Today's presentations were impressive whether that was an analysis of a poem(s), imagery as symbol in a story or critical inquiry about a lost art--the book, all the presentations were thought-provoking and informative.
We will complete the presentations tomorrow. I am available to answer questions about the portfolio up to Monday. If you have a question text me. Texting is easier now with the SMART phone key pad.
Congratulations!
Post your self-reflections if you presented and comments on other presentations in the prior post. Don't forget to post your abstracts.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Presentations Wednesday-Thursday, July 27-28 and Cyber-Assignments
Wednesday-Thursday students will present the papers they wrote in class today. Presentations need not be overly long. I think 5-10 minutes is sufficient.
It is the quality of the presentation that counts, not the length. Students are to bring a copy of the abstract to class, with enough copies for everyone, 21 should cover it. You cannot read the paper--no exceptions. You cannot read your paper from a PowerPoint presentation either. I will stop you. Make sure you rehearse what you plan to say at least once before tomorrow morning. It will make the actual presentation a lot smoother. We are going to ask you questions. This will be in addition to the 5-10 minutes. We will also take time to give you written comments on the abstract.
This is what students do when defending their doctoral thesis. We are serious.
You are defending your thesis or argument. State your thesis and then begin to provide evidence which supports or proves it. It should be fun. You can't fail, well maybe one could --fail, that is, but it would be mighty hard.
If you have a poem, you might want to give us a copy or use a projector so we can follow along. We will meet in A-232 at 8 AM both days. We will use a classroom located inside the larger lab for the presentations. I don't have a podium, just thought about it (smile). Maybe we can borrow one.
We will sign up first come first choice. If we finish with all the presentations in one day, then the final class will be spent working on portfolios and revisions.
Though students can toss one paper, excluding the one written today, all papers have to have a passing grade. C- is not a passing grade. As my grades are not due until next week, if students want to take the weekend to better prepare their portfolios, they are due at the latest Monday, August 1, 2011, at 8 AM.
Post self-reflections here and reflections and comments on classmate's presentation. Everyone should post his or her abstract here as well. If there isn't enough space for a comment and the abstract to share the same post, post multiple times.
It is the quality of the presentation that counts, not the length. Students are to bring a copy of the abstract to class, with enough copies for everyone, 21 should cover it. You cannot read the paper--no exceptions. You cannot read your paper from a PowerPoint presentation either. I will stop you. Make sure you rehearse what you plan to say at least once before tomorrow morning. It will make the actual presentation a lot smoother. We are going to ask you questions. This will be in addition to the 5-10 minutes. We will also take time to give you written comments on the abstract.
This is what students do when defending their doctoral thesis. We are serious.
You are defending your thesis or argument. State your thesis and then begin to provide evidence which supports or proves it. It should be fun. You can't fail, well maybe one could --fail, that is, but it would be mighty hard.
If you have a poem, you might want to give us a copy or use a projector so we can follow along. We will meet in A-232 at 8 AM both days. We will use a classroom located inside the larger lab for the presentations. I don't have a podium, just thought about it (smile). Maybe we can borrow one.
We will sign up first come first choice. If we finish with all the presentations in one day, then the final class will be spent working on portfolios and revisions.
Though students can toss one paper, excluding the one written today, all papers have to have a passing grade. C- is not a passing grade. As my grades are not due until next week, if students want to take the weekend to better prepare their portfolios, they are due at the latest Monday, August 1, 2011, at 8 AM.
Post self-reflections here and reflections and comments on classmate's presentation. Everyone should post his or her abstract here as well. If there isn't enough space for a comment and the abstract to share the same post, post multiple times.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Portfolio Checklist (draft)
This checklist can serve as the table of contents. Put a check next to the items to show inclusion in the portfolio. Use as the second page to the portfolio, after the cover sheet. Where there are questions for the section, students can post the answers to the narrative there.
Number the pages with a header.
Name ______________________________
Date ______________________________
Class including class code and semester ____________________
Address _______________________________________
Phone number __________________________________
Email address__________________________________
Portfolio Narratives (250 words each, minimally).
1. The fist narrative will look at the six week summer course, the themes we discussed: immigration, family, assimilation, alienation, genocide, disenfranchisement, colonization, war, violence against women. . . . Talk about what you've learned and discovered this semester about writing, college and life, which have transformed or changed you.
What have you learned about yourself this semester? What have you learned about the discipline you are studying in this class: composition and reading that you plan to carry forth into your lifelong pursuit of learning?
