2021 PHM Health Professions Student Creative Writing & Art Contest Awards Ceremony
May 07, 2021- 00:49We'll start in about 30 seconds.
- 01:11Anna Reisman: Welcome,
- 01:12everybody,
- 01:15to the 2020-To a
- 01:272021 PHM Health Professions Student Creative Writing & Art Contest.
- 01:28I'm the director of the program.
- 01:32I want to tell you about two new things
- 01:34about this year's contest,
- 01:38for those of you who have been here in
- 01:40past years.
- 01:43This is our first award presentation
- 01:44in Zoom.
- 01:45Last year,
- 01:47it was so early in the pandemic,
- 01:51we didn't know how to do this.
- 01:54Here we are now with more knowledge.
- 01:56Until this year,
- 02:01the contest was only open to medical students.
- 02:08The name was the Margerite Rush
- 02:09Learner contest.
- 02:14It awarded in only poetry and prose.
- 02:18I'm grateful to the Rush Learner
- 02:22family for funding these prizes.
- 02:26We then allowed art submissions later on.
- 02:31And in the spirit of interprofessional training,
- 02:34we changed the name of the contest to
- 02:38make it more general and invited
- 02:41submissions from all of the health
- 02:43professions at Yale.
- 02:47This year,
- 02:53we received a whopping 73 submissions
- 02:55among the three categories.
- 02:59There were beautiful and outstanding
- 03:02pieces and the judges had a tough time deciding.
- 03:05Can I get the next slide, please?
- 03:08So,
- 03:11these are the judges for this year.
- 03:15And each of these judges were asked
- 03:18to evaluate either poetry,
- 03:19prose,
- 03:20or art.
- 03:24Quite a few of them have volunteered
- 03:25their time for years,
- 03:28and some are new this year.
- 03:29Aba Black,
- 03:34Sharon Osteld-Johns,
- 03:38Rita Rienzo,
- 03:44and Nora Segar are new. Thank you.
- 03:48We'll start with art,
- 03:51then move on to poetry and prose.
- 03:55I'm thrilled to have several winners
- 04:01from each category who are here are
- 04:02share their work.
- 04:06You're welcome to use the chat or Q&A
- 04:09and we have closed captioning.
- 04:13May I have the next slide please?
- 04:211st and 2nd prize winner in the Art
- 04:24category is Simone Hasselmo.
- 04:27Each piece is a graphic narrative,
- 04:29or a comic.
- 04:35The first is called "First spring"
- 04:40and the the other is called "rabbits."
- 04:42I'll turn things over to Simone.
- 04:45Speaker: Thank you.
- 04:50I think I need to share my screen.
- 04:54OK.
- 05:02I am a third or fourth year medical
- 05:04student at this point.
- 05:06I'm not really sure which.
- 05:10I'll be reading a piece of mine
- 05:19called "Rabbits" which is based on my
- 05:21grandfather's memoirs.
- 05:25[Student reading
- 05:30first panel on screen.]
- 06:00[Student reading top-right panel on screen.]
- 06:17[Student reading: Middle right panel.]
- 06:26[Student reading: Bottom right panel.]
- 06:45[Student reading: Top left panel.]
- 07:09[Student reading: Top right panel.]
- 07:14[Teacher reading: middle right panel.]
- 07:20[Student reading: Bottom right.]
- 07:31[Student reading: Left side of screen.]
- 07:49[Student reading: Right side of screen.]
- 08:16[Student reading: Top left.]
- 08:27[Student reading: "In May 1942 . . . "]
- 08:35[Student reading: "Himmler responded . . .
- 08:36"]
- 08:42[Student reading: "He wanted to know . . . "]
- 08:52[Student reading: Top right.]
- 09:14[Student reading: "The outcome . . . "]
- 09:34[Student reading: "To me,
- 09:36the case . . . "]
- 09:59[Student reading: "His victims were
- 10:00called . . . "]
- 10:01Thank you.
- 10:08Anna Reisman: Thank you,
- 10:09Simone.
- 10:15I feel like we need a moment after that.
- 10:20Thank you so much.
