My name is Barbara and I am a student at
Northern Virginia Community College. I love adventures, dancing, philosophy, and reading good books. My project for this past semester in my
African American English class (ENG 254) involved reading a full-length novel
by an African American author, writing a paper about why I believed it deserved
its own museum exhibiting, and then creating an actual online exhibit for the
book. This is my final product.
As soon as I had read the first few sentences of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, I knew that this was the book I wanted to use. Ellison drew me in with his beautiful word choice of gut-wrenching honesty and blues-tinged humor. Take a look at some of the favorite quotes I chose to see what I am talking about. This work inspired me to recognize that I have a voice, and that it is part of my responsibility as a human being to use my voice to help others recognize theirs. My hope is that this exhibit will help you better appreciate and value Ellison’s masterpiece—encouraging you to read it if you have not already, or inspiring you to travel back to the day when you first opened the novel and remember the richness that the pages hold. I'd like to conclude this exhibit with a poem I wrote inspired from the insights I gained from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. |
"I Am Not Invisible, Man"
by Barbara Montgomery
inspired by Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
I am not invisible, man
Ellison knew the truth.
These hands here, they touch
These lips now, they move
This mind, it thinks and it dreams.
You may choose not to see me
You may bump in to me
And pretend I'm not there
You may choose not to hear me
You may speak over my talking
And deafen your ears
But unless you live your life without all your senses
You ain't never gonna be able to deny that I ain't here.
by Barbara Montgomery
inspired by Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
I am not invisible, man
Ellison knew the truth.
These hands here, they touch
These lips now, they move
This mind, it thinks and it dreams.
You may choose not to see me
You may bump in to me
And pretend I'm not there
You may choose not to hear me
You may speak over my talking
And deafen your ears
But unless you live your life without all your senses
You ain't never gonna be able to deny that I ain't here.