Kirsten Mullen is my Hero!

A previous post is concerning my Renaissance Literature class. It is indeed challenging and Armitage while always entertaining is really a tough instructor. I thoroughly enjoy the class, but dread the tests and assignments with fear and trembling.

My other English class is polar opposite. It is Introduction to Folklore and while it started out quite interesting about the Brothers Grimm, I have this love / hate relationship with the class. The last several weeks we have been focused on the North Carolina hill country ballad singers and bluegrass. While this was interesting for the first couple of classes, it drug on and on and on…. There is only so much bluegrass a person can take. One video on the tradition of telling “Jack Tales” in the NC mountains was so bad I couldn’t understand a word the man was saying. Literally, I sat there for 20 minutes with a blank stare. I’m not sure if it was his mountain, southern accent, his mumbling, the horrible film quality… I had no idea what the guy was saying. So now I’m thinking not only do I need bifocals, I need a hearing aid. (I was truly relived in recitation that week that even the young kids didn’t understand this man.) This past week in Folk we had a pleasant surprise. A wonderful guest speaker. Firs t of all she is this beautiful black woman, with lovely long graying black hair. I love that she embraces her age and wears her mane with pride. Anyway, she is doing some work with Terrell County here in NC. She has some crazy stories. The class was mortified to learn that in the small town where she was working on her project had a “Whites Only” library until 2003. 2003! I just about died on the spot. Of course her story is much more intriguing with stories of the KKK still having regular meetings in this town (as of 2006). Anyway she had us captivated. I found out she was from Texas, so now I like this woman even more. After class the professor invited us to join them for lunch (which was brave since our class is over 100 people). Only four of us took him up on his offer (plus the TAs) but we had a delightful lunch with Kirsten. I could have sat there all day.