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Abstract

In this article, the author presents the ways in which her graduate students negotiate and scribe their understandings about the changing landscapes of their lives through dialogue, reflection, artwork, and writing. Secondly, she documents how the communal discourse of Lower Manhattan, more specifically, the “writings on the wall,” is testament to the ways people use multiple modes of representation to bear witness to the unimaginable. These “writings” are interspersed throughout the piece in bold, so as to give them prominence. Lastly, she describes the reflexive, hermeneutic, and interactive process by which she conceptualizes the domains of analysis and frames her understandings about the significance of this transformational literacy event.

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Listening to the Heartbeat of New York: Writings on the Wall

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