- 10:24We'll hear from Simone again at the
- 10:27end with her other piece.
- 10:30Next up is Julia Cizeski.
- 10:36Her piece is entitled "cigarette
- 10:38Cigarette Paper Owl."
- 10:45Julia is a student at Yale School of Nursing,
- 10:47graduating this year.
- 10:50She is winning 3rd place.
- 10:52Julia?
- 10:54It's all yours.
- 10:55Congratulations.
- 10:58Speaker: Thank you.
- 10:59My name is Julia Cizeski.
- 11:04I'll be graduating in a few weeks as
- 11:10a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
- 11:14I'm dedicated to mental health.
- 11:19This Paper Bird series is partially about that.
- 11:23I'll read my artist statement.
- 11:28Owls appear throughout the world.
- 11:35Their glower has inspired religious text.
- 11:39Some cultures view owls as wisdom,
- 11:43and others as bad omens.
- 11:49My Paper Owls embedded this complex symbolism,
- 11:55and was made out of almost all
- 11:56recycled materials.
- 11:59They're fashioned from newspapers,
- 12:01paper bags,
- 12:05and shopping receipts.
- 12:11The birds represent our human death
- 12:14howl as we battle consumerism,
- 12:16substance abuse,
- 12:21and struggle to stay connected with
- 12:23Mother Nature.
- 12:24Thank you.
- 12:29Anna Reisman: Thank you so much,
- 12:30Julia.
- 12:33I have one quick question for you.
- 12:35What is the size of this owl?
- 12:39Speaker: It's about life-size.
- 12:42I would say it's about 12 to 14 inches tall.
- 12:47Anna Reisman: And how many owls are in the series?
- 12:51Speaker: I've been doing these for
- 12:52several years.
- 12:53I have a lot of them.
- 12:55Some of them are flying,
- 12:59some are in people's homes now.
- 13:05I have a permanent installation in
- 13:10New Mexico in Meowwolf.
- 13:14So they're flying all over the place.
- 13:16If anyone is interested,
- 13:20they can google my name and my
- 13:21Instagram and my website.
- 13:23Anna Reisman: Thank you so much.
- 13:25Fantastic.
- 13:26Next slide, please.
- 13:28So,
- 13:33this piece received an honorable mention.
- 13:38The title is "temporality and healing"
- 13:40by Natnael Doilicho,
- 13:48a Yale student of medicine who will
- 13:50graduate in 2022.
- 13:53He couldn't be with us,
- 13:57but he shared a paragraph with us.
- 14:03I used an old copy of Gray's anatomy,
- 14:07a rose from Valentine's Day,
- 14:10and a need I practice with.
- 14:14I wanted to create the feeling of
- 14:15time and decay,
- 14:18music as temporal rhythmic,
- 14:21and the art of practice.
- 14:32This extends the beauty of things,
- 14:33even if only temporary,
- 14:38and recognizes that these are beautiful.
- 14:40Thank you.
- 14:42Next slide,
- 14:44please.
- 14:48This is another honorable mention,
- 14:53created by Anastasia Eberhardt
- 14:56graduating in 2023.
- 15:01Speaker: Thank you for honoring my artwork.
- 15:05The title of my piece is named for
- 15:13the multi-headed dog that guards the
- 15:19entrance to the underworld in Greek mythology.
- 15:23I printed this image with ink using a
- 15:24printing press.
- 15:26As for the imagery,
- 15:29I encourage people to find whatever
- 15:32meaning they can from the image.
- 15:40One meaning I'll highlight is a body
- 15:45occupying multiple headspaces at one time.
- 15:46But they work together.
- 15:50Beneath them is an olive branch. Thank you
- 15:52Anna Reisman: Thank you.
- 15:58I'm also curious about the size of this piece.
- 16:06Speaker: The length is about a foot,
- 16:08and it's only about 6 inches tall.
- 16:11Anna Reisman: Thank you.
- 16:13It's a wonderful piece.
- 16:18This is our final piece from the Art section.
- 16:23It's another honorable mention by
- 16:25Chang Su,
- 16:26Yale School of Medicine 2021.
