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Who was Betty Granger?

During my second trip to the Schomburg, I looked through the radio collection in the digital archives. I found many stunning photographs of the late radio host Betty Granger Reid. Here is a couple:

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Betty Granger with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Betty Granger with Eartha Kitt

Reaction:

What I’ve gathered from the archives is that Ms. Granger was a radio personality and host for WLIB during the 1950s. I’ve scavenged the internet for information, but I was unable to find much more beyond what the archive details. Unfortunately, I think this speaks to how little information has been preserved regarding pioneering women radio deejays of color.

Access:

I received access to the photographs from The Schomburg Digital Archives.

Metadata:

The photographs list the photographer, Cecil Layne.

Quiet As It’s Kept

The internet has become an increasingly present source in the academic world. For students,the Internet is a great source of information but it is also sometimes viewed as a threat. We are warned about untrustworthy sites and unreliable information available online, but the web is also a powerful research and communication. I personally use the internet to quickly find bits of information and as a stepping stone for academic work.

We are not supposed to use Wikipedia for anything but sometimes you need a summary of a book or biographies of individuals. Sites like Wikipedia are useful for gathering background information about an author you are reading in class. Sometimes the references list at the bottom of a Wikipedia page is a useful place to find more readings. Professors do not think Wikipedia is always a reliable source, and they are right. There is no way to ensure that the individuals adding to pages have the correct information. I think that most students do not use Wikipedia for more than the quick acquisition of information and keywords for further research.

The Internet is sometimes a good place to find books and other required readings. Sometimes Google Scholar has entire books and articles available to read. CLIO is also useful for finding materials online. CLIO has many digital copies of books as well as the rest of the online articles for which it is often used.

I think Barnard attempts to encourage the use of digital materials in the sense that computer use is becoming increasingly essential. Barnard seems to be embracing the Internet as a source of education. Many professors use blogs and Wikipages as a platform for discussion posts and communication between students. Also, Professors sometimes send us links to additional articles that are relevant to class topics.

Reading Zake: Mental Movements (Earning Citizenship & Liberty)

Reading Zake: Mental Movements (Earning Citizenship & Liberty)
Ademola Olugebefola "Gateway to Atlantis"

For this post I wanted to read about Paulette L. Williams before “Ntozake Shange.” Much of the work I’ve been doing has been analyzing the effects, consequences, and partnerships that have come with Shange’s art, so I thought it well to go back to lost in language and sound to remember her thought processes before she came into her artistry.

“INITIALLY, I WAS DEMONICALLY TICKED AT THE NOTION that I, Ntozake Shange, a.k.a. Paulette Linda Williams, whose American birth certificate from an alleged Union state, New Jersey, read “colored” in 1948, was asked to write a piece about justice. This was truly laughable, since it is quite clear to me that “justice” as a fact, fantasy, or concept is so removed an actuality in my life, intellectually as well as visceral…

This idea is false. The general ideas roaming American minds — black, white, Asian, Chicano, Texan, urban, empty of truth whichever they are about who and what I come from is “just” for us — are scary as the bullet holes of Huey Long’s assassinations in Baton Rouge and as sad as the Trail of Tears, and I haven’t gotten to “the Negro” yet.(124)”

Next Steps: Domain Names & Personal Websites!

After completing 5 orisha inspired photoshoots in collaborative effort with Barnard student make-up artists, Simone Folasayo Ig, Annya Serkovic, Imani Bishop, and Ornella Friggit, and photographers, Dina Asfaha, Anta Touray, Ornella Friggit, Yemisi Olorunwunmi, and Valerie Jaharis, I had more content than I could fit into my final digital project. As a result, I decided to put the digital tools I learned at the ICP to use to create my own personal website: www.nadianaomi.com. In this blog post, I will breakdown how I made my personal website if anyone is interested in next steps after our year long class Ntozake Shange & Digital Storytelling comes to a close.

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Domain Names

Michelle Loo helped me obtain a domain name through www.godaddy.com. GoDaddy is a site through which you can buy your own personal domain name.

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  1. Search for a name you would want to use for your personal website and see if it is available.
    • A variety of domain name options will appear with different domain registers ( .com .org. us. .net etc. ). When picking my domain name and register, Michelle suggested knowing what I wanted ahead of time and selecting it right away  because searched names get taken very quickly once they are searched and are resold for exorbitant prices. 
  2. Once you are happy with your domain name and register you can go ahead a purchase it.
    • I purchased nadianaomi.com for the price of $11.99 a year. If you know you will be using your site for regular personal/academic/career/vocational use the investment may be worth it considering that the domain may only cost $1 a month.
  3. Create a GoDaddy account and purchase your domain name.
    • When your purchase your domain name you will need to create a GoDaddy account. This will allow you to maintain your domain name and apply to personal sites you create.