Please also comment on the texts and whether or not they were helpful in this process. You can also talk about the instruction, culture of the class and the teacher.
2. Use two essays as evidence to discuss your revision process. Don’t forget to include it in the works cited page. Use a scholarly source as well to talk about the revision process. I gave you two handouts at the start of class. Also use your grammar style book (Hacker, etc.) There will be at least two sources, perhaps three used for this essay.
Checklist
The checklist will list all the assignments, but you know what they are. Post the entire portfolio for each section. On the checklist include all the assignment grades. I will get the other grades to you before Friday, so you can update that part of the portfolios.
All the essays included in the portfolio are graded essays: Short Fiction, the Novel (2), The Play, Poetry, Final Essay and Presentation (student choice re: genre).
We will toss the lowest graded essay. Include it.
Presentations:
Group presentations: Poetry and individual on favorite poem and final essay. Please include the abstract for the final essay and for the others your poem and the responses received re: presentation. For group essays: Post the essay and any responses to it.
3. Other Cyber-Assignments. Divide them into freewrites and cyber-essays. Most of the cyber-essays were collaborative.
4. Literary event essay
5. Extra credit. If you have written any essays this semester for extra credit they would go in this section.
6. Evaluation: There is a course evaluation for the class which is optional. I also ask if I can use any of your work for academic research.
This is a preliminary checklist.
Number the pages with a header.
Name ______________________________
Date ______________________________
Class including class code and semester ____________________
Address _______________________________________
Phone number __________________________________
Email address__________________________________
Portfolio Narratives (250 words each, minimally).
1. The fist narrative will look at the six week summer course, the themes we discussed: immigration, family, assimilation, alienation, genocide, disenfranchisement, colonization, war, violence against women. . . . Talk about what you've learned and discovered this semester about writing, college and life, which have transformed or changed you.
What have you learned about yourself this semester? What have you learned about the discipline you are studying in this class: composition and reading that you plan to carry forth into your lifelong pursuit of learning?
Please also comment on the texts and whether or not they were helpful in this process. You can also talk about the instruction, culture of the class and the teacher.
2. Use two essays as evidence to discuss your revision process. Don’t forget to include it in the works cited page. Use a scholarly source as well to talk about the revision process. I gave you two handouts at the start of class. Also use your grammar style book (Hacker, etc.) There will be at least two sources, perhaps three used for this essay.
Checklist
The checklist will list all the assignments, but you know what they are. Post the entire portfolio for each section. On the checklist include all the assignment grades. I will get the other grades to you before Friday, so you can update that part of the portfolios.
All the essays included in the portfolio are graded essays: Short Fiction, the Novel (2), The Play, Poetry, Final Essay and Presentation (student choice re: genre).
We will toss the lowest graded essay. Include it.
Presentations:
Group presentations: Poetry and individual on favorite poem and final essay. Please include the abstract for the final essay and for the others your poem and the responses received re: presentation. For group essays: Post the essay and any responses to it.
3. Other Cyber-Assignments. Divide them into freewrites and cyber-essays. Most of the cyber-essays were collaborative.
4. Literary event essay
5. Extra credit. If you have written any essays this semester for extra credit they would go in this section.
6. Evaluation: There is a course evaluation for the class which is optional. I also ask if I can use any of your work for academic research.
This is a preliminary checklist.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Mary Rudge, Special Guest
MARY RUDGE speaks internationally at universities, schools, cultural centers, libraries, poetry groups, and Peace events on five continents on teaching peace skills, and Poetry as a Healing Art, among other topics. Some of her poetry has been translated into several languages, published by Amnesty International and others. She was awarded Honorary Doctorates in Greece, Taiwan, New York, named Princess of Poetry in Italy and crowned as an International Poet Laureate in ceremony at the City Hall Rotunda. San Francisco. Newspapers have called her a global catalyst and one of the Bay Area's most charismatic poets. She is currently Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda.
She is an editor of numerous anthologies including State of Peace; The Women Speak, Peace Poems for Children, The Human Face of Love, co-author of Poems for the Philippines, author of Hungary, Austria and other Passions, Water Planet, Beat, She Can't Be Beat, When the Rapture Comes (a Beatzine selection), For Love of Jack London, His Life with Jennie Prentiss (with Eugene Lasartemay) and numerous other books.