- 16:30Speaker: Hi,
- 16:32this is Chang.
- 16:35I'm graduating this year,
- 16:39and I'll become an internal medicine resident.
- 16:43This piece is done with colored
- 16:49pencil and teabags out of accident.
- 16:51As I was finishing the piece,
- 16:58I spilled some coffee and rather as
- 17:00regarding that as a total accident,
- 17:04I dragged teabags over the piece and
- 17:05burned the edges to age it.
- 17:16These symbolize happiness and good luck.
- 17:23Bian Que was a nickname given to an
- 17:26honorable doctor.
- 17:29He formulated "look,
- 17:31listen, act,
- 17:32and touch."
- 17:41This is a guarding principal in medicine.
- 17:46This serves as a reminder to always
- 17:51strive to treat patients holistically. Thank you
- 17:54Anna Reisman: Thank you.
- 17:57Two questions: how big is the piece,
- 17:59and also,
- 18:00how did you use the teabag?
- 18:05Speaker: The piece is slightly bigger
- 18:09than an 8x4 paper.
- 18:13A bit bigger than regular sized printing pages.
- 18:15The
- 18:22You have to use black tea or Earl grey
- 18:23to get the color.
- 18:28You squeeze out the extra water so
- 18:30it's only damp.
- 18:33If you want a darker color,
- 18:37you pinch the bag more and you can dab
- 18:41with a smaller area to darken it more.
- 18:43If you want it lighter,
- 18:47you leave the teabag as big as
- 18:48possible and dab lightly.
- 18:51Anna Reisman: Thank you so much.
- 18:53Congrats, again.
- 18:55OK.
- 18:58We'll move on to Poetry.
- 19:01I'll start by reading out the winners.
- 19:03Then we'll hear from three of them.
- 19:08First place is awarded to Anna Preston
- 19:14who is a Yale medical student.
- 19:18Second place goes to Mary Elliot for
- 19:21her poem "reconciliation.
- 19:27" And third place goes to Mariko
- 19:28Fujimoto Rooks,
- 19:32a Yale School Public Health student
- 19:36for her poem "neon tetra fish Negro."
- 19:41Our honorable mentions are A
- 19:43aron Phillips,
- 19:46Anna Vignola,
- 19:49Andrea Sparr,
- 19:56all from PA Online program,
- 19:57and again,
- 19:58Mariko Fujimoto Rooks,
- 20:05for a poem entitled "My Name: in Lights."
- 20:08We have Anna Preston here.
- 20:12I welcome you to read your poem and
- 20:14tell us a bit about it.
- 20:16Speaker: Thank you so much.
- 20:18Yeah.
- 20:20This is a poem I've been working on
- 20:21for a while.
- 20:25It's about one of the first patient
- 20:28interactions I had in my full rotation year.
- 20:30It was a brief interaction,
- 20:36but touched me deeply.
- 20:38It's a reflection on that,
- 20:46and our patient encounters and how
- 21:00they can supercede our ability to communicate.
- 21:12An “Odd Affect” She doesn’t say much. She doesn’t meet your eye.
- 21:13She is, as they say, a “poor historian.”
- 21:16The answers we do get come low and slowly,
- 21:17Stiff and halting as soldiers.
- 21:20No, no contractions.
- 21:22No, no bleeding.
- 21:24Yes, she’s had prenatal care. Yes.
- 21:25A pause.
- 21:28She feels safe at home.
- 21:29There is not much more to ask.
- 21:36A round form under a hospital sheet
- 21:37The trace of a tear on a cheek
- 21:40A tangent point on a circle that began
- 21:43years and years ago, and has been turning
- 21:45like a millstone ever since.
- 21:49She is vast and expansive as an ocean,
- 21:52Fathoms stretching below her opaque exterior,
- 21:55But we see only our reflections on the surface and shrug.
- 21:58Perhaps we know better than to look deeper.
- 22:02A swab of the ultrasound,
- 22:03A few more seconds of burdened silence.
- 22:04We tell ourselves we did what we could.
- 22:08The questions we could never ask dissipate from our minds,
- 22:12Unformed and unspoken, before they even take shape.
