AAPI Women Voices: Identity & Activism in Poetry

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LESSON 4

Connotation and

Denotation

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Image Credit: Pixabay (Royalty Free)

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A. Denotation

• The literal, dictionary definition of a word
• Example: Hollywood denotes a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California.

B. Connotation

• The emotional, social, or cultural implications of a word that go beyond its dictionary definition. Connotations are on a spectrum of positive to negative.
• Example: Hollywood connotes materialist, glamorous, and superficial lifestyles or beliefs.

Definitions

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“I live in a house, but I want to feel like I live in a home.”

Negative Connotation & Positive Connotation

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Words have varying degrees of negative (unfavorable) connotation or positive (favorable)

Negative Connotation or Positive Connotation

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1. thrifty, stingy, penny-pinching, cheap, economical, resourceful

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• uncommon, off-the-wall, bizarre, weird, exceptional, extraordinary

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Negative Connotation or Positive Connotation

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Negative Connotation or Positive Connotation

1. The activist spoke passionately of his platform at the demonstration.
2. The vigilante fanatically preached his ideology at the riot.

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Same situation

What impression of each sentence?

Negative Connotation or Positive Connotation

Positive impression

1. The activist spoke passionately of his platform at the demonstration.

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• Impression: This person cares about changing the world.

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Negative Connotation or Positive Connotation

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Negative Impression

2. The vigilante fanatically preached his ideology at the riot.

• Impression: This person is crazy and sticks to his beliefs even if they are wrong.

“Guantanamo” by Shadab Zeest Hashmi

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Image Credit: U.S. Navy (public domain image)

Shadab Zeest Hashmi

• Born in Pakistan and moved to the US at 18 to attend college.
• Writes about the effect of British colonialism on Pakistani identity, relations between the United States and the Middle East, and Arab American issues
• Works as an editor for MahMag World Literature (magazine) and a columnist for 3 Quarks Daily (blog and magazine)

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Image from Untold Stories Through Poetry

“Guantanamo”- Background

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• Short for Guantanomo Bay Detention center in the US Cuban Naval Base
• Imprisons suspected members of al-Qaeda (Islamic militant group) and the Taliban (Islamic fundamentalist group), as part of the larger “War on Terror”
• Infamous for its many human rights abuses, use of torture tactics on prisoners and lack of due process

“Guantanamo” by Shadab Zeest Hashmi

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A guard forces you to urinate on yourself� Another barks out louder than his dog� the names of your sisters�who live in the delicate nest �of a ruby-throated hummingbird�Each will be a skeleton he says

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Scream

Killed

Comfortable�Home

Images Credits: Pixabay (Royalty Free)

“Guantanamo” by Shadab Zeest Hashmi

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Was there someone who gave you

seven almonds for memory,

a teaspoon of honey every morning?

Cardamom tea before bed?

Someone who starched your shirts

in rice water, then ironed them?

Held your chin

To say the send-off prayer

before school?

“Guantanamo” by Shadab Zeest Hashmi

You’re tied to a metal coil�And memory �is a burnt wire.

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destroyed

not functioning, worthless, beyond repair

Pay attention to how the poet conveys her message with the concluding line.

“Desert Flowers II” by Janice Mirikitani

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Image Credit: Dorothea Lange (public domain image)

“Desert Flowers II”- Background

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• WWII, 1944: Executive Order 9066, issued by President Roosevelt, incarcerated 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent in ten rural internment camps around the U.S.
• An injustice born out of racism, �wartime hysteria, and plain greed,�the internment resulted in lost �livelihoods and broken communities.
• Janice Mirikitani and her family were�incarcerated in Rohwer, Arkansas.

Image Credit: Ansel Adams (public domain image)

Write your own “I Am” poem

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• Mirikitani uses “I” in the poem to refer to the community of incarcerated Japanese Americans.
• You will be writing your own poem using “I” to refer to a community.
• Pay attention to how Mirikitani uses it.
• Pay attention to the concluding line.
• Learn how poets write the concluding line of their poems. This will help you to write your own.

Image Credit: Ansel Adams (public domain image)

Bamboo, mimosa, eucalyptus seed.

Resilience, strength, courage.

Negative or positive connotation?

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Put circles around negative connotations

boxes around positive connotations in story worksheet

Images Credits: Pixabay (Royalty Free)

Bamboo, mimosa, eucalyptus seed.

Resilience, strength, courage.

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Positive Connotations

Put circles around negative connotations

boxes around positive connotations in story worksheet

Images Credits: Pixabay (Royalty Free)

“Desert Flowers II” by Janice Mirikitani

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What are you?

Where are you really from?

Go back to where you belong.

What are you?

Janice was born in the U.S., was

incarcerated because of her race, and was asked:

Why is it ignorant to ask U.S.- born people of color these questions?

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I am the wind that shaves mountains,

twisted barbed wire of Amache Gate, Poston, Manzanar, Rohwer, Tule Lake

Negative or positive connotation?

Amache Gate, Poston, Manzanar, Rohwer, Tule Lake are Japanese American Concentration Camps

Put circles around negative connotations

boxes around positive connotations in story worksheet

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I am the wind that shaves mountains,

twisted barbed wire of Amache Gate, Poston, Manzanar, Rohwer, Tule Lake

Negative & positive connotations

wind is a positive connotation for being strong.

twisted barbed wire is a negative connotation of the abuses in the camps.

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I am the fist of sand that pushed my mother against a wall of silence.

Negative or positive connotation?

Image Credit: Dorothea Lange (public domain image)

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I am the fist of sand that pushed my mother against a wall of silence.

Negative connotation

There were frequent sand storms in the camp.

Her mother had to keep her feelings inside amid abuses.

Fold-It Poem in your Worksheet

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1. Each student enters their name at the top line and starts their Fold-It Poem.

2. Writer 1 will write one line except the last word of their line in the first box. Writer 1 will write the last word of their line in second box. Before passing it on, Writer 1 will fold the paper so that Writer 2 can only see the last word of line A.

3. Pass it on to Writer 2.

4. Writer 2 will write line B using the last word of Writer 1’s last word as the first word of their own line.

5. Repeat the process until every writer has gone once.

6. Pass the poem back to the student with the name at the top. The student unfolds it and reads it back to the team.

Connotation Homework

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Homework section of your worksheet.

• Practice writing connotations.
• Finish reading “Desert Flowers II”.
• Identify at least five additional positive or negative connotations in the rest of the “Desert Flowers II”.
• Complete discussion questions.

Connotation Homework 2

• Read Sahra Vang Nguyen’s biography in the “AAPI Women Voices” story.
• Analyze the connotations in Sahra Vang Nguyen’s “Idolize” poem.

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Image from Untold Stories Through Poetry

Curriculum Developer:

Megan Roberto

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Curriculum Contributors:

Prabhneek Heer, Kristy Phan

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AAPI Women Voices: Identity & Activism in Poetry