Simple as A-B-C-D?
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Psalm 118 is an abecedarian, as is Geoffrey Chaucer's translation of a French prayer, "An ABC."
The abecedarian is an ancient poetic form that follows an alphabetical
order. Psalm 118 consists of twenty-two stanzas, one for each letter of
the Hebrew alphabet. In Chaucer's poem, the twenty-three stanzas go from
A to Z (skipping J, U, and W). The modern abecedarian is now more of a
mnemonic device, but the tone of prayerful petition lingers.
Secular prayer and sacred memorial, Devi S. Laskar's "Elegy Abecedarian" calls us to remember the eight people murdered in Acworth and Atlanta just last month. Six of the eight people killed by a white suspect were women of Asian descent. Among the six was Suncha Kim, "who is described by family as a wife of 50 years, a grandmother, a woman who enjoyed music and dancing. She received the President’s Volunteer Award during the Obama administration for her efforts in feeding the homeless. She was 69." After reading her entry under K, it is heartbreaking to be directed to return to A, for Acworth and Atlanta, in a cycle reminiscent of the afterward of trauma.
Laskar's lament is not exclusive but includes other victims of racist violence in America. A is also for Ahmaud Arbery, as F is for George Floyd and T for Breonna Taylor. A native of Georgia, Laskar herself was forced to move with her family to California because of racism, to "live in exile inside our own country," as she puts it. Her story runs through the abecedarian like an open sore.
While mourning the victims of racism, Laskar's "Elegy Abecedarian" also calls us to action. We can support anti-racism groups in the country and anti-racist legislation in Congress. We can read the stories, poems, essays, and pamphlets by racially mnioritized writers in order to seek to understand. Laskar names the authors who have helped her to survive, superb writers such as Cathy Park Hong and Natasha Trethewey. Movingly she pays tribute to her friend Elizabeth Rosner, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, whose book about living with trauma The Alphabet of Inadequate Language inspired Laskar to write her essay in the form of an abecedarian.
Laskar knows very well that language is, ultimately, inadequate to atrocities and our response. Still, we feel the urge to speak and write, as if to communicate, to reach out, is the beginning of healing. She and four other Asian women writers will be reading this Saturday at an event organized by Singapore Unbound and the Evergreen Review (see details below). The event is an act of protest as well as a time for community. All are welcome.
Secular prayer and sacred memorial, Devi S. Laskar's "Elegy Abecedarian" calls us to remember the eight people murdered in Acworth and Atlanta just last month. Six of the eight people killed by a white suspect were women of Asian descent. Among the six was Suncha Kim, "who is described by family as a wife of 50 years, a grandmother, a woman who enjoyed music and dancing. She received the President’s Volunteer Award during the Obama administration for her efforts in feeding the homeless. She was 69." After reading her entry under K, it is heartbreaking to be directed to return to A, for Acworth and Atlanta, in a cycle reminiscent of the afterward of trauma.
Laskar's lament is not exclusive but includes other victims of racist violence in America. A is also for Ahmaud Arbery, as F is for George Floyd and T for Breonna Taylor. A native of Georgia, Laskar herself was forced to move with her family to California because of racism, to "live in exile inside our own country," as she puts it. Her story runs through the abecedarian like an open sore.
While mourning the victims of racism, Laskar's "Elegy Abecedarian" also calls us to action. We can support anti-racism groups in the country and anti-racist legislation in Congress. We can read the stories, poems, essays, and pamphlets by racially mnioritized writers in order to seek to understand. Laskar names the authors who have helped her to survive, superb writers such as Cathy Park Hong and Natasha Trethewey. Movingly she pays tribute to her friend Elizabeth Rosner, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, whose book about living with trauma The Alphabet of Inadequate Language inspired Laskar to write her essay in the form of an abecedarian.
Laskar knows very well that language is, ultimately, inadequate to atrocities and our response. Still, we feel the urge to speak and write, as if to communicate, to reach out, is the beginning of healing. She and four other Asian women writers will be reading this Saturday at an event organized by Singapore Unbound and the Evergreen Review (see details below). The event is an act of protest as well as a time for community. All are welcome.
Jee Leong Koh
April 29, 2021
Five Asian women writers, Jerrine Tan, Paula Mendoza, Celina Su, Devi S. Laskar, and Pauline Park, will be reading for "It's white supremacy, not sex addiction, stupid!," a protest against anti-Asian hate, co-presented by the Evergreen Review and Singapore Unbound on Saturday, May 1, 7.30 pm ET.
RSVP Jee at jeeleong@evergreenreview.com for Zoom link.
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