- 22:16We close the door on the sea.
- 22:19Thank you.
- 22:26Anna Reisman: Thank you so much.
- 22:27Beautiful poem.
- 22:31So,
- 22:33Mary Elliot,
- 22:36who was our 2nd-place,
- 22:38is also here tonight.
- 22:40Speaker: Hi,
- 22:41everyone.
- 22:43Thanks for having me here.
- 22:47My poem is called "Reconciliation."
- 22:53Even though it’s pronounced “my-tral” valve,
- 22:54I mess up and say “mittral” valve time after time.
- 22:56“My-tral,” my preceptor reminds me.
- 22:59“For mitre—the holy crown—the bishop’s hat.”
- 23:02I carry this error like a pulsing thrombus
- 23:06evident only on ultrasound and dark places—for exemplia gratia, the confessional
- 23:09where long ago the priest sat behind the screen on Saturday afternoons,
- 23:13exasperated maybe, his silhouetted head in his hands, and listened.
- 23:18Back then, I could expose my faults unseen:
- 23:21“Father, I have sinned: ‘Mittral, mittral, mittral, mittral, mittral.’”
- 23:27He would absolve me with two Hail Marys, an Our Father and a Glory-Be,
- 23:31and the clot in my heart would dissolve
- 23:33and my soul would sing “mytral” the way God intended.
- 23:38But medication reconciliation is different: There is no screen.
- 23:42I sit with the patient face to face.
- 23:45“Let’s update your medications,” I announce,
- 23:47and mispronounce them all.
- 23:53I say “carvedielol” and the patient says
- 23:54“car-ved-ilol.”
- 23:55I say “atorvastatin” and the patient says “atorva-stat-in.”
- 23:58I say “panto-pray-zole.”
- 24:01The patient sighs: “Pan-toe-prazole.”
- 24:05The patient is frustrated with our Fred and Ginger number,
- 24:08our “I say tomato; you say tomahto” routine.
- 24:12His skepticism is palpable. Still, he cooperates.
- 24:15I listen to his heart and lungs and write it all down:
- 24:18“Inspirational wheezes.”
- 24:22“Inspiratory wheezes,” says my preceptor.
- 24:25Still, she pardons me and my mittering of mitres, here on this cusp
- 24:29where the holy crown is strange again—
- 24:33Like that moment when, as a child, I opened the book The King Who Rained,
- 24:35and the king was floating in the sky and raining like clouds on a spring day,
- 24:39and Mother, sensing what was in her throat, opened her mouth,
- 24:43looked in the mirror, and saw the frog.
- 24:57Anna Reisman: Thank you so much,
- 24:58Mary.
- 25:03I think my favorite phrase in that is
- 25:04"inspirational wheezes."
- 25:07Speaker: Thank you.
- 25:08And thank you for having me.
- 25:14Anna Reisman: Our final student winner
- 25:17is Anna Vignola who will read her poem
- 25:19called "Human Anatomy."
- 25:21Speaker:
- 25:26Human Anatomy
- 25:27This must be what God felt
- 25:30the day he made Eve, cracking his knucklesbefore grabbing the bone saw.
- 25:34I’m sure he already knewwhat they told us—careful
- 25:38not to cut too deep and rememberthe edges will be sharp.
- 25:43It takes a long timeto dismantlea ribcage. But honestly,
- 25:45I can’t remember anythingexcept her fingers resting
- 25:48in the bag, long and loosely hung, nailscherry red. Her hand—
- 25:52elegant and terrifyingly still
- 25:55beckoning me to come closerto tell me what it really feels like
- 26:00to be God, to namethe unnamed things that hold
- 26:01us
- 26:02together, to remind me—cuttoo deep and you’ll ruin the heart.
- 26:12Anna Reisman: Thank you so much,
- 26:13Anna.
- 26:14Super powerful poem.
- 26:16Thank you,
- 26:17everybody,
- 26:24who took part in the poetry competition.
- 26:26We'll move on to Prose.
- 26:34First place in prose has been awarded
- 26:40to Gregory Shields for his piece
- 26:45"Ladies' Perfume and Airbag Dust."
