Michelle Reale
Biographic Data
| ID | 98991 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michelle Reale |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michelle |
| FAMILY NAME | Reale |
| SIGNATURE | REALE M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Arcadia University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Sanguination
Before I learned how to torture a single metaphor into a poem, and waiting out the hot rain on interminable summer nights, the blood flowed without restraint. I cataloged the variations between myself and my father, who was the original bleeder, handkerchief forever to his face. My father would never betray a sorrowful emotion, though his nose did it for him, a crooked river of blood as consolation. My nosebleeds began as a pseudo couvade syndrom…
Devozione
The devotion of saints in many Italian American households is as natural as breathing. One need not be particularly 'religious' in the strict sense of the word. There is a mystical quality, especially among the women that I know and have known. In the following poems, I use poetic inquiry to show a vividness of experience that has an ineffable quality that would be more difficult to render in narrative and to '. . . use poetic representation as a…
A Recently Discovered Bell
Secrets in families are often toxic, leading to a sense of bewilderment at one’s own identity. Within the context of family origins, the discovery of seemingly simple and ordinary artifacts, far from being revelatory, can further obscure meaning and understanding of the person to whom it belonged. The effect of secrets can reverberate for generations affecting who we are, where we come from, and who we have the potential to be
Individual Voices and the Immigrant Italian Family
The Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozie Adiche in her insightful TED talk, expounds on 'the danger of the single story.' I have always had a tacit knowing about this, that one story is just that: one story. If a story is told long and often enough, it becomes the truth, going possibly unquestioned through generations. I continue to explore my father's nuclear family and the narratives of his siblings regarding their lives with their Sicilian fat…
Excavating Alternate Narratives in an Italian American Family
The subjective experience of each family member regarding his or her treatment by a mother or father is interesting to say the least. Each has their own story to tell, which has the power to, by turns, confirm and/or contradict one another's experiences. This can create ripple effect among extended members of a family and influence the intergenerational impact. This article will attempt to explicate, using poetic inquiry, the subjective experienc…
Rolling Waves and Forgetfulness
Mixing qualitative methods and poetic inquiry, I attempt to show the brutal realities of an Afghan refugee trying to find safety and acceptance in his new country of Italy
We Never Thought It Would Be Like This
The arrival of refugees by boat to Sicily is not, perhaps, significant in numbers, but from a humanitarian point of view it is a crisis in the truest sense of the word. Refugees that arrive in port cities are more susceptible to trafficking due to their extra vulnerability and impaired emotional and physical states. The three main preoccupations refugees are: the arduous and often deadly journey, their treatment upon arrival, and rebuilding their…
Living One Day Is Easy, Living a Life Is Hard
The trauma of the refugee is often a persistent condition as they attempt to fit into their new home, often unwanted and without employment, while coping with the trauma of arrival and the loss of sense of self and the familiarity of a homeland. These poems attempt to explicate some aspects of Muhammad's experiences in Sicily. Using Muhammad's own words, I have chosen poetic inquiry to 'represent actual experiences, episode, epiphanies, misfortun…
My Life Belongs to Me
There is an interesting dynamic whenever I, the researcher, approach a refugee to interview. Often I meet the refugee when he is in a state of shock or high agitation, as many are upon their arrival in the refugee camps. Showing some resistance to questioning can be seen as a good sign, as the refugee begins to show some discernment toward to whom he will tell his story with an understanding that he is under no obligation to do so. This is in con…
Sins of the Father
These poems are a representation of the early life of my paternal grandfather, a reluctant immigrant from Sicily. I am emboldened and inspired by H. L. Goodall's writings on the (secret) life of his father, and the toxicity and disorientation of family secrets as well as Laurel Richardson's description of using poetic inquiry to 'concretize emotions, feelings and moods - the most private kinds of feelings, so as to creative experience itself to a…
Who Am I? Who Are They? The 'I' in Italian American
This piece troubles my position as an Italian American who does frequent research in Sicily among recently arrived African refugees and the racism and resistance they often meet upon arrival, causing me to constantly negotiating my identity/belonging within a social, political, and cultural context
How Do You Think I Feel
These poems are a representation of refugees' experience of arrival to an emergency refugee camp in southeastern Sicily, right after the tragic shipwreck of refugees at Lampedusa, in which more than 360 Eritreans lost their lives. These poems give witness to the harsh reality of death, dislocation, confusion, and grief of the men, women, and children who flee their homeland(s) and attempt to find life in a country that is largely hostile to them
