Theater and Cultural Diversity in the United States

21M.621

Spring 2006

Kresge RRA TR 3-5

Thomas Defrantz (10-272, 3-6957; defrantz@mit.edu)

Secrecy and Gender

For Tuesday, March 16, write a short poem that explores a secret that you hold surrounding gender. The poem should be inspired by some thought, experience, desire, question, or secret concern that you have about gender. The form of the poem is entirely open; it can be in blank verse or in some rhyming form; it might be a series of two or three haiku.

Your poem may be oblique or direct in its content; it does not need to be a coming-out story, although it might; it does not need to be a “first time” story, although it might.

Your poem does need to make reference to a secret that you hold without revealing that secret. Your poem text should probably not be humorous; the secret that you explore in this poem must mean something important and urgent to you. You should not try to write something funny or entertaining; take this opportunity to dig deeply into your own conception of gender and find something new about yourself.

To repeat, your poem should not necessarily “reveal” the secret it refers to, rather, it should be inspired by it.

Bring four copies of the poem to class on Thursday.