Michelle Kuo: The healing power of reading
ميشيل كو: القوة الاستشفائية للقراءة
Michelle Kuo believes in the power of reading to connect us with one another, creating a shared universe. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
about how reading can change our lives
أن تغير من حياتنا
can give us a shareable world
يمكن للقراءة أن تمنحنا عالماً مشتركاً،
is always partial.
أن تكون علاقات جزئية في جميع الأحوال.
a lonely, idiosyncratic undertaking.
تمثل مهمة فردية ذات خصوصية.
novelist James Baldwin.
من أصول أفريقية جميس بالدوين.
in Western Michigan in the 1980s,
ميشيغان في ثمانينيات القرن العشرين،
interested in social change.
من أصول آسيوية يهتمون بالتغيير الاجتماعي.
as a way to feel racially conscious.
وبوصفها وسيلة للشعور بالوعي العنصري.
I wasn't myself African American,
أنني لستُ بأمريكية من أصول أفريقية،
and indicted by his words.
وأنني من المتهمين بعباراته.
who have all the proper attitudes,
يتحلون بكل السلوكيات اللائقة،
and you somehow expect them to deliver,
وتتوقع وفاءهم بوعودهم بطريقة أو بأخرى،
in the United States.
في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية.
by a powerful history.
risked their lives to fight for education,
ذوو الأصول الأفريقية بحياتهم للقتال من أجل التعليم،
and go to college.
على التخرج والالتحاق بالجامعة.
to the local county jail.
he was in the eighth grade.
الثامن حينها، وكان قد رسب مرتين.
when they got into a fight
رأيته يتدخل لفض شجار بين فتاتين
school was just too depressing
أن المدرسة كئيبة جداً
and teachers were quitting.
كما أن المعلمين يتركون العمل فيها.
and was just too tired to make him come.
وكانت متعبة جداً لجعله يعود إلى المدرسة.
to get him to come to school.
أن أعيد باتريك إلى المدرسة.
and zealously optimistic,
والعشرين من عمري ومتفائلة بحماس،
just to show up at his house
come to school?"
he was reading books.
how to connect to Patrick,
where should I put myself,
أين يتعينُ عَليَ أن ضع نفسي؟
was a place where people with money,
حيث الأثرياء،
الفرصة للمغادرة.
the chance to leave.
that I could do more change
إحداث المزيد من التغيير
a prestigious law degree.
على درجة مرموقة في القانون.
to graduate from law school,
had got into a fight and killed someone.
في مشجارة وقتل أحدهم.
the year after I left.
to tell me something else.
that he had had a baby daughter
أنه قد رُزق بابنة
was rushed and awkward.
فقد كانت محادثتنا مربكة ومستعجلة.
a voice inside me said,
كان هنالك صوت بداخلي ينادي:
you'll never come back."
and I went back.
من كلية الحقوق عدتُ راجعة.
with his legal case.
مساعدته في هذه القضية القانونية.
when I saw him a second time,
write a letter to your daughter,
لمَ لا تكتب رسالة إلى ابنتك؟
and a piece of paper,
that he handed back to me,
التي أعادها إليَ،
could dramatically improve
أن يحرز تقدماً ملحوظاً
could dramatically regress.
أن الطالب يمكن أن ينتكس بشِدهَ.
to his daughter.
I'm sorry for not being there for you."
أنا آسف لأنني لست هنالك من أجلك."
he had to say to her.
that he has more to say,
أن لديه الكثير ليقوله،
he doesn't need to apologize for.
to share with his daughter.
عن الأشجار وعن الطيور،
his favorite book, the dictionary.
الذي أصبح كتابه المفضل.
both of us reading.
حيث كان كل منا يقرأ.
we would read poetry.
hundreds of haikus,
"Share with me your favorite haikus."
I keep house casually."
فأنا لا أرتب المنزل بانتظام."
no one punished me!"
ولم يلق عليَّ أحد باللوم!"
about the first day of snow falling,
عن أول أيام تساقط الثلج،
from each other's coats."
المكسوّ بالصقيع."
as the words themselves.
لا تقل أهمية عن الكلمات نفسها.
لويليام ستانلي ميروينن،
his wife working in the garden
تعمل في الحديقة
the rest of their lives together.
وسيكون الجو ربيعاً
like the early cloud
slowly comes to itself"
line was, and he said,
of a place where time just stops,
يتوقف عنده الزمن،
if he had a place like that,
alongside someone else,
to that person, becomes personal to you.
himself to read and write
الذي علم نفسه القراءة والكتابة
because of his literacy.
