Monday, June 8, 2009

How I learned English

A while ago public television of Sacramento contacted me because they had heard author Erin Dealey said during a presentation something about me: that I learned English watching Sesame Street.

KVIE, the public station from Sacramento eventually came to my house and filmed a testimony where I explained how that happened. I know that my testimony was aired in Sacramento because once I went to do a school visit there, and some parents were telling me how they had seen me in their TV, although it took me some time to figure out what they were talking about!

I have just found out that CPB received earlier this year a PRWeek award for their My Source initiative in which KVIE had participated with one of their spots, and there, featured in the news, is the spot they made with me.




You can take a closer look at article here, and can find more filmed testimonies here.

3 comments:

gpsimms said...

Yuyi,

That is a great story about your learning of English.

Perhaps you can tell me: I am looking for another Morales poet. She wrote a piece in "Aloud: Voices of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe"

I am sure you are familiar with it. I remember writing a paper years ago about the voice in Ed Morales' book, and a poem I chose to use came froma different Morales, and I loved it. I cannot find it now, being unable to access the book.

I remember one of the first lines of the poem was "porque tu mami black and tu papi tan?" --or along those lines.

If you can point me in the right direction, I am hoping to find the text of the poem.

I googled blogspot poetry and yours came out on top. That seems like a good thing.

Anyway, I started a blog of my own, of which poetry will be amjor component.

http://visitsequalzero.blogspot.com

gpsimms said...

Maybe you can help me:

I was looking for a Morales. I remember writing a paper about "Living in Spanglish" an exclellent book by (I think) Ed Morales. But then later I wrote a paper about Nuyorican Poetry and included a young, unheralded nuyorican poet published only in "Aloud! Voices from the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe"

I remember her name was Morales. I also remember an early line "Porque tu mami black y tu papi tan?"

and another:

"And the mother Fucking white ass"

It was an amazing poem about identity. I hpoe you can point me in the right direction.

http://visitsequalzero.blogspot.com

Yuyi Morales said...

Dear gpsimms, unfortunately I am not familiar with the Morales poet, but I am curious now. I'll look for her book; I see that it is available online. Good luck! And thank you for pointing to a another Morales to look for.
Yuyi