Personal Websites

I used Wix.com  to create my personal site for FREE. You can create pages and add content pretty smoothly and format your content for desktop/laptop and cell phone viewing. Once you have created your site, you can go to your GoDaddy account to apply your purchased domain name  to your site.

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LAST CLASS!

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What a gorgeous bunch!

Our last class will be a working class in the Digital Classroom at Barnard. After discussing Yemi’s post, we will be making some final design decisions, uploading individual projects and hopefully reading some poetry out loud. Please remember that some of the design elements are due in time for class (see below). Also Sarah will return the cameras to ICP for us.

 

To prepare for class, please do the following

TIPS: Recommended Image Sizes and Plugin Tutorials

This post has recommended image sizes as well as tutorials on some of the plug-ins for for the Digital Shange Projects website. For more general information, check out my previous post, below.

TIP: Posting to the Digital Shange Projects site


Recommended Images Sizes

Thumbnail​ image​—

  • Width: 700 pixels
  • Height: 393 pixels
  • 72 ppi (pixels per inch)
  • Reminder: post thumbnails for your Portfolio item by using “Featured Image”

Large image/s—

  • Max width: 1200 pixels
  • 72 ppi
  • Note: if you are posting the image at the top of your Portfolio item, I recommend using the following size: 1200×600 pixels

Plugins

1. To add images with pages that flip, use Booklets.

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Copy/paste the “shortcode” to add your Booklet to your Portfolio item.

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You can choose whether your Booklet has a light or dark background.

Short list of terms:

  • Padding: the margin around your images.
  • Flip speed: how fast your pages flip
  • Automatic flip delay: how long it takes for the page to flip (set to 0 if you don’t want the pages to flip automatically)
  • Show thumbnails: choose “Yes” to show all of you images at the bottom of your Booklet; choose “No” to hide the thumbnails.
  • Booklet cover behavior: add a cover to your Booklet or by choosing “Closable – Centered” or “Closable – Either side.” If you don’t want a cover, choose “Opened always”

 2. To add images in a standard slider, use Soliloquy Slider.

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Soliloquy Slider tutorial:
http://soliloquywp.com/docs/creating-your-first-slider


3. To create have more control over the layout of your Portfolio item, use Visual Composer.
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Visual Composer tutorial:
https://vc.wpbakery.com/video-academy/visual-composer-tutorial-for-beginners

What it takes to heal, Ntozake Shange, and Spoken Word Poetry

by gjs2130 5 Comments

Ntozake, Healing, and Spoken Word Poetry

“somebody/ anybody sing a black girl’s song bring her out to know herself to know you but sing her rhythms carin/ struggle/ hard times sing her song of life she’s been dead so long closed in silence so long she doesn’t know the sound of her own voice her infinite beauty she’s half-notes scattered without rhythm/ no tune sing her sighs sing the song of her possibilities sing a righteous gospel let her be born let her be born & handled warmly.”

The silence that Ntozake Shange speaks about in this post is one that I believe for so many people is combated by dance, movement and/or spoken word poetry.

The idea that action paired with words builds a door that it’s ok to walk through. This is also something that music is capable of providing for people. This door is the portal to the allowance of healing. There are several videos online of Shange reading poems out loud. But, also if you look at certain styles of writing/grammar techniques there are ways to differentiate “spoken word” for “page poetry”… What do you consider your or Shange’s way of telling the audience if the work requires a voice or only eyes to access it full potential.

 

April 25: Class schedule

Dear class, tomorrow after we discuss Gabby’s post, we will again be working with the new Word Press theme. Sarah will reinforce some points covered last week and go over the slideshow plugin which a significant portion of you will need.   She’s also made a “tips”post for you.

Please note the Production schedule  in the upper right corner of the blog. Brad suggests that we/you start editing and uploading photos into WordPress  even if you don’t quite have your eventual layout/flow established, so I have listed that as a task for the day in addition to our production meetings, etc.

TIP: Posting to the Digital Shange Projects site

General information

Log-in to the Digital Shange Projects page with the following url:
http://bcrw.barnard.edu/digitalshange/projects/wp-admin

Your username is the same as your UNI. If you have any trouble logging in, or if you lost your password, email me at sgreene@barnard.edu.

Remember to save your work because WordPress will not automatically save it for you. When working with an unpublished item, hit “Save Draft” often. When working with a published item, hit “Update” often. I would also recommend saving your work in another platform (e.g. Word, Google Docs) by copy/pasting.

Production Schedule

The production schedule  is on a page in the upper right corner of the blog. Brad suggests that we/you start editing and uploading photos into WordPress  even if you don’t quite have your eventual layout/flow established, so I have listed that as a task for the day in addition to our production meetings, etc.

As you can tell, unexpected glitches happen; I will update the production schedule as needed.