Rudge is advocate of language as bringing transformation of individuals and society. She declares human creativity as the world's important resource, and urges, on all countries, wherever she travels and speaks, an education that teaches a semantics for peace, including word skills and techniques of arbitration, negotiation, reconciliation beginning from the earliest grades. "There are things people say in situations that transform minds, and that can defuse feelings that could be volatile. There are words that build friendships and words that widen differences, escalate anger, and make enemies."
Mary Rudge has been Art Director and teacher in schools and in the GATE program (Gifted and Talented) in Oakland and other cities. She annually coordinates a city-wide Haiku and short poems contest and reading for National Poetry Month Celebration in Alameda, as well as poetry and art events. In her own work she also frequently incorporates poetry into mixed media, and works with dancers choreographing and performing her poems at numerous events.
BLESSING
May everyplace you look
stones become bread
may mangos and papayas
and pineapples
fall into your hands
may you feed the hungry
and give them flowers
May swallows fly in the winds
of your passing
may monkeys dance
in the path before you
may children of all people
be your children
and all people be your family
may singing of small birds
in air surround you
may poems always be in your mailbox
coming in to praise you
going out to right wrongs
Remember you have the blessing
of all women before you
combing their hair by the lake
naming all beautiful things after
themselves
remember the women
who learned to walk on fire
lit your way
remember
the women who breathed fire
have blazed your path
remember
the women whose fire burned
pentcostal from forehead and brain
transformed your vision
remember your ancestress
the temple dancer
remember your ancestress
the Queen of the Euphrates
remember your ancestresses
Esther and Ruth
the mother who bore you
the woman you might have been
in another life
remember the women in chains and
whipscars,
with barbed wire wounds.
You are the one
whose sisters were buried alive
you are the one
whose sister drowned when
the river rose
whose sister died of famine
and drought
you are the one
who worked in the fields
of California
and slept by the roadsides
harassed in the marketplace
in a far country sen to Siberia
for speaking out,
locked up as insane
against your will
you are the woman imprisoned
in burnoose
with clitoris cut in ritual
whose husband was chosen for you
you are the woman burned
for your dowry
you are he woman whose feet
were broken and bound
who could not walk
You are the woman who
leaped over walls
who leaped into hearts
whose heart leaped forward
May others embrace and join you
May everywhere
you walk
stones become bread.
Poem by Mary Rudge
(published in Beat, She Can't Be Beat)
Where Was Your Pen In The War?
Where was your pen in the war?
Poking politicians, thrusting poems
for their eyes that showed they had always
been blind -- shoving blade-straight to heart pain,
puncture blood out blood in, probe
where screams matter?
In every situation requiring justice-unafraid
you would pierce slash slice
ink runs out like a river unsheathed thought
current flow crevices of brain vein to
finger-grasp channel of sheer nerve
carved deep with a sharp tool – make us
think again, act, move, someone move on
who'd ever think they could act that way,
pristine visible do it make possible?
On the horizon where you live I expected
ink eruption covering the sky,
explosion of words flurrying up and out,
for thousands of directions, multiplied
by the millions who copy making points
hitting marks. The air page-blank, I went
to find where you were, your pen
stronger than sword, sharper than dagger,
sure cutting as scythe — poke fun, rapier wit.
Sweetheart, where when 9/11 Babel twin
towers all tragic came down, was your pen?
Where was your pen in the war, baby" Poet
I love. With that pen magnified giant club,
each letter hard rock stroke at Goliath bone
head knock sense into the right, the left, too,
cutting past dross, through ignorance
clear a way. A desperation brings me –
the ability of cells to become a rose,
caterpillar transform to butterfly, –
society transcend to peace
surpasses other purposes. The poets
silence, absence, the real aid to evil,
mark of a traitor to life, to the world.
How angry I am, arrived
at your door, to see the note "gone fishing" –
I expected to carry off a box of passion,
reams of paper ammunition, we needed you,
right writing hand, what right have you,
you bastard while the world burns
to just be down by the river
watching the light on its beautiful forever flow.
poem by Mary Rudge
from anthology Flaunt Peace In The Face Of War
Bio and poetry: http://www.vspcity.com/insomnia/poetry/poetry4.htm#
She is an editor of numerous anthologies including State of Peace; The Women Speak, Peace Poems for Children, The Human Face of Love, co-author of Poems for the Philippines, author of Hungary, Austria and other Passions, Water Planet, Beat, She Can't Be Beat, When the Rapture Comes (a Beatzine selection), For Love of Jack London, His Life with Jennie Prentiss (with Eugene Lasartemay) and numerous other books.
