BY EMILY HARRISON / KALAMALAMA STAFF WRITER
Aloha everyone. I’m unsure if anyone from the school, other than the honors students and faculty, knows who Brandy McDougall is, but she is a Hawaii State Poet Laureate.
She’s published two poetry books: “Finding Meaning”, and “Birth Land.” At these conferences, she discussed and read from “Birthland” which was honestly quite moving, quite passionate. She brought tears to herself and to her audience.
Especially for a school-based poetry reading conference, I thought it was quite endearing.
What I walked into
Preface this, I clearly don’t speak Hawaiian, forgive me and my typing.
I’m a fourth-year student, and it is amazing how many people are here, and it’s more amazing how I know not one person here. Sometimes I forget how big HPU really is.
Our guest of honor did show up late, traffic in Honolulu man, it’s crazy.
On the brighter side, they did feed us, which was great. Normally they offer light food at conference and events like this, but I was a little unsure if they would for a poetry reading. But what goes better with poetry like some fresh fruit and cookies?
This semester I’m managing editor for HPU’s Wanderlust, a literary magazine, and I honestly went to the conference to try to recruit some submitters for this year’s issue.
I tried my best to talk to those around me, but I think I’m nerve racking to the freshman, but to be fair, if I had a stranger pushing journals and flyers in my face, I’d want to ignore them too.
And some were super nice, they took my flyer and were very interested, others tried their best to pretend I wasn’t there. Kids man.
How about a breakdown of what a lecture is for those who haven’t been or are afraid to go:
Now, as an attendee, you do not have to speak, unless you’re there for a class assignment, which was the case for many of the honor students there. You can simply walk in, find a spot, and watch the “show.”
You are of course free to ask questions if you would like to, but you’re not at all obligated.
You are also, when announced, welcome to indulge on the food they offer, yes for free.
The room is sometimes tiny, other times its quite large, sometimes there’s fifteen people present other times there’s over a hundred. Conferences are weird like that. Typically, if the speaker is well known, or the topic being discussed is controversial, or popular, then more people tend to show.
Many of the English/ literary faculty was there. Most of them spoke a bit to the audience, and some introduced the speaker and her accomplishments, but they were not part of the actual talk.
Brandy McDougall
Dr. McDougall was born in the island of Maui. She is of Hawaiian, Scottish, and Chinese heritage. She studied at many schools around the US, earning her doctorate in English. She currently works at the university of Hawaii, at Manoa. She has been awarded Hawaii State poet Laureate for two years now and has receive several awards for her poetry for decades now.
She has taught at Kamehameha high school, and some of her poems in her newest book “Birthplace” are inspired by her time with her children.
A stirring of emotions
Now, I have been in Hawaii for many years now, and I’ve come accustomed to the culture and the manners that come with everyday occurrences. For example, I know the polite, and correct, response to “aloha.”
I found it quite finny that the freshman did not.
Although she did look a little hurt, which was not funny, she did teach them, and they looked a little confused, but it was fun to watch them struggle a bit.
They’ll get the hang of it.
She discussed and thanked us for coming out to hear some poetry.
Before she began her readings, she thanked us for coming out and talked to us about how much it meant to her to see all these young adult faces reading and embracing her cultural poetry.
“Birth land” came seven years after her book “Finding Meaning.”
Some of the differences she discussed:
In “Finding Meaning,” it talked about growing up Hawaiian and being a Hawaiian girl. How she had to negotiate things she didn’t understand, and she didn’t realize it was part of her life experience. This included racism, gender violence, colonialism…
But overall, it discussed her reconnection with Hawaiian culture, where she was separated from as child.
Her second book, “Birth land,” was focused on her children. How she has been raising two young Hawaiian girls. It discusses what stories they need to have and know about themselves, their ancestors, birthland, and the people they were meant to be.
“Not have to negotiate that strange middle ground where you have to seek where you are from.” – Dr. McDougall
She discussed with us how her Hawaiian title actually means “birthed from your land,” or “the land made you.”
She discussed how the Hawaiian culture discusses goddesses as motherly figures, how they are extremely powerful, but show different sides of mothers. Mothers are not always nurturing, but also correcting, and the Hawaiian lands are also reflective on that.
she told us that, as a mother, you are feeding, you are growing this child.
So as a mother this book resembles all these things.
