Some ways to incorporate Time is a Mother in the classroom:
First Week Activity:
Ocean Vuong’s “Amazon History of a Former Nail Salon Worker” is a poem that describes
his mother’s declining health through her Amazon shopping cart. While this poem is an
expression of Vuong’s intimate grief and loss, there is something ubiquitous about the
Amazon cart as a reflection of our lives.
In this activity, read Vuong’s poem as a class and ask students to reflect on their own
buying history as a way of reflection and introduction. Students review their Amazon
histories, note purchases from the last three months, then use the structure of Vuong’s
poem to create their own lines. Students should be encouraged to find the narrative their
shopping history holds. Rather than including all purchases, they are looking for the
specific items that tell the story they are interested in sharing. Poems can be shared in
class, posted to Blackboard, and perhaps saved for the end of the semester when you
might return to this exercise as a way to reflect on the class.
Annotations:
Focus on one of Vuong’s poems as a class and introduce close reading and annotation
strategies. Students can be encouraged to note implied and multiple meanings of
particular words and phrases, identify rhetorical devices, and find patterns in punctuation,
capitalization, and structure.
Close Analysis:
Vuong’s poem, “Not Even”, references race, sexuality, and national identity within the larger
narrative of grief and the death of his mother. Consider the lines: “Because everyone
knows yellow pain, pressed into American/ letters, turns to gold./ Our sorrow Midas
touched. Napalm with a rainbow afterglow” (46). Take this poem up in class to facilitate a
discussion of intersectionality through the lens of American empire.
Research Essay:
Ocean Vuong’s mother worked at a nail salon for 25 years; she died in 2019 from breast
cancer. Nail salon references can be found throughout Time is a Mother.
Research the history and impact of the nail salon industry in Vietnamese communities in
the U.S. Find credible contemporary news articles and one peer reviewed scholarly source
to understand the policies and history of this billion dollar industry.
Consider Vuong’s poems as a framework for understanding the contemporary impact of
this industry on an individual family.