Pedagogy of Pain: Pulling Passion, Potential, and Possibility from the Pain of Silence and Truth Telling

Cultural and faith-based narratives live in our skins and personal lives. Each body is tied to the stories that are written on it, and thus the body and the soul within it are central to our coming to know of tears, wounds, pain, and suffering. Using autobiographical narrative inquiry and poetry, I share my lived experiences and encounters with the pain of silence and truth telling. As a Canadian, Muslim, woman of color, and mother of four children, I unapologetically question the "psychic violence" of strategic silencing, scripted conformity, and structured surrender enforced and performed in institutions and society toward people of color. I seek to embrace, dwell in, and engage with pain to pull out passion, potential, and possibility. I offer the truth of my knowing to construct pathways and possibilities for reimagining and deconstructing pain and tears as the cure for personal and systemic liberation.