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The Worlds of Ntozake ShangeAND DIGITAL STORYTELLING

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“then I moved to Harlem” (Updated)

by Kim Hall 0 Comments

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!

Reimagining the Way We Image Make

by Yemi 0 Comments

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?

Making Images vs. Taking Photos

by Michelle 1 Comment

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.

Shange, DeCarava, and the mundane

by Sophia 2 Comments

I was very excited by our class visit to the ICP. I have practically no experience with either the technical or historical practices of photography, and it was incredibly special to be taught by someone who was clearly a passionate expert, and who integrated so much of his personal relationship to the medium into his instruction. I’ve never looked at an image with such love and intensity as I did this past Monday, and I am looking forward to getting to do so more often, and with more developed tools.

The Things An Image Can Say

by Nadia 1 Comment

I was really blown away by Bradly Dever Treadaway’s presentation at the International Center for Photography. Last semester in the Shange course, I learned how text creates images and last Monday I learned images can create text! The images by Robert Frank Bradly showed us was a prime example of this. I found the image of the trolley in New Orleans particularly striking because of the way in which a simple, candid shot was able to say so much about the social hierarchies of the time and the linear space in which people lived.

Robert Frank | Trolley — New Orleans (1955)

much ado abt black photography

by Kiani 2 Comments

This week’s introduction to Shange’s work and black photography at the International Center of Photography was exciting and enlightening for so many reasons. As a student of photography and a visual arts major, I have visited the facilities on a number of occasions for classes and shows. It was particularly interesting and relevant to experience the Center in this specific way. My work for my thesis and as a practicing art is so intertwined with my identity and my experiences as a queer person of color from the South in New York at Barnard/Columbia and abroad.

We’ve only just begun! Our first ICP class

by Kim Hall 4 Comments

One of my favorite images from *Sweet Breath of Life.* I’m determined to make a quilt from it one day. The blogpost “Intimate Moments in the African Diaspora,” gives a peek into the Kamoinge process. (Click the photo).

Welcome Back to “The Worlds of Ntozake Shange & Digital Storytelling”! On Monday we’ll start a new phase of our adventure.  We talked about how Zake moved knowledge from the body to the page/stage; how do we move “carnal intellectuality” to the visual and the digital?  We’ve talked (and felt) a lot about art and various forms of embodiment; this semester we’ll begin talking more about visuality—both about how we make stories from objects/things we see and how we read differently when we see text on screen as opposed to a book or paper.  How do we make visual knowledges that come with motion, that emerge from connections between people, and that reside in everyday acts like cooking or everyday objects that are not usually recorded?