We met in Nan & Billy’s basement.
We decided to play with Marc’s Show/Recollect/Recapitulation model. First, Melissa told of an episode in her 1st grade, in which, as part of a school-wide thematic unit on Charlotte’s Web, the principal was to kiss a pig. Melissa described the principal’s red shoes and the excitement in building up to the pig-kissing. When it came to the actual event, rather than a huge smelly boar, there appeared a cute, pink piglet, which promptly broke free of constraints and ran out into the school. Eventually the pig was found in the media center. Overall, after all the hype about the pig, the actual beast was a disappointment.
Everyone took a few minutes to recollect the telling. Then everyone shared what they heard in terms of the five elements [time, space, body, objects, intersubjectivity] and talked about what they would like to hear/see Melissa do with her memory. Dale asked her to go back and revisit the actual pig-kissing, devising ways to show us the over-the-top excitement of a room full of first graders and a pig.
She obliged by making herself the winner of a drawing of perfect attendees, getting to hold the pig: it wriggled free, she cried, the red shoes of the principal in pursuit of the animal, the screaming first graders, etc., etc. Very vivid.
Nan repeated, at Dale’s request, her “One Spring Day” memory, then gave us a new one, a near-drowning when she was six. Ending: when she woke up in Crawford Long, she heard the doctor say, “…if she’ll ever be able to talk again…”
William gave us a patented tall tale of his cutting off his nose while playing at cutting ivy in the yard. His observations about being noseless were quite acute, actually, and Dale asked him to think about telling us the memory as a grown man who has gone most of his life without his nose.
Billy retold Melissa’s pig story: this time, it was in Newnan (rather than Gwinnett County) and apparently was set back a few years. He was a farm boy who had come with his farmer daddy to bring the pig to this modern, “shiny” school. After the recollection phase, we all discussed how it would be interesting to focus the story on the narrator’s feelings as he realized that the urban first graders were not necessarily impressed that he was bringing them a pig.
The floor is now open for discussion.
In attendance: Dale, Melissa, Billy, Nan, William
Not a large crowd tonight at all, but I think we actually got work done, in terms of beginning to understand the show/recollect/recapitulation as a tool. Here’s what I think: we’re in the very beginning phase of our life as a collaborative. We’re still playing with getting all these new tools, and we’re not real sure how to use them all well yet. But we will be. The longer we do this, the better and more sure we’re going to get, and soon we’ll be able to play with texts like this without even thinking.
I think what I’m trying to say is that I don’t see any reason to be discouraged about anything at this point. I think everyone needs to come play as often as they can and just get their hands dirty. We’re going to get there, but everyone needs to stop being nervous about this group and just jump in.
A very exciting account! I’m sorry I missed it. Not cold feet, just a mix up on my part. The recital started later than I thought and started even later on top of that due to an accompanist caught in traffic.
Since you are listening to stories and tuning in to various elements, let me throw up another excerpt or two from the GHP Experimental Handbook–more suggestions. Not that you need anything to spur your creativity.