A Single Story (audio file)

susan_bernstein
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‎10-16-2015 07:02 AM

A song written by my student Jeffrey Hack​ in response to Chiminanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk “The Danger of a Single Story”.

I'm tired of feeling abandoned

These words are getting to my head

There's no way out, or to come about

Judging me by who I am

Stop trying to be something else

Instead go better yourself

These words need to stop right now

You're not helping anyone out

I know that it's wrong to be on the other side of criticizing someone else

We have a single story that we can't wait to say

But the truth of every matter is it isn't there to stay

We think so much about every negative in our way

And we find out that we're awesome at the end of every day

We need to stop trying to create something that is fake, a disgrace to the amazing human race

Read more about this assignment in my blog post Empowering Writing.

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About the Author
Susan Naomi Bernstein (she/they) writes, teaches, and quilts, in Queens, NY. She blogs for Bedford Bits, and her recent publications include “The Body Cannot Sustain an Insurrection” in the Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics and “After Basic Writing” in TETYC. Her book is Teaching Developmental Writing. Other publications include “Theory in Practice: Halloween Write-In,” with Ian James, William F. Martin, and Meghan Kelsey in Basic Writing eJournal 16.1, “An Unconventional Education: Letter to Basic Writing Practicum Students in Journal of Basic Writing 37.1, “Occupy Basic Writing: Pedagogy in the Wake of Austerity,” in Nancy Welch and Tony Scott’s collection Composition in the Age of Austerity. Susan also has published on Louisa May Alcott, and has exhibited her quilts in Phoenix, Arizona and Brooklyn, NY.