Rudge is advocate of language as bringing transformation of individuals and society. She declares human creativity as the world's important resource, and urges, on all countries, wherever she travels and speaks, an education that teaches a semantics for peace, including word skills and techniques of arbitration, negotiation, reconciliation beginning from the earliest grades. "There are things people say in situations that transform minds, and that can defuse feelings that could be volatile. There are words that build friendships and words that widen differences, escalate anger, and make enemies."
Mary Rudge has been Art Director and teacher in schools and in the GATE program (Gifted and Talented) in Oakland and other cities. She annually coordinates a city-wide Haiku and short poems contest and reading for National Poetry Month Celebration in Alameda, as well as poetry and art events. In her own work she also frequently incorporates poetry into mixed media, and works with dancers choreographing and performing her poems at numerous events.
BLESSING
May everyplace you look
stones become bread
may mangos and papayas
and pineapples
fall into your hands
may you feed the hungry
and give them flowers
May swallows fly in the winds
of your passing
may monkeys dance
in the path before you
may children of all people
be your children
and all people be your family
may singing of small birds
in air surround you
may poems always be in your mailbox
coming in to praise you
going out to right wrongs
Remember you have the blessing
of all women before you
combing their hair by the lake
naming all beautiful things after
themselves
remember the women
who learned to walk on fire
lit your way
remember
the women who breathed fire
have blazed your path
remember
the women whose fire burned
pentcostal from forehead and brain
transformed your vision
remember your ancestress
the temple dancer
remember your ancestress
the Queen of the Euphrates
remember your ancestresses
Esther and Ruth
the mother who bore you
the woman you might have been
in another life
remember the women in chains and
whipscars,
with barbed wire wounds.
You are the one
whose sisters were buried alive
you are the one
whose sister drowned when
the river rose
whose sister died of famine
and drought
you are the one
who worked in the fields
of California
and slept by the roadsides
harassed in the marketplace
in a far country sen to Siberia
for speaking out,
locked up as insane
against your will
you are the woman imprisoned
in burnoose
with clitoris cut in ritual
whose husband was chosen for you
you are the woman burned
for your dowry
you are he woman whose feet
were broken and bound
who could not walk
You are the woman who
leaped over walls
who leaped into hearts
whose heart leaped forward
May others embrace and join you
May everywhere
you walk
stones become bread.
Poem by Mary Rudge
(published in Beat, She Can't Be Beat)
Where Was Your Pen In The War?
Where was your pen in the war?
Poking politicians, thrusting poems
for their eyes that showed they had always
been blind -- shoving blade-straight to heart pain,
puncture blood out blood in, probe
where screams matter?
In every situation requiring justice-unafraid
you would pierce slash slice
ink runs out like a river unsheathed thought
current flow crevices of brain vein to
finger-grasp channel of sheer nerve
carved deep with a sharp tool – make us
think again, act, move, someone move on
who'd ever think they could act that way,
pristine visible do it make possible?
On the horizon where you live I expected
ink eruption covering the sky,
explosion of words flurrying up and out,
for thousands of directions, multiplied
by the millions who copy making points
hitting marks. The air page-blank, I went
to find where you were, your pen
stronger than sword, sharper than dagger,
sure cutting as scythe — poke fun, rapier wit.
Sweetheart, where when 9/11 Babel twin
towers all tragic came down, was your pen?
Where was your pen in the war, baby" Poet
I love. With that pen magnified giant club,
each letter hard rock stroke at Goliath bone
head knock sense into the right, the left, too,
cutting past dross, through ignorance
clear a way. A desperation brings me –
the ability of cells to become a rose,
caterpillar transform to butterfly, –
society transcend to peace
surpasses other purposes. The poets
silence, absence, the real aid to evil,
mark of a traitor to life, to the world.
How angry I am, arrived
at your door, to see the note "gone fishing" –
I expected to carry off a box of passion,
reams of paper ammunition, we needed you,
right writing hand, what right have you,
you bastard while the world burns
to just be down by the river
watching the light on its beautiful forever flow.
poem by Mary Rudge
from anthology Flaunt Peace In The Face Of War
Bio and poetry: http://www.vspcity.com/insomnia/poetry/poetry4.htm#
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Class Teaching Presentations on Poetry Cyber-Post
Please comment on your presentation and that of your peers. Excellent work everyone! A+. I loved the quote you shared Ricardo, please include it in your response re: the value of poetry from the film The Dead Poets Society.
