In the front matter of Hum, Lauterbach includes a quote from Shakespeare's play King Lear: “What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears” (act 4, scene 6). Go to a busy place and “look with your ears”; that is, close your eyes and listen to the surrounding sounds for at least ten minutes (or take a tape recorder and listen later). Did you hear anything that you might not have heard had your eyes been open? Write a short essay on what you “saw” when you were listening and relate your experience to Lauterbach's “Hum.”

If you did not know that “Hum” was about the tragedy of September 11, do you think you would have deduced as much? Using pictures from magazines and newspapers, assemble a collage based on the images Lauterbach evokes in her...