بفضل القراءة والكتابة.
of Frederick Douglass as a hero
as one of uplift and hope.
هي إحدى قصص الأمل والمضي قدماً.
in a kind of panic.
أصاب باتريك بنوعٍ من الذعر.
of how, over Christmas,
حول كيف كان الأسياد في أعياد الميلاد
that they can't handle freedom.
التعامل مع الحرية.
stumbling on the fields.
who, like slaves,
about how far we have to go.
في المسافة التي يتعين علينا قطعها.
to get rid of thinking!
of my condition that tormented me."
ومزق أوصالي."
to write, to keep thinking.
تحلى بالشجاعة ليكتب ويواصل التفكير.
how much he seemed like Douglass to me.
كم بدا لي أنه يشبه دوغلاس لحد بعيد.
even though it put him in a panic.
على الرغم من حالة الذعر التي سببتْها له.
stairway with no light.
to read one of my favorite books,
أحد الكتب المفضلة لديّ،
from a father to his son.
what you've done in your life ...
عما حققته في حياتك...
its love, its longing, its voice,
أو الحنين والحب الموجودان بها،
going canoeing down the Mississippi river.
للتجديف عبر نهر المسيسيبي.
finding a mountain stream
to somebody you feel you have let down?
إلى شخص شعر أنه قد خيبَ ظنه؟
to put those people out of your mind.
في هولاء الأشخاص.
facing his daughter,
كل يوم لمواجهة ابنته،
the strength of one's heart.
مدى قوة قلب الفرد منا.
and just ask an uncomfortable question.
وطرح سؤال غير مريح:
as in this Patrick story?
أي قصة باتريك هذه؟
a day in my life.
أن كنتُ جائعة يوماً في حياتي.
is not just about Patrick.
لا تتعلق بباتريك فحسب.
and his grandparents
that world of plenty.
I didn't want to hide myself.
لم أكن أريد أن أخفي نفسي.
I wanted to expose that power
أردتُ أن أُبرز تلك القوة.
the distance between us?
that we can share together,
جنباً إلى جنب،
what happened to Patrick.
حول ما الذي جرى مع باتريك.
because of his record,
died at age 43
about reading that feel exaggerated to me.
والتي أشعر أنها مبالغ فيها.
form being discriminated against.
من التعرض للتمييز.
for what he had lost.
from the poet Derek Walcott?
للشاعر ديريك والكوت ذات قيمة؟
Frederick Douglass,
قراءة مذكرات فريدريك دوغلاس،
even though being conscious hurts.
because we have to think.
لأنه يتوجب علينا أن نفكر.
rather than to not think.
عوضاً عن عدم التفكير.
to speak to his daughter.
يخاطب بها ابنته.
and writing is so powerful.
رابط غاية في القوة.
to imagine the two of them together.
مجتمعاً مع ابنته.
our relationship with each other.
مع بعضنا البعض.
what his favorite line will be.
المفضل لديه.
of his inner life.
عن حياته الداخلية.
"Well, what is my inner life made of?
"حسناً، مماذا تتكون حياتي الداخلية؟
to share with another?"
from Patrick's letters to his daughter.
من خطابات باتريك لابنته.
through the cracks of trees ...
يشعُ من بين جنبات الأشجار الضياء
hang plenty of mulberries.
straight out to grab some."
to the sounds of the words.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michelle Kuo - Teacher, writer, lawyerMichelle Kuo believes in the power of reading to connect us with one another, creating a shared universe.
Why you should listen
Michelle Kuo is a teacher, lawyer, writer and passionate advocate of prison education. She has taught English at an alternative school for kids who were expelled from other schools in rural Arkansas, located in the Mississippi Delta. While at Harvard Law School, she received the National Clinical Association's award for her advocacy of children with special needs. Later, as a lawyer for undocumented immigrants in Oakland, Kuo helped tenants facing evictions, workers stiffed out of their wages and families facing deportation. She has also volunteered at a detention center in south Texas, helping families apply for asylum, and taught courses at San Quentin Prison. Currently, she teaches in the History, Law, and Society program at the American University of Paris, where she works to inspire students on issues of migrant justice and criminal justice. This fall, she is helping to start a prison education program in France.
In 2017, Kuo released Reading with Patrick, a memoir of teaching reading in a rural county jail in Arkansas. A runner-up for the Goddard Riverside Social Justice Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the book explores questions of what it is we owe each other and how starkly economic and racial inequality determine our life outcomes.
(Photo: Jasmine Cowen)
Michelle Kuo | Speaker | TED.com