- 26:47Second place to Alexandra Kimmel.
- 26:50Third place to Stephen Ghazikhanian,
- 26:51also from Yale School of Medicine,
- 26:57from his piece entitled "The Stalker."
- 27:03Honorable mentions are being awarded
- 27:04to Shiliu Wang,
- 27:07Callie Ginapp
- 27:13from Yale School of Medicine 2023,
- 27:14and finally,
- 27:19Mariko Fujimoto Rooks from the YYale
- 27:21School of Public Health.
- 27:25Our first reader will be Gregory Shields,
- 27:29who will read an excerpt from his piece.
- 27:31Speaker:
- 27:36Thank you.
- 27:37Good evening,
- 27:38everybody.
- 27:40My name is Gregory Shields.
- 27:43I'm a first-year PA student at Yale
- 27:44PA Online.
- 27:50The title of my entry is "Ladies
- 27:54Performe and Airbag Dust."
- 28:01It's based on a story I responded to
- 28:04when I was a first responder a few
- 28:06years back.
- 28:10Two girls were in a horrific car accident,
- 28:11and one girl survived.
- 28:18I selected an excerpt that I believe
- 28:20captures the most powerful scene.
- 28:24Our protagonist and narrator is Evan,
- 28:29grappling with the decision to
- 28:31pronounce his patient dead,
- 28:36or perform a very dangerous rescue.
- 28:39We'll start where he's crawling
- 28:41inside the vehicle.
- 28:46"In order to reach her,
- 28:50I had to crawl upside down.
- 29:04The haunting scent of lady's perfume
- 29:06and airbag dust.
- 29:10I leaned toward the passenger seat,
- 29:12and there she was.
- 29:17She was probably no older than 20.
- 29:20Her makeup was fresh,
- 29:26and despite the blood accumulating in
- 29:27both eye sockets,
- 29:31I could tell she was very pretty.
- 29:35Her arms hung limply as though she
- 29:40were a sleeping child being carried to
- 29:41bed by her father.
- 29:43"Jesus."
- 29:44I said.
- 29:53A dull pattering sound.
- 29:54Pat.
- 29:56Pat. Blood.
- 29:57I reached
- 30:04around to feel her skull.
- 30:07It was soft and lumpy,
- 30:14as no human skull should ever feel.
- 30:16"Jesus,"
- 30:18I said again.
- 30:22There was no movement to signify breathing.
- 30:27I pressed two fingers in the side of
- 30:30her neck to feel a pulse.
- 30:31There wasn't one.
- 30:35"Somebody throw me some ears."
- 30:36I called out.
- 30:42A stethoscope was place in my
- 30:43outstretched hand.
- 30:45I listened,
- 30:48but the only heartbeat I could hear
- 30:49was my own,
- 30:54as if it were attempting to beat for both of us.
- 30:58I had to make the call.
- 31:03My head knew she was dead,
- 31:07but my heart knew she was someone's
- 31:09baby girl.
- 31:10Somewhere,
- 31:16a mom and a dad had no idea she was
- 31:20hanging upside down with her head
- 31:21smashed in.
- 31:24She was someone's best friend,
- 31:26someone's sister.
- 31:30That's when it hit me.
- 31:33She could be the sister of the
- 31:37not-dead girl outside the vehicle.
- 31:41I closed my eyes and saw a college
- 31:44graduation that would never happen.
- 31:48A wedding dress that would never be word.
- 31:55A young mother cradling a baby that
- 31:57would never exist.
- 32:03I was about to sign the dotted line
- 32:07that would finalize the termination of
- 32:08all her story lines.
- 32:12Her story gets cut off right here in
- 32:13this moment.
- 32:16All of the unfinished scenes left on
- 32:19the editing floor,
- 32:23to be blown away like ashes in the wind."
- 32:25Thank you
- 32:26.
- 32:29Anna Reisman: Thank you so much.
- 32:33That's in the middle of the piece?
- 32:36Do you want to tell us what happens?
- 32:39Speaker: Yeah.
- 32:43This was originally part of a larger story.
- 32:47I think I wanted it to be part of a
- 32:49novel at some point.
