Where the Sidewalk Ends, Begins, and Begins Before the End
For my project, I decided to remix Shel Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” I
remixed this poem by separating the three stanzas of his poem and adding my own poetry in
between to make the narrative inclusive of my own experiences with gender identity and
discovery. Going into this project, I knew that I wanted to remix a poem in this fashion, but I was
not sure which poem I wanted to choose. I ultimately settled on “Where the Sidewalk Ends”
because this poem was an integral part of my childhood. I remember reading it with my mother,
and I feel that the person I am now makes me read this poem in a much different light than I did
then. After picking this poem, I considered what facet of my identity I felt caused the change in
the way I read the poem, and I settled on my journey of gender discovery and my gender identity.
While creating this project, I thought for a while about what, exactly, my critique of his
poem would be. In class, we defined critique based on our interpretations of “What is Critique”
by Judith Butler. From our manifesto of critique, I drew from the ideas that critique is an
interpretation as well as a response. My project employs critique as it responds to the ideas
within Silverstein’s poem, comments on them, questions them, and even expands them. This
critique is done through my own identity as a trans person. Though I likely had a different
interpretation of this poem as a child, my current understanding is that Silverstein paints the end
of the sidewalk as this sort of idyllic final destination. He’s basically saying keep walking,
through the bad, so that you may reach this ideal end. When I first came out as trans, I viewed
my existence and experience in much the same way. I thought that even if my current situation
was not what I wished, even if I was still deadnamed and misgendered, I could persevere because
one day I would be all grown up and accepted. I thought that people would forget the me I left
behind. Basically, in my journey with my gender identity, I was looking for my own end of the
sidewalk. I think that that thinking harmed, rather than helped, my coming out experience. After
I’d come out, I started to realize that those around me, those who I already knew, were willing to
call me by my preferred name and pronouns. And then, when I came to college, I met people
who only knew me for me, not for who I was. Basically, in my experience with gender identity, I
realized that I didn’t have to wait to have the acceptance I wanted and could rather cultivate a
space for myself right where I was standing. I applied this thinking to “Where the Sidewalk
Ends” by writing that same experience in a style that would mesh nicely with Silverstein’s
poem. I wrote about longing for the end of the sidewalk, being unable to forget the beginning of
the sidewalk, and then the ultimate realization that yes the sidewalk will end but there will be
good before that end. Since poetry is a bit more ambiguous than other forms of writing, the
critique within the writing can be a bit difficult to understand. In order to combat that, I
specifically stated my intention within the title: an exploration of the poem through gender
identity and discovery. Finally, as this is a multimedia project, and as my critique is a critique
specifically related to me, I also decided to do my own take on Silverstein’s line drawings that he
often has alongside his poems. I used these drawings to further illustrate my points
(progression?) of critique within the poem as well as another way to make this project more me. I
made this project more me by adding a lot of colors to the drawings as color is a huge part of my
presentation and existence in this world.
This project, while a remix, is still an original work. I managed to keep this work original
by utilizing my identity as a lens through which to update Silverstein’s poem. So, remixing,
originality, and identity are related as one way to keep a remix of an existing work original is to
remix it through a facet of your own identity. This relationship shows up in my project as the
entirety of my project is a remix of Silverstein’s poem. Even though I used the entirety of
Silverstein’s poem within my project, I acknowledged that this work was not my own by citing
the original poem within the title. Though I used this poem as a framework, the end result serves
a different purpose and puts forth a different narrative. I remixed the poem to be a narrative
about gender identity, which therefore leaves the poem as an original work.
This remix, while an original work, is also a form of critique towards the original poem.
Critique is an interpretation and a response, as I mentioned before, but critique is also a way to
test the limits of a work. To critique is to notice where a work excels, and perhaps where it falls
short. And then, if we notice where the work falls short, we can remix the work to correct that
shortcoming. Within my project, I noticed that I no longer read “Where the Sidewalk Ends” the
way that I used to because I no longer thought that I needed to wait until the supposed end of the
sidewalk to get what I wanted, specifically in the lens of my gender identity. I remixed the poem
to include my experience with gender identity which also remixed the ideas already within the
poem, creating a new remix and an original work.
Finally, though I’m proud of how this project turned out, there are a lot of things that I
wish I had done differently. For starters, I wish that I’d had more time to put into this project.
Given the nature of college and finals, I was not able to put as much time and effort into this as I
had hoped. Had I had more time to give, I likely would have expanded the poem and edited what
I have down some more. I’m also wondering now if there were more ways I could have gotten
the point of my critique across without relying on the drawings and title to do so. As a whole, I
think I’m happy with how this project turned out. Going forward, I’m excited to take this idea of
remix, of critique, and specifically of a critique through an intervening discourse, and apply it to
other projects throughout the rest of my academic career.
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