#eleanor khirallah writing assignment

[ecopoeticsatchicago]

Week 9 Writing Assignment

GREAT

WATER                         AGREEMENT

The State                     ,

The Province                         ,

The Commonwealth                       ,

The Government that have a shared duty to protect, conserve and 

manage  finite Waters; 

                                     these form a system.

Management in the Basin

is essential to integrity of the Ecosystem;

Managing these Waters will restore them

As A Dependent Basin

and Continued adequate Water             for                                 the people;

The States must balance economic protection as (a) reinforcing pillar of development;

there has been significant progress in restoring the Ecosystem.

the Waters remain at risk.  

In light of the demands that may be placed on the Water,

the States and Provinces must act;  

There are threats of serious or irreversible damage—

postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation;

Harmony in the Basin Reaffirming,

The principles of the Great Lakes Charter.

Acknowledging,

Nothing is intended to provide(d) for the rights of aboriginal peoples

or the rights held by any Tribe

recognized by the federal government of the United States

based upon the government of the United States.

acknowledging the commitment of these peoples to preserve and protect the waters of the Basin The continuing and abiding roles of the federal government continue unaffected;

the valuable contribution of Commission;

dependent upon cooperation.  

Agree. 

SOURCE: http://www.glslcompactcouncil.org/Docs/Agreements/Great%20Lakes-St%20Lawrence%20River%20Basin%20Sustainable%20Water%20Resources%20Agreement.pdf 

WORKING NOTES

In week 5, I experimented with erasure on a different doc semi-related to my final project, and one of Prof. Scappettone’s comments was to try creating complete sentences instead, so that was my guide throughout this. For the purpose of this assignment, I used the first two pages of the “GREAT LAKES—ST. LAWRENCE RIVER BASIN SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES AGREEMENT.” It just so happened that the part about tribal rights really fit with the Whereas reading, so even though I wasn’t planning on exploring that as much with my final, I think it fits really nicely within this piece to demonstrate the general oppressive and controlling nature of the federal government when it comes to water. Further, it’s intriguing that this is a pseudo-cooperative federal/state/local agreement where these states pretend to be committed to the sanctity of the Great Lakes and where the federal government pretends they care about the lakes (even though they want to create pipelines and pumps and look for resources). Within that, then, too, what plays out at a local level is absurd, which is what I’ve been discussing over the weeks/what I hope to convey with the final. Basically I think this document will be great as an intro to the collection of works and texts in my final project because it’s THE document that “creates” the control of these waters--this document helped lead to the Great Lakes being trapped in this relationship with our governments and what dictated water access. That’s why I took the liberty of seriously erasing and plugging in different parts with this assignment. 

There are 29 pages, so for my final, I’d like to do the whole thing as one part, and instead of just cutting and forming sentences, I might try inserting names of places where water has been cut off (or something). Regardless, for my final, the whole document will be played around with, even though this one was only the first two pages. 

[ecopoeticsatchicago]

Week 7: Mapping

(eleanor khirallah)

So to preface this: this specific map has nothing to do with my final project because I was inspired in the moment/I wasn’t home this weekend, so I couldn’t map out a location in Detroit. However, the mapping assignment did give me a new idea for my one part of my final project, which I will explain in my reading response.

The map presented above is entitled “hey…how do you get to X?” and I constructed it entirely relying on eavesdropping (so hearing!) on a conversation between this super longwinded guy and a couple asking for directions somewhere. I was in East Village with my dad, and as we were leaving Hoosier Mama Pie Company, I started hearing this guy giving this couple directions, but he kept going back and forth that it literally felt like a mapping exercise when I heard it. I wrote down the few points of interests/spots of what he said on my phone (while pretending I was calling an uber—bless my dad for being so patient) as follows:

-walk towards ashland. see all of those people taking pictures in front of that place? wait no. don’t go there.

-turn on pearson

-wait no goddammit 

-cross the street to the library

-keep walking straight down, not towards ashland

-pass a dollar store

-and a small pizza place—i think it’s the owners’ names??

