-as i walked out one evening remix-

When I first began thinking about this assignment, my thoughts about my identity went straight to white, female, American, and Mormon. While these things are all certainly true and do affect so much of my existence and interactions in this world, I wanted to dig a little deeper. What are other aspects of my identity? As I thought about this, my favorite poem, W.H. Auden’s “As I Walked Out One Evening”, came to mind. And I quickly decided it captures so many aspects of my identity: an intellectual, a lover of words, a romantic in an unromantic reality, and so on. With that, I decided to explore remixing specific lines of the poem. Once I began, I came across a website called Canva that is very user friendly and can be used to make posters, cards, invitations, etc. It became the platform I used primarily throughout this process and will definitely be one I will return to. My project came into fruition as I decided to superimpose specific lines of the poem on top of pictures of people close to me getting married. This created an interesting juxtaposition because the poem discusses humans’ natural inclination and need to find love and make connections with others despite the haunting realities of Time. The poem begins with two lovers speaking and then moves into commentary on the power and inescapable aspect of Time. However, in the end, though the lovers are now gone, “the clocks had ceased their chiming, and the deep river ran on.” I used four different sets of lines from the poem that captures the fear and disintegration Time brings, but the photos exhibit the romantic aspect of the poem and our desire to love. However, the remix aspect comes in because I am imposing additional commentary on the poem because all four of those couples were married in the Temple. This brings up interesting commentary on how the LDS perception of time and our knowledge of eternal marriage softens the sting of the realities of mortal life and allows us to fare what life brings with more peace of mind. And interestingly enough, by the time I was finished with the project, it captured my identity as everything I listed previously (intellectual, etc.), but also one of the things I was trying to explore past: a Mormon. The reality is, being LDS identifies so much of what I do, think, see, and feel.

            This was a really interesting project to help me explore my identity, and this is a great tool to get students invested in their work. It instantly becomes something they care about and brings an aspect of choice and autonomy into the picture, which is a powerful tool in teaching and learning. On top of that, it allows the students to gain perspective of their classmates’ identities and learn to come to terms with that which is different from what they know or have experienced.

-M