- 32:52I was detailing a lot of my
- 32:54experiences as a paramedic.
- 32:55This was one chapter of that.
- 33:00There are different tones throughout
- 33:01the stories,
- 33:04which is the nature of EMS.
- 33:08There's some banter between him and
- 33:12his partner as they arrive at this
- 33:14chaotic scene.
- 33:17They're ribbing each other and
- 33:18they're casual,
- 33:22which is an interesting dynamic when
- 33:24there's chaos all around you,
- 33:27and these two guys are just doing their job.
- 33:32But I wanted to speak to the amount of
- 33:36emotional detachment required for that profession.
- 33:40I didn't have time to get to when I'm
- 33:43explaining how this is going to affect
- 33:45these people for the rest of their lives,
- 33:47but for me,
- 33:51it was about an hour of my shift,
- 33:54and then onto the next one.
- 33:57So that was the main idea that I
- 34:00wanted to push across with the story,
- 34:03and that's why I selected the part
- 34:04that I did.
- 34:07I think that was the most impactful
- 34:11moment that the entire story was
- 34:12centered around.
- 34:15Anna Reisman: Thank you.
- 34:21I think that excerpt did capture that
- 34:22juxtaposition of time.
- 34:29Anna Reisman: We'll hear next from our
- 34:32third-place Winne,
- 34:33Stephen Ghazikhanian,
- 34:38with his piece entitled "The Stalker."
- 34:41Speaker: Thank you for that
- 34:47introduction and the opportunity to read my piece.
- 34:53My short story begins with a woman in a dream.
- 34:58She's running in the dark woods being
- 35:01chased by her stalker.
- 35:04She's ultimately
- 35:10caught and the stalker reveals their
- 35:12obsession with her.
- 35:16When she opens her eyes,
- 35:22she noticed it was only a dream and is relieved.
- 35:27She turned towards her desk,
- 35:31and her humidifier hadn't even been
- 35:32turned on.
- 35:35There was a can of Pringles,
- 35:39a bag of Hot Cheetos,
- 35:41and some M&Ms.
- 35:47She's still in fight or flight.
- 35:54She took a nice,
- 35:57deep breath,
- 35:59calming her buzzing anxiousness.
- 36:02As she exhaled,
- 36:08the room filled with a pungent smell
- 36:09of cheap tequila.
- 36:12Filled with guilt,
- 36:19her head spun with thoughts that her
- 36:22vestibular system rushed to halt.
- 36:27She wished for a second that her
- 36:31mattress would simply envelope her,
- 36:34slowly draining her pain.
- 36:36Alas,
- 36:40there came a point at which the
- 36:42mattress fought back.
- 36:47She turned to her mirror,
- 36:49looking at her tangled,
- 36:51frizzy,
- 36:53dark brown main.
- 36:59She wished her yaya could braid them
- 37:01into order.
- 37:06If her yaya had seen how her littler
- 37:07Tasoula
- 37:11turned into this,
- 37:19she would be embraced in shame.
- 37:22"Fuck."
- 37:24She said.
- 37:29She reached out for a drink.
- 37:35Immediately after drinking the liquid,
- 37:37she felt shame.
- 37:42She didn't even know how she wound up
- 37:49curled in the fetal position under feet
- 37:50of blankets,
- 37:51clothes, and towels.
- 37:54"Come with me to a meeting,
- 37:56Tassi.
- 37:59They've helped me so much.
- 38:01They've changed my life."
- 38:06Nick was so full of shit.
- 38:10She went to those goddamn meetings.
- 38:15But the only thing that could change
- 38:20her life was some tequila.
- 38:23And it was waiting for her,
- 38:29lurking among the shelves in her kitchen.
- 38:31She would be so unassuming,
- 38:37opening the door for an ice pack.
- 38:42She's only 5'3" and 140 pounds.
- 38:45It can take her.
- 38:47And
- 38:49let's be real,
- 38:53she keeps it around the house.
- 38:55She's basically asking for it.
- 39:01She wanted to break free and return to
- 39:04how life used to be.
- 39:05And yet,
- 39:11she felt impending doom.
