User:Jrowe925/sandbox

It can be helpful to copy and paste the text below into a sandbox, and apply all of the options directly to this text to see what it does.

Paragraph: Set the style of your text. For example, make a header or plain paragraph text. You can also use it to offset block quotes.

A : Highlight your text, then click here to format it with bold, italics, etc. The “More” options allows you to underline (U), cross-out text (S), add code snippets ( { } ), change language keyboards (Aあ), and clear all formatting ( ⃠ ).

Links: Highlight text and push this button to make it a link. The Visual Editor will automatically suggest related Wikipedia articles for that word or phrase. This is a great way to connect your article to more Wikipedia content. You only have to link important words once, usually during the first time they appear. If you want to link to pages outside of Wikipedia (for an “external links” section, for example) click on the “External link” tab.

Cite: The citation tool in the Visual Editor helps format your citations. You can simply paste a DOI or URL, and the Visual Editor will try to sort out all of the fields you need. Be sure to review it, however, and apply missing fields manually (if you know them). You can also add books, journals, news, and websites manually. That opens up a quick guide for inputting your citations. Once you've added a source, you can click the “re-use” tab to cite it again.


 * 1) Bullets: To add bullet points or a numbered list, click here.

Insert: This tab lets you add media, images, or tables.

Ω: This tab allows you to add special characters, such as those found in non-English words, scientific notation, and a handful of language extensions.

Article Evaluation

 * Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
 * yes
 * nothing distracting
 * Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
 * info seems to stop at 1978
 * could use more on her creative works
 * could use subsections
 * What else could be improved?
 * more subsections
 * more sources


 * Is the article neutral? Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * seems unbiased
 * maybe "suppress" is strong language? No source to back it up either
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * no


 * Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?
 * the links work
 * sources support claims BUT are heavily paraphrased
 * links are from newspapers?
 * Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * the references are not appropriate
 * info comes from newspaper sources
 * these are neutral sources
 * there is no bias noted


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * there are no conversations
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * it is rated as a stub class
 * it is part of three wikiprojects: biographies, women writers, & Indigenous peoples of North America
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
 * N/A

Personal life
Louise Halfe was born on April 8, 1953. She is also known by her Cree name Sky Dancer. She was born in Two Hills, Alberta, and was raised on the Saddle Lake Reserve. When she was just seven years old, Louise was forced to attend Blue Quills Residential School in St. Paul, Alberta; she remained there for nine years. At the age of sixteen, she left home and broke ties with her family. This gave her the opportunity to complete her studies at St. Paul’s Regional High School. While Halfe attended high school, she developed an interest in writing. She started a journal to write about her memories and life experiences.

During her six years at the University of Saskatchewan, Halfe lived off campus in Northern Saskatchewan.[5]

Halfe earned a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Regina and a certificate in Drugs and Alcohol Counselling from the Nechi Institute. Halfe currently lives in Saskatoon with her husband. She has two children and three grandchildren.

Career
In 1990, Halfe was first published in the collection Writing the Circle: Native Women of Western Canada. Her next publication was a piece in Residential Schools: The Stolen Years (1993) which was a collection of writing by residential school survivors. Her first book, Bear Bones & Feathers, was started in a journal during her academic career; it was published in 1994. She has published three more books: Blue Marrow (2004), Crooked Good (2007), and Burning in This Midnight Dream (2016). In 2018, as part of the Laurier Poetry Series, her previously published works were compiled in Sôhkêyihta: The Poetry of Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe.

In 2005, Halfe became Saskatchewan’s Poet Laureate. She is the second person ever to hold the title. Then, in 2012, Halfe received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Wilfrid Laurier University. She is currently the acting Elder at the University of Saskatchewan.

Poetic style
Halfe uses code-switching in her work. Code-switching is largely a response to the devastation of Aboriginal languages. Their loss is connected to the legacy of residential schools. The use of code-switching shows a fragmentation of history, culture, and land base which cannot be conveyed through English alone. Halfe code-switches between Cree and English, as well as between Cree-English and standardized English. Halfe personalizes the Cree language in her work by using possessive kinship terms. Halfe is also known to use the language of the church, or “Whiteman’s words,” in her work. Halfe has said that writing helps her reconnect to her culture and language.

