Decade of the Brain by Janine Joseph is a poetry collection that emanates from a car accident in 2008, when the protagonist was rear-ended. She suffered a concussion at the time. Over a decade, she vividly reflects on the pains, memories, dreams, and thoughts during this trauma and the years after.
Sometimes, the protagonist appears to be separate from the author. Other times, as in the poem “Janine vs Janine,” they might be the same. We follow the accident victim as she heals, moving from a patient who can barely comprehend the damage to her body and brain to recovery, enabling her to return to school, teach, counsel, and earn a doctorate.
At first glance, the patient is a victim subjected to the analyses and control of specialists. However, she can also observe and respond to what is being done to her, such as the placement of electrodes in her scalp. On a parallel track, Janine is a victim worrying about her small, childlike body, being a person of color — and an immigrant as well — and a rejected lover.
In the last poem, “Decade of the Brain,” the protagonist says, “In history we exist only in the count, our bodies a record of a place absorbed. But I was a Witness.” She journeys from trauma to recovery and resilience.
The presentation of poems starts out like E. E. Cummings. The visual presentation is appealing. This is followed by interspersed pages of bold, black straight and curved lines. They remind me of traffic marks on the road as she navigated life after her accident. The poems, which look like mistyped, misaligned, or repetitive words, show that even after healing, the world is not as ordered as we perceive it.
Juanita/Nita is an activist since the 1968 BSU/TWLF San Francisco State Strike; since the 1970 census advocating for more detailed racial and ethnic data in Washington, DC, and now singing with the Seattle Raging Grannies. Her collection resides in the Manuscript Division, The Library of Congress. Author of Golden Children, Legacy of Ethnic Studies, SF State, Juanita is featured in the documentary, Agents of Change https://www.agentsofchangefilmnational.com/