- 39:16The walls stared back,
- 39:18offering no advice.
- 39:20Paralyzed,
- 39:23she closed her eyes and
- 39:27wanted to drift back to the woods,
- 39:29where maybe,
- 39:32she could fight off the stalker.
- 39:33Thank you.
- 39:36Anna Reisman: Thank you,
- 39:37Steven.
- 39:40What inspired this story?
- 39:42Speaker:
- 39:44A lot of things.
- 39:46Many things.
- 39:51I would say I was doing a
- 39:58subI at the VA at Psych ER and hearing
- 40:00a lot of stories.
- 40:03And so I began to write.
- 40:06Anna Reisman: All right.
- 40:07So,
- 40:09really vivid details.
- 40:12I think you used all the senses.
- 40:17You really created a very convincing
- 40:20feeling that we were there with
- 40:25Anastasia in those moments.
- 40:26Thank you again.
- 40:27Congratulations.
- 40:29Speaker: Thank you.
- 40:35Anna Reisman: Our next Prose reader is
- 40:36Shiliu Wang.
- 40:41She will share her piece called "The Doorstep."
- 40:44Speaker: Hi everyone.
- 40:46My name is Shiliu Wang.
- 40:49I'm finishing up my first year.
- 40:53I've condensed my piece to fit the
- 40:55time constraints.
- 41:00"Nursing school second semester.
- 41:07What I'm thinking while sitting on a doorstep.
- 41:13I'm thinking about oxygen and
- 41:15nutrients keeping me a live,
- 41:18live,
- 41:20sustained,
- 41:21warm.
- 41:24I'm thinking about my brain,
- 41:29and how it sends lightning-like
- 41:36signals instructing my body to shiver.
- 41:39I'm thinking about how cold I am
- 41:41right now.
- 41:44How it releases sugar,
- 41:50and how that sugar corrodes the inner
- 41:52lining of blood vessels.
- 42:01I looked at my papers attached to my clipboard,
- 42:07to find the name of the person whose
- 42:12door I just knocked on: Jamie.
- 42:14I think about racism,
- 42:21and how it makes a never-ending stress level,
- 42:26which corrodes the blood vessels.
- 42:32I hear the fear rising in her voice
- 42:33when she calls me,
- 42:38asking me to translate a document from
- 42:44English into mandarin.
- 42:46I cough,
- 42:51thinking about the chronic
- 42:54constriction of the airways.
- 42:58I think about how dense populations
- 43:05of BIPOC communities endure the highest
- 43:07rates of average of the country,
- 43:13and are the highest-brutalized by COVID-19.
- 43:18They're 75% more likely to breathe in
- 43:23the putrid air of landfills,
- 43:24highways.
- 43:29I'm thinking about the poor people in
- 43:32the richest country in the world,
- 43:37making decisions like "do I go to my
- 43:40doctor's appointment or go to work?"
- 43:51My own family faced many of these constrained choices.
- 43:57I knock again.
- 44:02I think about what I'll say if they
- 44:03answer the door.
- 44:06I'm thinking about why I'm standing
- 44:09outside a complete stranger's apartment,
- 44:14asking them if they want to be
- 44:18connected to rental assistance progressum.
- 44:21rograms.
- 44:25I think about how all our liberation
- 44:27is bound together.
- 44:29I think about how sick our society
- 44:33has to be to evict people in the middle
- 44:37of winter in the middle of a pandemic.
- 44:42I think about why we get to decide
- 44:44who and what is normal.
- 44:48I think about normalcy and how it
- 44:49decides which bodies are expandable.
- 44:56I think about how health care workers
- 44:58see themselves as organizers,
- 45:00etc.
- 45:06I think about modeling this to students
- 45:07and how if,
- 45:12alongside learning how to treat,
- 45:18we learn how to dismantle these root
- 45:20causes of why people are sick in the first place.
- 45:25I hear steps approaching the door.
- 45:27I can't feel my fingers,
- 45:31but I can feel the resilience of
- 45:33communities of color,
- 45:34of my
- 45:40leading us toward a more liberated and
- 45:41just future.
