also scenes surrounding eating disorders, anti-fatness, and physical violence. Also, remember you are not reading alone. Smart Brown Girl is a community of readers working through texts together. Overview & Motifs: Understanding an American memoir: Evaluate the author’s anecdotes while forming your own opinions, highlighting and note taking when you desire: Consider what would you have done differently in these situations retrospective to them happening (with everything you know now), your thoughts on her actions/beliefs, whether you agree or disagree with her assessments on feminism as relating to that particular situation. Make connections between personal and public events (see the “2018 US Current Events” section below) by recalling the author’s experiences, your own similar ones, relevant news and history. Using the anecdotal material provided, determine whether this aligns with broader historical and sociological concepts you’ve learned/are learning about (see the “Glossary/Themes” section below). Research the following motifs and provide your own empirical evidence to affirm them by journaling/note taking for future live discussions, complex and general book syllabi to come. Motifs: Fatphobia, Race, Gender, Black Motherhood, Black South, Respectability Politics, Sexual violence, Sexuality, Poverty, Movement/Place 10 The Discussion BEEN • Laymon begins the book with an epigraph from Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters that reads “...cause wholeness is no trifling matter. A lot of weight when you’re well.” What connotation of “wholeness” do you use in this quote? What “weight” is laymon, drawing on Bambara, referencing? • “Been” is an address to Laymon’s mother about all the language he has finally found the space to name. Laymon is vulnerable and honest about all the lies he wishes this book was, but is not. What comfort is Laymon seeking in telling lies? Is there safety in lying? Consider the following quotes: ‣ “I wanted to write an American memoir. I wanted to write a lie.” (p. 1) ‣ “I wanted to write about how fundamental present black fathers, responsible black mothers, magical black grandmothers, and perfectly disciplined black children are to our liberation.” (p.1) ‣ “I wanted to write a lie. You wanted to read that lie. I wrote this to you instead.” (p. 10) ▾ How does it impact your reading for the narrative to begin with this direct address to Laymon’s mother? Can this address be applied more broadly? If so, then how? • Where does Laymon’s address fit into the cultural narrative surrounding Black mothers and their sons? Consider examples like Basil and Mattie from Women of Brewster Place, Milkman and Ruth from Song of Solomon, and other examples from Black literature and culture. • How did you read the following statement that Laymon shares from his Grandmama?: “I think the men folk forgot,” she said near the end, “that I was somebody’s child.” (p. 7) ‣ What does the word “forgot” allude to in the quote above? • After reading “Been” what are your thoughts regarding truth, lies, and narrative for Black writers? 11 I. BOY MAN The TRAINDiscussion • Laymon writes, “Unlike us in our rented house, which we shared with thousands of books and two families of rats, Beulah Beauford and her husband owned her house.” (13) ‣ What emotions is Laymon expressing in this sentence? ‣ What is the larger implication of juxtaposing renting versus home ownership? • Laymon uses “name-brand strawberry Pop Tarts” as his gauge for understanding Beauford's wealth on page 13. Consider the following questions below: ‣ What markers do you remember from your own childhood that signaled the haves and the have nots? ‣ How does Laymon go on to contrats Pop-Tarts to the abundance of books in his own home? • Laymon and Dougie are twelve, Layla is fifteen, Daryl and the “big boys” are seventeen. How does Laymon’s recollection about the “rules” and Layla’s vulnerability connect to conversations about children, harm, and violence? ‣ How do the age differences among the children impact their relationship to each other? ‣ What other differences impact the power dynamics and relationship between the children? • Use the following quotes from Laymon to answer the questions below: “Up until that point, I’d never really imagined Layla being in one emergency, much less emergencies. Part of it was Layla was a black girl and I was taught by big boys who were taught by big boys who were taught by big boys that black girls would be okay no matter what we did to them.” (16) ‣ What was your initial reaction to this moment? ‣ How does Laymon’s epiphany relate to the lived experiences of Black girls vulnerability to violence and emergency? ‣ Laymon repeats the phrase “who were taught by big boys” throughout the quote.
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