Literary Events
Note: The writer, Sapphire, known for her book PUSH, adapted for the film, Precious is at Marcus Books in Oakland, MLK at 40th Street, tomorrow, July 21, 2011. She has a new book out, The Kid, (about Precious's child) and will be reading from it. The reading is free.
Tonight there is a screening at the African American Art and Culture Complex in SF, 762 Fulton Street @ Webster, on the Crisis in the Congo. There will be a discussion following it. It is free and the film is 26 minutes long.
Literary Events
Note: The writer, Sapphire, known for her book PUSH, adapted for the film, Precious is at Marcus Books in Oakland, MLK at 40th Street, tomorrow, July 21, 2011. She has a new book out, The Kid, (about Precious's child) and will be reading from it. The reading is free.
Tonight there is a screening at the African American Art and Culture Complex in SF, 762 Fulton Street @ Webster, on the Crisis in the Congo. There will be a discussion following it. It is free and the film is 26 minutes long.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Cyber-Assignments, Poetry Self-Reflections and comments and other thoughts
Homework
Don't forget to respond to the wonderful presentations on favorite poems this morning. We continue tomorrow with some of the poems set to music. Some students already responded to the presentations, so we will keep the conversation in that window for the rest of the comments.
Recap of instructions
Include a self-reflection naming your poem and why it was chosen. If you translated from another language, like you did Daniel, can you translate it for us? Alex, you don't have to worry as your poem was given to us in both languages.
Say something about each student and his or her selection/presentation.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 Homework
We moved the three paragraph essay on a poem from Indivisible --the writer has to be one you haven't read yet, to Wednesday, July 20, 2011's homework, due Thursday, July 20, 2011. You don't have to post it, just case you plan to use this freewrite as the basis for your essay due next week, Monday, July 25, 2011.
Bring in your planning sheet and outline for your essay due Monday, July 25, 2011.
Thursday, July 21, 2011 Visit with Alameda Poet Laureate, Mary Rudge
Thursday, July 21, 2011, before our guest arrives we will talk about the portfolio and I'll have a checklist for you posted. We will work on the portfolio on Monday as well. The essay which takes its topic from a poem is due Monday 7:30 AM. Get the peer review via email from a classmate before Monday morning.
Final Essay, July 26, 2011
Tuesday we will write our essays. This is all we will do. You can have from 7:30 AM to 10:20 AM.
Paper Presentations
Wednesday, we begin presenting our essays (smile). I will see if we can get the Student Lounge in the F-building.
If you have ever gone to a scholarly conference, this is the etiquette: Dress up, bring a copies of your abstract for everyone. You can invite guests like parents, spouses, relatives, peers.
If you need a projector for slides, let me know. If you use PowerPoint, do not put your essay in this form. Absolutely no reading. I will stop you (smile--seriously).
The power point is for illustrations, clips from films, interviews, performances, etc.
You are graded on your form and the content(smile). Rehearse the presentation in advance. The presentation need only be 3-5 minutes. You will write a self-reflection and comment on classmate's work for homework.
Bring a tablet and prepare to take notes.
Don't forget to respond to the wonderful presentations on favorite poems this morning. We continue tomorrow with some of the poems set to music. Some students already responded to the presentations, so we will keep the conversation in that window for the rest of the comments.
Recap of instructions
Include a self-reflection naming your poem and why it was chosen. If you translated from another language, like you did Daniel, can you translate it for us? Alex, you don't have to worry as your poem was given to us in both languages.
Say something about each student and his or her selection/presentation.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 Homework
We moved the three paragraph essay on a poem from Indivisible --the writer has to be one you haven't read yet, to Wednesday, July 20, 2011's homework, due Thursday, July 20, 2011. You don't have to post it, just case you plan to use this freewrite as the basis for your essay due next week, Monday, July 25, 2011.
Bring in your planning sheet and outline for your essay due Monday, July 25, 2011.
Thursday, July 21, 2011 Visit with Alameda Poet Laureate, Mary Rudge
Thursday, July 21, 2011, before our guest arrives we will talk about the portfolio and I'll have a checklist for you posted. We will work on the portfolio on Monday as well. The essay which takes its topic from a poem is due Monday 7:30 AM. Get the peer review via email from a classmate before Monday morning.
Final Essay, July 26, 2011
Tuesday we will write our essays. This is all we will do. You can have from 7:30 AM to 10:20 AM.