- 45:45I can feel that my commitment to care
- 45:52for others is refuting the systems that
- 45:55got us here: patriarchy,
- 45:57neoliberalism,
- 45:58and more.
- 46:02I know that making a better future
- 46:08for all means we make seismic shifts.
- 46:09The door opens,
- 46:11and we begin.
- 46:13Thank you.
- 46:17Anna Reisman: That was great.
- 46:18Thank you.
- 46:21So much happened on this doorstep.
- 46:24I'm imagining this really happened,
- 46:28and when you got home,
- 46:29you wrote it all down.
- 46:33I got the sense you weren't on that
- 46:34doorstep for that long,
- 46:38but nonetheless all of that went
- 46:39through your head.
- 46:43The repetition was very powerful.
- 46:44Nicely done.
- 46:46Speaker: Thank you
- 46:47Anna Reisman: So,
- 46:51will you tell us what you had to cut out?
- 46:56Was it more "I'm thinking abouts?"
- 47:01Speaker: It was the transition from
- 47:04"I'm thinking about" to "I'm feeling."
- 47:05But most of it was intact.
- 47:08Anna Reisman: OK.
- 47:09Thank you.
- 47:11Super powerful.
- 47:15And so we are coming to the end.
- 47:17We will finish with Simone Hasselmo
- 47:20's second piece,
- 47:24entitled "First Spring.
- 47:32" It's all yours again.
- 47:34Speaker: OK.
- 47:37If I could share my screen again.
- 47:49So now,
- 47:54I'm going to be reading an excerpt
- 47:59from a piece I wrote just after
- 48:03clerkships were canceled last year due
- 48:04to COVID-19.
- 48:06This is part of a longer piece,
- 48:07but starting
- 48:12basically the day before students are
- 48:15told not to report to the hospital anymore.
- 48:19[Student reading: Top left panel ]
- 48:41[Student reading: "Though his wife had . . . "]
- 48:50[Student reading: "A quick perusal . . .
- 48:51"]
- 48:56[Student reading: " We put in a call . . . "]
- 49:04[Student reading: Top right.]
- 49:17[Student reading: "I think we breathed . . . "]
- 49:27[Student reading: Top left.]
- 49:36[Student reading: Top right.]
- 49:46[Student reading: Top left.]
- 49:51[Student reading: Bottom left.]
- 50:01[Student reading: Top right.]
- 50:11[Student reading: Middle right.]
- 50:25[Student reading: Bottom right.]
- 50:30[Student reading: Top left.]
- 50:38left.]
- 50:40[Student]
- 50:41right side.]
- 50:49[Student reading: Right side.]
- 51:19[Student reading: Top left.]
- 51:27[Student reading: Bottom left.]
- 51:47[Student reading: Top right.]
- 52:08[Student reading:
- 52:11Panels.]
- 52:14Thank you.
- 52:24Anna Reisman: Thank you,
- 52:26Simone.
- 52:29We kind of lost you at the end.
- 52:32But such a powerful piece from a time
- 52:36that seems already long ago and just like yesterday.
- 52:41Do you just want to say what happens in
- 52:42the rest of that,
- 52:44where you didn't have time to read?
- 52:47Speaker: Sure.
- 52:51I read the second half of the piece.
- 52:56The first half moves from normalcy to
- 53:01people quickly realizing that it's not sustainable.
- 53:08And it goes through the first case,
- 53:14or the first COVID rule-out case a the hospital,
- 53:17where I had my clerkship at the time,
- 53:20where I was actually the person
- 53:23running the samples back and forth
- 53:30between the patient and the lab and my team.
- 53:34I got to be a part of the chaos on
- 53:35the ground level, so.
- 53:37Anna Reisman: Thank you so much.
- 53:40That brings us to the end.
- 53:45Thank you to all of the judges,
- 53:47and thank you to all of the winners
- 53:49who participated today.
- 53:52And thank you to all of the students
- 53:53who submitted.
- 53:54There was fine,
- 54:00outstanding work submitted to this contest.
- 54:04Thank you to those who listened tonight.
- 54:07This was a terrific year.