MY JOURNEY TO HERE

Talia Wooldridge

A second year master’s student in ethnomusicology, I have chosen to focus on Cuban and Brazilian female rappers who are instigating change in their communities through their involvement in a traditionally male-dominated industry. In particular, I have interviewed lesbian and heterosexual women rappers who are denouncing machismo and sexism through their rap lyrics, and forging alliances throughout South and North America to propagate messages of hope, female solidarity and empowerment. I hope to discover, perhaps through this course: are these women educators? How so? How effectively?

This previous paragraph provides a perfect snapshot of my formal education: clear, succinct sentences; correct spelling and grammar; well-shaped ideas. The daughter of colonial-Trinidadian father and Nova Scotian “farmer” mother, my education has closely followed a patriarchal, colonial format. This spanned from public school classrooms to local dance schools and gymnastic clubs to learning piano.

Little did I know, when I signed up for the Liberal Arts College program at Concordia University in Montreal, that I was perpetuating this teacher-student mould; I believed, quite sincerely, that by choosing to study at the Liberal Arts College, I was pursuing a broad education. How ironic and funny. I soon learned my “broad education” theory was upside down, thanks to a supplementary “women in world religion” course taught by a fantastic professor; I was faced with patriarchal canons and we avoided major religions. My notions of education, what I had learned and how I was being taught were subtly rearranged.

When I discontinued the Liberal Arts program, I was beginning to challenge and question the canonical texts that we studied at “the College,” as well as looking to other disciplines such as linguistics, religion, women’s studies and communications to compliment my seemingly lopsided academic major. I decided the only way to exist and learn was to get away. I felt like I was on a roller-coaster ride that was shaping me with its ups and downs as I transitioned from adolescence to young adulthood – unfortunately, I felt that I was being shaped in to who I was not.

Bless that intuition.