Can I Call This Place Home? Poetic Representation of a Border Crossing by Sea
The following poems are both ethnographic and artistic in both scope and intention. I use poetic inquiry to explicate an experience in time, hoping to challenge the way in which we think of what we hear, daily, in the media about immigration and migration, and to put a human face on the phenomenon
Backs Against the Wall
One Among Many
This research poem is a hybrid representation of qualitative methods and poetic inquiry. My work with African refugees in Sicily focuses on their assimilation process on the island and among a population that paradoxically both resent them and to whom they are invisible. Their marginalization notwithstanding, there are several initiatives offered to refugees to acclimatize them and to make them "good citizens" in their new "home." Civics class is…
The Only Way I Can Say This
The creation of this poem came about as I attempted to conflate both the predominantly African refugees' experience in Sicily, those to which things happen, with that of the researcher, the one who watches, waits, and records. Many of the refugees endure seemingly endless and horrendous sea voyages to arrive on the island. One can see the refugees everywhere, in so many different settings, as they attempt to negotiate their new home. One never re…
Sins of the Father
These poems are a representation of the early life of my paternal grandfather, a reluctant immigrant from Sicily. I am emboldened and inspired by H. L. Goodall's writings on the (secret) life of his father, and the toxicity and disorientation of family secrets as well as Laurel Richardson's description of using poetic inquiry to 'concretize emotions, feelings and moods - the most private kinds of feelings, so as to creative experience itself to a…
One Among Many
This research poem is a hybrid representation of qualitative methods and poetic inquiry. My work with African refugees in Sicily focuses on their assimilation process on the island and among a population that paradoxically both resent them and to whom they are invisible. Their marginalization notwithstanding, there are several initiatives offered to refugees to acclimatize them and to make them "good citizens" in their new "home." Civics class is…
Living One Day Is Easy, Living a Life Is Hard
The trauma of the refugee is often a persistent condition as they attempt to fit into their new home, often unwanted and without employment, while coping with the trauma of arrival and the loss of sense of self and the familiarity of a homeland. These poems attempt to explicate some aspects of Muhammad's experiences in Sicily. Using Muhammad's own words, I have chosen poetic inquiry to 'represent actual experiences, episode, epiphanies, misfortun…
Can I Call This Place Home? Poetic Representation of a Border Crossing by Sea
The following poems are both ethnographic and artistic in both scope and intention. I use poetic inquiry to explicate an experience in time, hoping to challenge the way in which we think of what we hear, daily, in the media about immigration and migration, and to put a human face on the phenomenon
The Only Way I Can Say This
The creation of this poem came about as I attempted to conflate both the predominantly African refugees' experience in Sicily, those to which things happen, with that of the researcher, the one who watches, waits, and records. Many of the refugees endure seemingly endless and horrendous sea voyages to arrive on the island. One can see the refugees everywhere, in so many different settings, as they attempt to negotiate their new home. One never re…
Who Am I? Who Are They? The 'I' in Italian American
This piece troubles my position as an Italian American who does frequent research in Sicily among recently arrived African refugees and the racism and resistance they often meet upon arrival, causing me to constantly negotiating my identity/belonging within a social, political, and cultural context
One Among Many
This research poem is a hybrid representation of qualitative methods and poetic inquiry. My work with African refugees in Sicily focuses on their assimilation process on the island and among a population that paradoxically both resent them and to whom they are invisible. Their marginalization notwithstanding, there are several initiatives offered to refugees to acclimatize them and to make them "good citizens" in their new "home." Civics class is…
The Only Way I Can Say This
The creation of this poem came about as I attempted to conflate both the predominantly African refugees' experience in Sicily, those to which things happen, with that of the researcher, the one who watches, waits, and records. Many of the refugees endure seemingly endless and horrendous sea voyages to arrive on the island. One can see the refugees everywhere, in so many different settings, as they attempt to negotiate their new home. One never re…
Rolling Waves and Forgetfulness
Mixing qualitative methods and poetic inquiry, I attempt to show the brutal realities of an Afghan refugee trying to find safety and acceptance in his new country of Italy
We Never Thought It Would Be Like This