Paper Presentations
Wednesday, we begin presenting our essays (smile). I will see if we can get the Student Lounge in the F-building.
If you have ever gone to a scholarly conference, this is the etiquette: Dress up, bring a copies of your abstract for everyone. You can invite guests like parents, spouses, relatives, peers.
If you need a projector for slides, let me know. If you use PowerPoint, do not put your essay in this form. Absolutely no reading. I will stop you (smile--seriously).
The power point is for illustrations, clips from films, interviews, performances, etc.
You are graded on your form and the content(smile). Rehearse the presentation in advance. The presentation need only be 3-5 minutes. You will write a self-reflection and comment on classmate's work for homework.
Bring a tablet and prepare to take notes.
Writing about Poetry, A Group Cyber-Assignment & Homework
Freewrite
From July 18, 2011
Today after this initial freewrite, students will choose a poem from the collection for a freewrite. Think about how poetry differs from fiction and dramatic literature, yet is the same. What do you like about the poem you chose? Share favorite lines; talk about the rhythm and language used. More so than in fiction, the language is heightened in poetry--language is almost in itself a character.
1. Freewrite: Group--Indivisible--Read an entire body of work. Read it again thinking about literary devices and the different ways one can think about poetry. The poem will speak to you. A poet might have a discernible style that one sees in several works or the poet might demonstrate a certain flare for a literary device like internal rhyme, such as assonance.
Respond in a 3-4 paragraph essay. Cite the poem. Print a copy.
Homework
2. Homework is to read the introduction to Indivisible, read another poet and write a 3-paragraph response to the work. Post it here as well. Choose a poet you haven't explored yet.
Group Presentation
3. The group presentation is tomorrow from 8-10 AM. Keep it to 15 minutes max.
Films:
What do we do with them?
Divorce Iranian Style and Persepolis
Re: "Divorce Iranian Style" and "Persepolis," the film, if students watched the films, they were to be included in the bibliography for the essay, so you can add it in subsequent drafts (for the portfolio, etc.).
If anyone wants to write a short essay (250-500 words about either for extra credit, you can). If you went to see the play, Persepolis, Texas, then the work should be included in your bibliography as well.)
Literary events:
The literary event responses need to be between 250-500 words. You can turn them in after the event. They all need to be in by Monday, July 25, 2011. The form is a review. Read a review to see how one is written, that is, the elements of a review. Ask me for help, if you have questions.
From July 18, 2011
Today after this initial freewrite, students will choose a poem from the collection for a freewrite. Think about how poetry differs from fiction and dramatic literature, yet is the same. What do you like about the poem you chose? Share favorite lines; talk about the rhythm and language used. More so than in fiction, the language is heightened in poetry--language is almost in itself a character.
1. Freewrite: Group--Indivisible--Read an entire body of work. Read it again thinking about literary devices and the different ways one can think about poetry. The poem will speak to you. A poet might have a discernible style that one sees in several works or the poet might demonstrate a certain flare for a literary device like internal rhyme, such as assonance.
Respond in a 3-4 paragraph essay. Cite the poem. Print a copy.
Homework
2. Homework is to read the introduction to Indivisible, read another poet and write a 3-paragraph response to the work. Post it here as well. Choose a poet you haven't explored yet.
Group Presentation
3. The group presentation is tomorrow from 8-10 AM. Keep it to 15 minutes max.
Films:
What do we do with them?
Divorce Iranian Style and Persepolis
Re: "Divorce Iranian Style" and "Persepolis," the film, if students watched the films, they were to be included in the bibliography for the essay, so you can add it in subsequent drafts (for the portfolio, etc.).
If anyone wants to write a short essay (250-500 words about either for extra credit, you can). If you went to see the play, Persepolis, Texas, then the work should be included in your bibliography as well.)
Literary events:
The literary event responses need to be between 250-500 words. You can turn them in after the event. They all need to be in by Monday, July 25, 2011. The form is a review. Read a review to see how one is written, that is, the elements of a review. Ask me for help, if you have questions.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Week 7: Day 1 (smile)
We had a great time at Persepolis, Texas Saturday, July 16, 2011. We all thought Maryam's contemporary take on dislocation in the Texan Diaspora entertaining and thought provoking.
