Nov. 13 Entrance Slip - The Butterfly Catcher

Hearing Jorge’s story through Kathryn’s butterfly net of dance and then grief was deeply moving. Recently, I’ve been noticing it difficult to fall into my course readings, so the process has been slow and tedious. This was not the case with Kathryn’s Butterfly catcher — her storytelling was immersive. I immediately fell into the story and felt quite connected to her. As a queer woman with many queer male friends, this unique kinship is full of life and love, and I appreciated Kathryn sharing her experience with this connection.

I relate to this idea of being a butterfly net for the stories of others. In fact, in one of my garden poems I wrote, “I am from the dreams of my grandmothers.” To me this means that I am not just living my life for me, but for all my female ancestors who didn’t have the same privileges that I do. Sometimes this feels like a heavy weight, but more often it provides a sense of perspective and a certain stubbornness that largely equates to motivation. I feel the same way about queer ancestors and the importance of telling their stories, in direct (like Kathryn’s story) and indirect ways (like Kathryn’s art). I also think this analogy of the butterfly net is a useful one for how to view our work as decolonial educators. We have a responsibility to wield the net positively and productively to uncover silenced voices and ways of knowing.