Dear 2018 Zakettes, Madiha & Sylvia mentioned Lynda.com as a digital resource. As it turns out, a previous Shange student had discovered Lynda and posted this as one of her digital tips–KFH
Despite how tough it seems, there is so much privilege, and sometimes beauty, that comes with being a student. A few weeks ago I discovered LYNDA a self-training, online resource that has thousands of video courses that teach software skills, design skills, and even business skills.
The student scheduled for this week had a medical emergency and was not able to publish this week’s “Reading Zake” post. Do your update comments on this post. Please also check the syllabus to be prepared for next week’s discussion.
–SMALL GROUPS: I really need people to show up for the small group meetings, Tiana and I have finite time, we will not be able to keep re-scheduling and they are for your benefit. I also have a very tight calendar for the next two weeks, so making an individual appointment with me will not be possible. Read More
When training students, teachers tend to stress standardization in spelling and grammar (remember all of those spelling tests?), but languages travel and some of its movements result in multiple valid spellings of the same world (think for example of differences between British & American English, i.e. “colour/color.”). Such differences are called “variant spellings.”
After Paulette Williams remade herself into Ntozake Shange, she evidently Read More
Eye-opening discussion with Bradley at ICP
The BCRW blog is hosting posts specifically related to the new Harlem Semester Initiative. Last week I wrote a post about what it means to include our course in the Harlem Semester.
Other announcements:
–At the request of the Barnard Department Chairs, the BCRW is sponsoring a faculty-student only conversation about campus diversity (read more at the link). It starts at 5, but if you go after class, you will get there in plenty of time.
–Thanks to Nadia for getting her really compelling blogpost up on time! The rest of you should start your check in comments this week. Remember that the comments period closes on Sunday and we start again next week.
–Tiana and I will start meeting with you in small groups to continue this process of refining your project. You can sign up for a small group time on the google doc that’s already been shared. The times will be:
Thursday, February 11, 2016 at 2pm
Monday, February 15, 2016 (11am or 12:30pm)
–Don’t forget to volunteer to lead the movement break! You got an invite via gmail and the weekly announcement in Courseworks.
UPDATE:
-I’d love to have some of the photos you guys are taking during class activities. You can upload them at this link. (https://dropitto.me/Shange). I sent the password via Courseworks Announcement (but it should be easy to figure out). If you can put your name in the metadata(!), then I know who to credit.
-I’ll start a “tips” tag on the blog for people to do short posts with tips regarding research or digital tools that you think others might find helpful.
-Bradly shared the handouts he mentioned in today’s class. I will upload them to Courseworks soon!
Somebody almost walked off with all of my stuffAnd didn’t care enough to send a note home saying I was late for my solo conversationOr too sizes too small for my own tacky skirtsWhat can anybody do with something of a nobellier on an open market?Did you get a dime for my things?Hey man, where are you going with all of my stuff?This is a woman’s tripping, I need my stuff to ooh and aaah aboutHonest to God! Somebody almost ran with all of my stuffAnd I didn’t bring anything but the kick and sway of itThe perfect ass for my man and none of it is theirsThis is mine…Phemelo’s own things…That’s my name now give me my stuffI see you hiding my laugh and howI sit with my leg open sometimes to get my crotch some sunlightThis is some delicate leg and whimsical kissI gotta have to get to my choiceSo you can’t have me unless I give me awayAnd I was doing all that till you ran off on a good thingAnd who is this you left me with? A bad attitudeI want my things, I want my Oooh with a hot iron scar,I want my leg with the flee bite, yeah I want my thingsI want my calouse feet and quick language back in my mouthI want my own things how I love themSomebody almost ran off with all of my stuffAnd I was standing there looking at myself the whole timeIt wasn’t spirit that ran off with my stuffIt was a man who’s ego won’t drown like road ants shadowIt was a man faster than my innocenceIt was a lover I made too much room for almost ran off with all of my stuffAnd the one running with it, don’t know he got itI’m shouting this is mine and he don’t , and he don’t even know he got itMy stuff is the anonymous ripped off treasure of the yearDid you know somebody almost got away with me!Me! in a plastic bag under his arm, Me! Phemelo Motona!Somebody almost walked off with all of my stuff!
“only so much i can do” in The Sweet Breath of Life by Ntozake Shange and Kamoinge.
On Monday, the class spoke about some of their favorite pieces from The Sweet Breath of Life by Shange and Kamoinge. One of my favorite image and text pairings from The Sweet Breath of Life (pictured above) depicts a wall—layered by an aged striped wallpaper, pictures of the Lord, a torn out book page covered by a straw hat, and a family photo collage. The title: only so much i can do suggests the narrator finds something on the wall that is in need of fixing and/or attention, but it seems there are only limited approaches to remedying the problem. Considering the suggestive quality of the title, and the reiteration of the fixed thing/circumstance via the wall as physical space and title of the piece, themes of compromise and agency become central.
While the title, only so much i can do, is indicative of the narrator’s limited and/or lack of agency, the text suggest that there is indeed a lot that can be done by the narrator to change the circumstance—the circumstance at hand being the Lord’s gaze erroneously falling in the direction opposite that of the family photos. The narrator’s concern with the Lord’s gaze and re-arrangement of the family photos serves as metaphor for laboring to bring oneself and one’s loved ones into a blessed place/space. It is in that place that we find the extraordinary in the mundane—miracle.
It is inevitable that at
a point
in the high pinnacle or low moans of our lives
we will be forced to decide what to remember.
Remembrance comes with imagery, there’s no exception to that rule.
When we reach that moment where we squint
our eyes shut,
where we sway our heads
for the singular date, person, pain
that has defined us
what visual presents itself?
Visiting the International Center for Photography last Monday for class was a truly inspirational and motivational experience for me!
It feels appropriate for me as I took Photography 1 last semester with the Visual Arts department at Columbia University. It is cool to contextualize the world of photography and understand the limited accessible spaces for dark rooms and film processing. I am excited to be able to use these facilities for our final project!
The presentation on photography was also interesting and reminded me of the ways in which we talked about art and photography in the art history classes I have taken. In fact, Bradley, with whom we will be working closely, concluded the presentation with works by Brooklyn- based artist, Lorna Simpson, an artist I have written about for the class, Feminism and Postmodernism in Art. Read More
Our conversation at the ICP about the practice of imposing text on photograph to produce an image – distinct from the practice of photographing – to relay a story/narrative that is non-linear and moves in liquid form through more than a single channel amplifies my understanding of embodied knowledge. Both Decarava/Hughes’s The Sweet Flypaper of Life and Shange/Kamoinge’s The Sweet Breath of Life are artistic undertakings that function through text and photograph to relay multidimensional images/narratives/stories. They attempt to render a full account of Black livelihoods via explorations of the extraordinarily mundane and familiar landscapes around which existence in kinship and individuality take form. Read More
“Photography is writing through light”
Central to Shange’s writings and black photography is the ability to capture emotions and life’s mundane activities. Stories of the black individual’s experience in America. The impacts of societal organization on the realities of each lived experience. Kamoinge’s photographs in conversation with Shange’s words grant access to an intimacy that one may not be worthy of or does not have the tools or experiences to understand. The writing as well as the photograph expands, complicates or perhaps simplify narratives by granting permission to the consumer. With this permission explicit contexts may not be available and thus allows the consumer to feel and imagine beyond the scope of the artist’s intentions. The writings and the photographs give language to what is or what may seem inexpressible. As shange mentions, photographs hold memories beyond what is captured in “a bit of the Lord will take you thru”: Read More