This week we look at poetry. Today we will have peer reviews of the Persepolis essays. As this is our third look at fiction, what do we know about literary analysis? How have we grown as critical thinkers about a popular genre of literature? When we look at our own writing, how has it developed over the landscape of three papers? Did we challenge ourselves to look at the work in a different way or did we rely on the more comfortable modes of literary critique, themes (smile)?
When one thinks about poetry, once again, themes are certainly a way to analyze it. However, we are going to look at the various styles of poems and for tomorrow and Wednesday we will in groups present a brief analysis of the various styles with examples.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 19, 2011, students are to bring in a favorite poem to share and talk about. Please bring in enough copies for everyone--22, which includes one for the presenter.
Today after this initial freewrite, students will choose a poem from the collection for a freewrite. Think about how poetry differs from fiction and dramatic literature, yet is the same. What do you like about the poem you chose? Share favorite lines; talk about the rhythm and language used. More so than in fiction, the language is heightened in poetry--language is almost in itself a character.
Homework: Finish the "Persepolis" essay. Due via email by 12 midnight.
Today is the last day to drop with a "W." Sometimes we jump into the deep end before its time, this doesn't mean we can learn to swim, it just means we need a bit more preparation first.
Read the section on Poetry. Be prepared to present Wednesday, July 20, 2011.
This week we look at poetry. Today we will have peer reviews of the Persepolis essays. As this is our third look at fiction, what do we know about literary analysis? How have we grown as critical thinkers about a popular genre of literature? When we look at our own writing, how has it developed over the landscape of three papers? Did we challenge ourselves to look at the work in a different way or did we rely on the more comfortable modes of literary critique, themes (smile)?
When one thinks about poetry, once again, themes are certainly a way to analyze it. However, we are going to look at the various styles of poems and for tomorrow and Wednesday we will in groups present a brief analysis of the various styles with examples.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 19, 2011, students are to bring in a favorite poem to share and talk about. Please bring in enough copies for everyone--22, which includes one for the presenter.
Today after this initial freewrite, students will choose a poem from the collection for a freewrite. Think about how poetry differs from fiction and dramatic literature, yet is the same. What do you like about the poem you chose? Share favorite lines; talk about the rhythm and language used. More so than in fiction, the language is heightened in poetry--language is almost in itself a character.
Homework: Finish the "Persepolis" essay. Due via email by 12 midnight.
Today is the last day to drop with a "W." Sometimes we jump into the deep end before its time, this doesn't mean we can learn to swim, it just means we need a bit more preparation first.
Read the section on Poetry. Be prepared to present Wednesday, July 20, 2011.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Persepolis: The film . . . and more like Essay 4
This morning we watched the film, Persepolis in the Student Lounge (F-Bldg.). The third essay looking at fiction, this time--The Complete Persepolis, is due Monday, July 18, 2011, for a peer review. Bring the essay electronically. Send to me by Tuesday before class.
For extra credit, students can look at Persepolis the film and compare and contrast it to the novel. The style can be a review for a popular publication, you decide which one. Include this information in the IPS.
We will focus on poetry next week, and the final week, students can choose their own genre to write a literary expose on. We will write the essay in class on Tuesday, July 26, 2011. I will give you the entire session (7:30-10:20 to write it). The planning sheet is due Monday, July 25, 2011 for comment.
Field Trip Details
Class, I plan to attend the play Saturday, July 16, 2011, 8 PM. If you'd like to join me, let me know. I plan to reserve tickets today.
WS
PERSEPOLIS, TEXAS: INFO
About the show, which is one hour long:
How is it that a little girl born to Iranian parents, reared in the suburbs of Texas and schooled to become an architect became an ostentatious drag queen in San Francisco? How can the violence of the suburbs disrupt the dreams immigrants have for themselves and their offspring? Can the children of immigrants use their precarious cultural collateral to forge new identities, or are they mired by the consequences of exoticization? Persepolis, Texas, an evening-length, one-woman show premiering at CounterPULSE in July, lives and breathes in these questions. Using narrative, devised movement, and drag, Maryam Farnaz Rostami will take the audience to the Wild West, an Iranian living room, a suburban public school, and to Persepolis itself to explore how where we're from makes who we are.
Given how recent current events continue to exacerbate the image of Middle Eastern people in the media, Persepolis, Texas is an especially relevant story, one that will impact not only how people see Middle Eastern-Americans, but also how Middle Eastern-Americans see themselves. MFR Productions is excited about presenting the story of a “FOBspring” (child of a FOB, Fresh Off the Boat) who has queered model minority expectations while also occupying a unique position in the queer community by being a cis-gendered woman and also a drag queen.