She read to us a couple poems form her book, and although I will not summarize or copy the here, I will tell you my opinions of them and her readings of them.
“‘Āina Mauna”
- Mauna Kea- the mountain with the telescope inspired this.
- Huge structure-built on the last pristine part of the mountain, sacred places, humans limited contact, so nothing would be desecrated, contaminated.
- I understood none of the first stanza, yet I felt the emotion, the distraught, the pleading.
- This discusses this sacred mountain, how beautiful it is, how it needs to be left be, how we shouldn’t let humans in this territory, even your breaths become contamination.
- This book isn’t a typical poetry. It’s raw and pleading. It’s begging you to hear and yelling at you to see. Its passionate and different
“The Last Coral Standing”
- As cliche as it is, as a marine biology major this stuck with me.
- In this poem she discusses the ongoing destruction of the corals, she discusses the relevance of how coral teaches us about the islands’ history, how we have history. We wash away with the coral.
- Evened though this isn’t directly saying protect the coral, it is saying coral is important. It is living. It has history, we need to protect our, the Hawaiian history.
“Symbolism”
- This poem directly tells you what it’s about. This poem, especially read aloud, emphasizes the importance of the meaning behind things. That there is more than what first appears
- It pokes and makes fun of the way things are taught, as if there is truly a definite one answer to things
“Prepositions”
- This was a love poem.
She uses a lot of island symbolism, a lot of water/ocean symbolism in her words. She does a great job incorporating her island, her culture, her language, her Āina Hānau, she does a great job putting herself into her poetry and her book.
“The map”
- The hardest poem she ever had to write.
- I was written for her grandfather, whom she took care of during hospice.
- “The one who reaches out, the one who everyone was close to.”- as she described all grandfathers, especially hers.
- She was his primary caregiver during hospice.
- Her culture believes that the spirits of their passed loved ones go to jumping points, part of their journey as a spirit.
- Lahaina on Maui was their sacred spot.
- Her papa would have gone there and reflect on his life.
- The poem itself discusses her memories, food, places travels, brother…This discusses the “map of life” stories her grandfather had.
- When her voice cracked so did my shell. When an author breaks you, and their selves, you know it’s a good work.
As off topic as it is, I’m amazed how she read all of this without messing up. I’ll mess up saying my own name. Even as she was crying, she did a good job not messing up.
Bravo
She did an amazing job performing her work. And many of us had questions afterwards for her, pertaining to her and the context within her poems.
Questions that were asked of her:
Q- “Do you believe in an afterlife? Cause religion has changed in Hawaii.”
McDougall- “Bodies are temporary, but spirits are eternal. You get to be with those who have passed. Some spirits stay longer. Heaven and hell sentences seem unfair.”
Q- “What is culture to you?”
McDougall- “Depends on the person. Its typically something around them. School is a culture. We are social human beings, how you’re supposed to be amongst each other is a culture. I think its forever changing. I think we have multiple cultures in our lives.”
Q- “What is your saddest work here?”
McDougall- “The Map. It was sad to write it, but It needed to be written in order to process the pain. It was a way to let him go and to let his spirit go. The living can cling on to someone who’s gone and prevent them from leaving, but it bought me some joy to write down the memories.
“Writing is a kind of medicine. It takes away the face of what’s eating away at you.
“You can turn your pain into something meaningful, you’re an alchemist you can change your pain by writing.”
Q- “How did you start to be a poet?”
McDougall- “I’ve always been a storyteller, always living in an imaginary world.
When I was a child, I’d make up song and create plays. Poetry started with high school assignments, where I found I liked to write poems. I found myself writing poetry and not studying it in college.
“It is difficult, having to defy your parents and choose your dreams even when they don’t understand. But I continued to hold on to the love of poetry, feeling lost in it.
Even when people didn’t understand or agree with it or criticized it. As an artist, you feel the passion over others noise.
“I couldn’t stop doing it, I absolutely needed to do it.”
Q- does teacher for a deeper meaning turning looking for a different answer.
McDougall- why did it have to symbolize this.
Are you looking too deep?
It’s always the danger in symbolism.
If you poke at the literary terms, you can unravel them.
I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect with this. But by the end of the night, I was hoping Brenda would sign a book for me. She read with such passion, such genuinity, it was heartwarming and uplifting.
