We so often only think of the travel narrative as an author's telling of an

experience that occurred at some locale away from home.  The students this

semester, however, did not appear to be motivated to write about travel in

terms of the experience of a geographical place.  Rather their writings led

them to discoveries of  the self by evaluating the way that movement and a

change of location affect their own personal psyches.  Thus, in this issue

of Journeys the narratives focus on an individual's entry into new space and

how entering into a different space inwardly alters the self.  These

narratives also take into account the manner in which the dynamics of a

space react to one's gender, race, and/or nationality, and likewise how

one's gender, race, and/or nationality responds to a particular space.  As

such, the contributions to chapters one and two are deeply personal, as the

reader of this journal shall see.

      "Discovery," the title of chapter one, responds to the question that

frames this particular unit:  How does a writer recount a move from one

place to another that affects either his/her life or perspective of the

world?  The interrogation of this question, yielded essays that depict some

shift, some change, or transformation that occurred within the inner self of

the narrator of the story, as a result of that narrator's movement from one

place to another or entry into a new space.  Simultaneously, these essays

honor Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.   Angelou's text

became the model for this unit.  It is a stirring text which has the young

Maya moving from one space to another, each move bringing about its own

shift, its own transformation within the psyche of young Maya. In

paralleling I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a deeply personal expose of

young Maya's life, these essays are equally personal in their depictions of

the manner in which movement and new entries affect the personal lives of

the narrators.  Two essays in this chapter, "Cultural Orientation" by

Victoria Freeman and "Rendition of Maturity" by Jordan Smith are essays

which indicate how the change from one school to another prompt deep

feelings of insecurity in young people.  Britney Bennet's "coming out"

narrative anticipates leaving home for college with the expectation of

finding new spaces that will allow the narrator "to swim."  Earl Campbell's

dolorous internal narrative, "A Walk in Thought," gives us access to the

narrator's thoughts as he rides in the family car to attend the funeral of a

loved one . Maryann  Flanigan's essay "Spring Zephyr" shows us how a short

ride across a state line,  "a 20 minute drive to an apartment complex in

Bridgewater, New Jersey, would upset the balance...[she'd] struggled so long

to achieve."

      Alasdair Pettinger's "What a Difference a Border Makes" sparked

conversations concerning how the mere crossing of a border, even a town

border that signifies its own type of demarcations of class and/or race, may

affect they way that one will forever view the world. Also, Shay

Youngblood's novel Black Girl in Paris helped us to see how race and gender

continues to be an issue even after one crosses an ocean. Hence, in chapter

two,  influenced by  Pettinger's article and Youngblood's novel, the

students contributed  essays and poems that illuminate the issues that arise

when crossing borders forces one to reevaluate one's attitude about race,

gender, and/or  nationality .  In this chapter, Krystian Ramlogan's poem

"Oh! Trinidad" assures that the narrator's travel away from home will not

diminish his love for his Caribbean island home.  Carmen Coffee's powerful

piece deconstructs those traditional narratives about colorism that helped

to define major themes in African American literature.  In this narrative,

light skin and Aryan features cease to be coveted when one's personal space

is invaded with unsolicited and undesirable attention.  Ideas introduced in

Houston Baker's poem "No Matter Where You Travel, You Still be Black"

resound loudly in George Gee's essay "Berlin Discovery," which depicts the

narrator's astonishment at racist graffiti that he witnessed during a  trip

to Berlin with his parents.  These essays and the poems  in this chapter are

moving in their interrogation of how race, gender, or nationality affect

both the traveling experience and the lens through which writers write.

      In Chapter Three:  The Caryl Phillips Experience, there are a number

of research papers that examine Caryl Phillips as a traveler and travel

writer. Phillips's travel texts, The European Tribe and The Atlantic Sound,

inspire the writings in this chapter. The essays look at  the rhetorical

strategies that Phillips uses to represent other cultures and places.  The

student writing in this chapter also analyzes how Phillips's representations

of others help to carve out a representation of his own identity.  These

essays attempt to discern what Phillips learns from his travels as well.

For example, the essay by  Earl Campbell and Aundrietta Duncan situates

Phillips as a Black Atlanticist "who travels across the Atlantic ocean, in a

route that is somewhat similar to that of the triangle trade route."   Derek

Butt's and Jordan Smith's paper examines Phillips's critique of European

racism towards the Jewish community.  Interestingly enough, Stephene Evans's

and Krystian Ramlogan's  essays began as a collaborative effort, but as

Ramlogan's Caribbean sensibility and Evans's African American perspective

began to clash, the two decided to write individual essays.  As a result,

these two very different analyses of Phillips's dual identity are included.

The reader will notice how the beginning of Evans's and Ramlogan's essays

are quite similar, yet, after the thesis statement, the two essays examine

the same issue from two distinct points of view.  I find this quite

engaging.  Reading these two essays one after the other, makes this point

strikingly vivid.

      This last section, the reflections on hometowns, is a student

generated project that I came to value considerably.  In this section,

students provide brief descriptions of their hometowns. It is hoped that

these representations will provide those living outside of the United

States, a glimpse of the diversity of our country, and of course Ramlogan's

inclusion of a short piece on Trinidad-Tobago proved to be refreshing for

all of us.

      Let me end by giving thanks to Jordan Smith for his leadership skills

throughout the semester. The management of his 19 clamorous and energetic

freshman mates was no easy task and was quite helpful to me.  Krystian

Ramlogan's web skills came in handy, particularly since funding this year

for this project was not available. I am also so grateful to Britney

Bennet's editing and revision skills that helped a number of students to

revise essays to my satisfaction. And to Stephene Evans, I so respect your

determination to produce a worthy product. My thanks and appreciation goes

out to the entire Spring 2005 076 Honor Composition II class for stepping up

to the plate.

Professor D. Edwards Abdullah