In WR 415, Public Writing, students consider the many ways in which they are experts\u2014academically, professionally, positionally, and\/or experientially\u2014so that they can draw on on their expertise to contribute to public discourse in a variety of genres. When she took the class in Spring 2022, Clara Montes, a violin performance major in CFA, had much to draw on. In her quick study, Clara wrote up new research on violin tone quality for non-expert readers. In her contribution to a Wikipedia article, she expanded an article on Gertrude Stein\u2019s opera, The Mother of Us All. And in her TED Talk, Clara inspired her student audience by tracing musical references from Brahms to Star Wars so much that they nominated her to speak at the cross-section event at the end of the semester. So, in the final unit, I fully expected Clara to write an opinion piece drawing once again on her vast musical expertise. <\/span><\/p>\n I was surprised by Clara\u2019s first draft, but I knew right away that it was going to work. Even in the first version, she opened with the assertion that she\u2019s writing about something she is not an expert in: basketball. At the same time, we sense immediately that her story is coming from a place of experiential expertise that still matters. The pieces were all there in that first draft, and in subsequent drafts, Clara worked carefully at the sentence and paragraph levels, based on models we read together and those she located for herself, to revise for concision and impact. The result is a piece that is poignant and personal at the same time that it contributes something new to the larger body of immigration stories.<\/p>\n In her first reflection for the course, when asked what kind of public reader she is, Clara wrote this: \u201cI think that I gravitate towards articles that strike the balance between feeling familiar and introducing me to new ideas, but also ones that I can continue thinking about\/bringing into my everyday life after I\u2019ve finished reading.\u201d For her readers, there are so many ways into the story Clara tells in her opinion piece\u2014sports, immigration, family, community. But it\u2019s the openness of the speaker, of that non-expert on basketball, that welcomes us, \u201c[feels] familiar,\u201d and sticks with us long \u201cafter [we\u2019ve] finished reading.\u201d<\/p>\n During my family\u2019s discussion of the NBA finals a couple years ago, my grandpa told us that, when coming to the United States, his choice of city was based on which basketball team he liked the most. He said that, in a world without the Bucks, \u201cyou guys wouldn\u2019t be here, in Milwaukee.\u201d It was a conversation that stuck with me for months afterwards. I\u2019d never paid basketball any mind, yet, as my grandpa revealed, my family is linked to the sport. I wanted to write about this conversation to explore how something I know so little about has informed so much of who I am, broadening my understanding of heritage and home.<\/span><\/p>\n If I were asked to relay all the information I know about basketball, I\u2019d probably talk for all of a minute and a half. I am a certified basketball non-expert. I don\u2019t know the positions, or the players, or the rules, and likely never will.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I do know that the Milwaukee Bucks won the NBA championship last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A few weeks after their victory, my uncle offered my lolo\u2014grandpa, in Tagalog\u2014his congratulations, as if he\u2019d been one of the players sprinting up and down the court.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I remember thinking that <\/span>congratulations<\/span><\/i> was a strange sentiment to offer a fellow fan, but I knew how much my lolo obsessed over the Bucks. Whenever there was a game, he\u2019d disappear. He once snuck out of my sister\u2019s high school graduation party to watch at the nearest bar before rejoining the celebration as if he\u2019d never left. The profile picture displayed on his otherwise sparse Facebook account is fixed with a Bucks-logoed frame.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My lolo mentioned that he\u2019d wanted to write something for the team when they invited fans to submit their Bucks memories, but thought that there were \u201ctoo many people like me who have the same experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He then began to tell his stories to us\u2014about being swindled into paying for an illegal parking space, and about how, when making appointments for his job as an anaesthesiologist, he\u2019d claim to be busy whenever the games were on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Then his stories shifted. They were about seeing the Bucks\u2019 <\/span>first championship in 1971<\/span><\/a>, in the first year he came to America. About how, when meeting with the immigration agency, he was faced with the challenge of choosing where to go. They listed some options: New Jersey, Pittsburgh, New York, Milwaukee\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s Milwaukee?\u201d he apparently asked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMilwaukee! That\u2019s where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar plays for the Milwaukee Bucks!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGwen Kordonowy<\/h6>\n
\nFrom the Writer<\/h4>\n
\nWhat I Know About Basketball<\/h3>\n