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The Worlds of Ntozake ShangeAND DIGITAL STORYTELLING

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photographs – archive find

by Elizabeth 1 Comment

Both times we’ve gone to the archives, I’ve been grabbed by some of the most mundane items. I initially expected to be excited by seeing things like her medals, awards, and accommodations. While these items are fascinating and only add to my respect for Shange as an artist and activist, I have been more intrigued with items related to her personal life.  I’ve enjoyed looking at the items that are more related to her personal life.

On Thursday, I spent a lot of time looking through her photo albums and letters. I was really intrigued with the photos of her daughter, Savannah. Some of them are clearly taken at big events like birthday celebrations, but some of them seem to be in very average, regular, every day moments.

my 5th birthday

 

I started to think about the function of pictures. They are often aesthetic and artistic, but they are also largely for memory and preservation. It makes me wonder what prompted someone to take these pictures and what makes a “Kodak moment.”

I’m not really sure I have a definite answer, but it has made me think back to the themes of ancestry and honoring what came before that is so present in Shange’s work. Considering the gaping holes in history resulting from colonization and imperialism, it is the mere act of taking photos of the every day can be a method of resistance. Taking pictures preserves these histories, and even says that our lives are worth remembering.

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Ntozake Shange Papers, 1966-2016; Box and Folder; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College. http://collections.barnard.edu/public/repositories/2/resources/377 Accessed November 7, 2019.

Black Presentation and Authenticity through Photography

by Clarke 1 Comment

who’s hair isn’t done / let me get in that head honey / the day is lace and crinolines / curls, satins, and layers of beauty / who’s mama wouldn’t be proud / who’s eye won’t be turned when / i saunter outta this room where / the magic is and become it – The Sweet Breath of Life

 

And they has a party every Saturday night / usually not no big party / Just neighbors and home folks…But it’s nice to young folks all dressed up going somewhere–maybe to a party. But it’s sad if you ain’t invited.

The Sweet Flypaper of Life

A number of continuities exist between Shange and Kamoinge’s The Sweet Breath of Life and Langston Hughes and Roy DeCarava’s The Sweet Flypaper of Life, including authentic representations of black families and neighborhoods, and the power of pairing image and text.

Images and Text: Questions of Identity and Meaning

by Nicole 1 Comment

I learned in a photography class at Barnard that early photography began to flourish among the masses with the adoption of portraiture by the middle class in the mid-1800s. Disderí, the European photographer who became famous for photographing the masses, created small photos of people called carte de visite that were more accessible to the middle class. He was often contrasted with other photographers who only photographed the rich. The professor argued that the middle class used photography as a statement of their status and as a way of self-fashioning. We, the students in the class, were prompted to inquire as to what the subjects of photographs were trying to say. Most of the photographs we looked at in this class were not created by black Americans nor did they feature people of color.

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?