{"id":904,"date":"2016-02-05T03:32:05","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T03:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=904"},"modified":"2016-02-05T03:33:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T03:33:22","slug":"a-blessed-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=904","title":{"rendered":"a blessed place."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_905\" style=\"width: 601px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/only-so-much-i-can-do.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-905\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-905\" class=\"wp-image-905\" src=\"http:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/only-so-much-i-can-do-300x182.png\" alt=\"only so much i can do\" width=\"591\" height=\"359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/only-so-much-i-can-do-300x182.png 300w, https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/only-so-much-i-can-do-768x467.png 768w, https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/only-so-much-i-can-do-1024x622.png 1024w, https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/only-so-much-i-can-do.png 1300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 591px) 100vw, 591px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-905\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;only so much i can do&#8221; in The Sweet Breath of Life by Ntozake Shange and Kamoinge.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On Monday, the class spoke about some of their favorite pieces from <em>The Sweet Breath of Life <\/em>by Shange and Kamoinge. One of my favorite image and text pairings from <em>The Sweet Breath of Life <\/em>(pictured above) depicts a wall\u2014layered 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: <em>only so much i can do<\/em> 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 <em>fixed thing\/circumstance<\/em> via the wall as physical space and title of the piece, themes of compromise and agency become central.<\/p>\n<p>While the title, <em>only so much i can do<\/em>, is indicative of the narrator\u2019s 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\u2014the circumstance at hand being the Lord\u2019s gaze erroneously falling in the direction opposite that of the family photos. The narrator\u2019s concern with the Lord\u2019s gaze and re-arrangement of the family photos serves as metaphor for laboring to bring oneself and one\u2019s loved ones into a blessed place\/space. It is in that place that we find the extraordinary in the mundane\u2014miracle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2014layered by an aged striped wallpaper, pictures of the Lord, a torn out book page covered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,57],"tags":[271,281],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogpost-1","category-student-blogpost","tag-kamoinge","tag-the-sweet-breath-of-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}