Halfe writes poetry about the women that have come before her. Her writing focuses on the kinship relations between women, the stories women have to tell, and their histories. Halfe’s poetry reasserts the importance of women in Cree culture.

Halfe works with Cree intellectual traditions in her poetry. She tells women's stories to explore the link between creation and knowledge in Cree storytelling. In The Crooked Good, Halfe explores Cree sacred history using a Cree feminist perspective.

Halfe incorporates the white space on the page into the meaning of her poems. The white space represents the settler-colonial idea of terra nullius and, therefore, signifies erasure, a loss of language, and an inability to speak. Every word she writes on the page is a political act against silence and erasure.

Halfe often writes about a connection to the land that is both spiritual and political.

Halfe titled her book Blue Marrow to invoke the image of using a bone writing in blue ink. The title re-appropriates the “blue quill” of Blue Quills Residential School. Much of Halfe’s poetry reflects on her time at the school and the effect it had on her, her family, and her community.

Critical reception
Halfe's work has been generally well accepted by the public. Cahoots Magazine praised her use of Aboriginal spirality and feminist exposure in Bear Bones & Feathers. Her book Burning in This Midnight Dream received numerous awards, such as the Saskatchewan Book Awards and the Indigenous Peoples' Publishing Award, and the judges have stated that Halfe's poetic storytelling accurately reflects the harm inflicted by Canada's residential school system. Judges for the awards have also called her verses "heartbreaking and hopeful" and have noted her attention to creating a healing atmosphere through specific use of Cree language and culture.

Other works by Halfe have received similar reviews, often applauding Halfe's use of code-switching as a way of taking back the Cree language. Halfe's use of code-switching is prominent in Blue Marrow and Sôhkêyihta: The Poetry of Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe.

Critics have also pointed to how Halfe deliberately focuses on both mind and spirituality in her writing. Cheryl Petten for the Saskatchewan Review had notes that readers not only respond intellectually to Halfe's The Crooked Good but emotionally as well. Halfe's most recent novel, Sôhkêyihta, has been credited by Chad Weidner as a thought provoking work that asks many questions. Weidner compares and contrasts Halfe's work with Daniel Heath Justice's Why Indigenous Literature Matters, and has applauded how Sôhkêyihta provides a window into another culture, bringing the reader into contact with Indigenous literature.

Awards
Louise Halfe has won many awards and has received positive recognition as an independent Canadian author and poet. After making her debut, Halfe won third place in the League of Canadian Poets' Historical Poetry Contest.

Her first book of poetry, Bear Bones & Feathers, won the Milton Acorn People's Poet Award in 1996. Blue Marrow was nominated for the Pat Lowther First Book Award. In 1998, Blue Marrow was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for Poetry, the Saskatoon Book Award, and the Saskatchewan Poetry Award. The Crooked Good won the First Peoples Publishing Award and the Saskatoon Book Award in 2008. It was also nominated for the Poetry Award honouring Anne Szumigalski in the same year. Halfe was also shortlisted for the Spirit of Saskatchewan Award. In 2017, Burning in This Midnight Dream won the Indigenous Peoples' Publishing award, the Rasmussen, Ramussen & Charowsky Indigenous Peoples' Writing award and the Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award. Burning in This Midnight Dream also won the League of Canadian Poets Raymond Souster Award and the High Plains Book Award for Indigenous Writer. Burning in This Midnight Dream was also the 2017 WILLA Literacy Award Finalist in Poetry.

In 2016, Halfe received the Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL award which recognizes Indigenous artists living in Canada and, in 2017, she was given the Latner Writers’ Trust Award in recognition of a remarkable body of work.

It is important to note that that while some reviews for Halfe's work are available online, they are few and most are written to help promote the sale of her work or commending her accomplishments for various awards.

Works

 * Bear Bones & Feathers, 1994
 * Blue Marrow, 2004
 * The Crooked Good, 2007
 * Burning in this Midnight Dream, 2016
 * Sôhkêyihta: The Poetry of Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe, 2018