The arrival of refugees by boat to Sicily is not, perhaps, significant in numbers, but from a humanitarian point of view it is a crisis in the truest sense of the word. Refugees that arrive in port cities are more susceptible to trafficking due to their extra vulnerability and impaired emotional and physical states. The three main preoccupations refugees are: the arduous and often deadly journey, their treatment upon arrival, and rebuilding their…
Living One Day Is Easy, Living a Life Is Hard
The trauma of the refugee is often a persistent condition as they attempt to fit into their new home, often unwanted and without employment, while coping with the trauma of arrival and the loss of sense of self and the familiarity of a homeland. These poems attempt to explicate some aspects of Muhammad's experiences in Sicily. Using Muhammad's own words, I have chosen poetic inquiry to 'represent actual experiences, episode, epiphanies, misfortun…
My Life Belongs to Me
There is an interesting dynamic whenever I, the researcher, approach a refugee to interview. Often I meet the refugee when he is in a state of shock or high agitation, as many are upon their arrival in the refugee camps. Showing some resistance to questioning can be seen as a good sign, as the refugee begins to show some discernment toward to whom he will tell his story with an understanding that he is under no obligation to do so. This is in con…
Sins of the Father
These poems are a representation of the early life of my paternal grandfather, a reluctant immigrant from Sicily. I am emboldened and inspired by H. L. Goodall's writings on the (secret) life of his father, and the toxicity and disorientation of family secrets as well as Laurel Richardson's description of using poetic inquiry to 'concretize emotions, feelings and moods - the most private kinds of feelings, so as to creative experience itself to a…
Who Am I? Who Are They? The 'I' in Italian American
This piece troubles my position as an Italian American who does frequent research in Sicily among recently arrived African refugees and the racism and resistance they often meet upon arrival, causing me to constantly negotiating my identity/belonging within a social, political, and cultural context
How Do You Think I Feel
These poems are a representation of refugees' experience of arrival to an emergency refugee camp in southeastern Sicily, right after the tragic shipwreck of refugees at Lampedusa, in which more than 360 Eritreans lost their lives. These poems give witness to the harsh reality of death, dislocation, confusion, and grief of the men, women, and children who flee their homeland(s) and attempt to find life in a country that is largely hostile to them
Can I Call This Place Home? Poetic Representation of a Border Crossing by Sea
The following poems are both ethnographic and artistic in both scope and intention. I use poetic inquiry to explicate an experience in time, hoping to challenge the way in which we think of what we hear, daily, in the media about immigration and migration, and to put a human face on the phenomenon
Backs Against the Wall
A Recently Discovered Bell
Secrets in families are often toxic, leading to a sense of bewilderment at one’s own identity. Within the context of family origins, the discovery of seemingly simple and ordinary artifacts, far from being revelatory, can further obscure meaning and understanding of the person to whom it belonged. The effect of secrets can reverberate for generations affecting who we are, where we come from, and who we have the potential to be
Individual Voices and the Immigrant Italian Family
The Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozie Adiche in her insightful TED talk, expounds on 'the danger of the single story.' I have always had a tacit knowing about this, that one story is just that: one story. If a story is told long and often enough, it becomes the truth, going possibly unquestioned through generations. I continue to explore my father's nuclear family and the narratives of his siblings regarding their lives with their Sicilian fat…
Excavating Alternate Narratives in an Italian American Family
The subjective experience of each family member regarding his or her treatment by a mother or father is interesting to say the least. Each has their own story to tell, which has the power to, by turns, confirm and/or contradict one another's experiences. This can create ripple effect among extended members of a family and influence the intergenerational impact. This article will attempt to explicate, using poetic inquiry, the subjective experienc…
Devozione
The devotion of saints in many Italian American households is as natural as breathing. One need not be particularly 'religious' in the strict sense of the word. There is a mystical quality, especially among the women that I know and have known. In the following poems, I use poetic inquiry to show a vividness of experience that has an ineffable quality that would be more difficult to render in narrative and to '. . . use poetic representation as a…
Sanguination
Before I learned how to torture a single metaphor into a poem, and waiting out the hot rain on interminable summer nights, the blood flowed without restraint. I cataloged the variations between myself and my father, who was the original bleeder, handkerchief forever to his face. My father would never betray a sorrowful emotion, though his nose did it for him, a crooked river of blood as consolation. My nosebleeds began as a pseudo couvade syndrom…
Art (15 works) · Literature (13 works) · Poetry (12 works) · Aesthetics (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Law (10 works) · History (9 works) · Philosophy (8 works)