-beyond Arm street (note: I crosschecked with a map—he said Armour)

-there’s the bank

-THEN you’ll see “IT”

-if you go by Ecker Park (note: Eckhart Park, I misheard), you’ve gone too far

so i wrote this all down, and then did two things. I tried walking to the place once they had already gone away (so I didn’t follow), and I saw Eckhart Park, but still cannot figure out what “IT” was. My dad was confused, but like I said, was super sweet and enjoyed walking around at least. I later went on google maps to see where these could be. i still have no idea what “IT” is, but ultimately, I’m surprisingly happy with how much I heard/how much of it was real. The places are named/labeled on the map (if I could figure out their names). Also, another takeaway is that my dad is also now even more confused about what I do in my classes here, so there’s that.

While this didn’t apply to my final project, the readings inspired me to do something next weekend when I go home, which I’ll detail in the reading response section since that’s going to be a more imitation esque thing.  I was going to go to the Point and do some sort of map of the beach in order to connect it to my final, but that felt very contrived, and I would be relying most likely on sight. However, I wanted to push myself, so this was entirely done with my ears.

[ecopoeticsatchicago]

week 6 writing piece

(eleanor khirallah)

[fil-ter]

noun any device, as a tank or tube, containing such a substance for filtering to remove suspended impurities or to recover solids.

The brita is broken again. My roommate says we can’t drink our water without it. She read an article about lead in Chicago’s water. “We might have lead pipes.”

PSA: homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead pipes, fixtures and solder. Pipes underground, collecting dust Water rippling through them Our water. Corrosion by water. Our water. Remember that Flint still doesn’t have clean water. Their water. Versus our water.

“it’s the poor…who suffer the main impact of natural and man-made disasters”  These things don’t happen in places like Hyde Park.   To people like us. “I’m a college professor student.” I remind Jackie of this. She’s being a fool.

I turn on the sink The faucet feels heavy in my hands It’s in my head She’s being a drama queen. Infiltrating my mind Making me see things that don’t exist Are these flakes of lead? In my water? Or did my other roommate just forget to wash the dishes again?

I take a sip and it itches my throat. “Jackie, did that article mention anything about itching?” My stomach hurts and I’m fatigued. I’m also already sick But WebMD claims this could be lead poisoning Are those lead flakes building up inside of me? Latching onto my organs?   I’ve clearly taken too much Nyquil.

“Elle, I’ve been calling your name for the last five minutes.” Hearing loss. “What do you want, Jackie?” Irritability. “Did you ever end up putting up the dishes? I don’t remember. Memory loss. I ignore her and take a nap Sleeping as those flakes build up in my body Fluttering in my chest Thanks to my water.

The calm after the storm. A nonexistent storm For me For us I’m not on any Nyquil anymore My symptoms are gone. My water was clearly always clean. Other’s symptoms aren’t gone. Our water versus their water versus water.

Working Notes:

For my final project, I’m very interested in water access, largely in the context of Michigan and the Great Lakes vs. access to clean water in Flint vs. cutting off access to water in Detroit (it would be a wider evaluation of these hypocritical policies in the context of race, class, and sociopolitical factors. Anyway, this weekend I was sick and trapped in my apartment, so I had to get creative with how I was able to incorporate that within my immediate environment. My Brita filter has been broken for a few days, so that kind of set me off on a path towards examining my water and the potential lead-content in Chicago’s water. Obviously, there’s a clear disconnect from my access to water versus the situations I’m analyzing (e.g. Flint, Chicago, Detroit, etc), and in that way, I was uncomfortable throughout this piece about my own privilege and ability to connect without making light of this horrific environmental problem.

With that in mind, I focused on the different sources I found on lead poisoning and lead in water, incorporating some of the facts after I had written a pretty speculative account beforehand. I included the symptoms from different medical journals and also from articles on the Flint water crisis, too. I also incorporated the corrosion facts into my piece after reading about it from the EPA. I think for my final project I need to figure out better how I’m deconstructing water access, but the research done for this piece was a good start!

Sources:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lead-poisoning/symptoms-causes/syc-20354717

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/12/health/chicago-water-lead-report-bn/index.html

https://www.epa.gov/il/advice-chicago-residents-about-lead-drinking-water

https://www.luc.edu/healthyhomes/leadsafeillinois/leadfacts/rippleeffectsofchildhoodleadpoisoning/

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2105/AJPH.54.8.1245