The stakes are high for Maryam, because she is using my movement experience, writing experience, and her drag chops to develop her first solo show with director and dramaturg Sara Razavi. Maryam’s drag queen alter ego, Mona G. Hawd, will bring a dash of sequined vigilance as well as high artifice to the stage. Maryam counts Monique Jenkinson/Fauxnique as one of her mentors, and is making work that is in many ways inspired by Faux/Real and Luxury Items. To contrast, her work will be focused on hyphenated identities and the construction and manipulation of gender and ethnicity. Maryam has been working on Persepolis, Texas since the Summer of 2010, and she is innovating within a framework of non-linear storytelling. To this end, she will engage members of the communities with whom she is most closely tied: the queer nightlife community, the queer performance art community, the middle eastern performing arts community, as well as the Bay Area community of architects and architectural designers, of which she is also a part.
Persepolis, Texas makes its world premiere at CounterPULSE on July 15-17th 2011. Maryam and MFR Productions are part of the Summer Special Program, which gives “artists and cultural innovators a variety of ways to access the plethora of resources and expertise” that CounterPULSE offers. This is a highly supported environment in which to present work, and MFR Productions is honored to be part of this pilot program.
In Persepolis, Texas, Maryam Farnaz Rostami will represent several character archetypes in telling a semi-autobiographical coming of age story. The Auntie, the Kid, the Unassuming Cowboy, the Pop Star, and the Tour Guide will all make appearances and tell their version of reality through Maryam’s. As such, these characters will invite her to different states of bodily being, and as she takes them on, she will slip into corresponding states that will dictate movement. Having been in two productions necessitating collaborated devised movement (Tell Them That You Saw Me and Total Facts Known), Maryam is excited to use her experience in allowing state-work to tell this strange story. Maryam is devising this piece alongside director and dramaturg Sara Razavi, who is also an Iranian-American with a strong understanding of the American suburbs. For Persepolis, Maryam will engage in a self-flagellation mourning ritual in cowboy regalia, whirl like a dervish at the foot of high school bleachers, do rope tricks at the steps of Persepolis, and will execute the elusive dance that every auntie wants her niece to do at a proper Persian mehmooni (party).
Here is a list of the characters:
The Persian Girl – early 20’s Persian-American girl from Texas
The Texan – early 30’s American man from Texas
Uncle – early 60’s Iranian-American man
Aunt – early 50’s Iranian – American woman
Kid – a little girl, age 9-10
Mona G. Hawd – drag queen
Suburban Mom – early 50’s American suburban housewife from Texas
Preacher/Healer – gender neutral faith healer
Hejabi Woman – an Iranian woman dressed in full chador
Googosh – Iranian pop singer/icon, performing since she was a little girl, now in her 60’s
MORDAB by Googoosh- Translation by Maryam Farnaz Rostami
In the midst of a naked expanse
Under the desert sun
Lies an aging swamp
Captive in the hands of the earth
I am that ancient swamp
Separate from everything on earth
The heat of the sun on my skin,
And the chains of the earth on my feet
I am the one who had hoped
To one day become the ocean
I wanted to become the biggest ocean in the world
I wanted to expand until I reached the ocean
I wanted to set the night on fire until I reached tomorrow
At first, I was a just a mountain spring
Underneath the timeless sky
But because of that dark moment
My path has lead to dry lands
My spring lead to a place beyond those that tall mountain
Instead, the hands of fate carved a void in my path
I am damned to the earth
The land now imprisons me
And the sky didn’t even cry
She chose to look away
Now I’ve become a swamp
A half-living captive
On one hand buried in the land
On the other, reaching for the sky
The sun from above
And the dirt from below
Are evaporating me
My life has come to this
I am a witness to my own death
But this is my fate, I’m a captive to the land
There is nothing real left of me
These are the last drops
The thirsty earth is taking even this with him
I’m drying up, I’m finished
Tomorrow when the sun comes up
The wind will fill this void with the dust of sand.
Show Details:
What: Persepolis, Texas: FOBspring to Drag Queen in One Generation!
World Premiere by Maryam Farnaz Rostami. Evening length solo performance of drag, movement and narrative.
When: Friday July 15th, Saturday July 16th, Sunday July 17th, 2011
Where: CounterPULSE 1310 Mission Street @ 9th, San Francisco
Tickets: General Admission: $20, CounterPULSE Members: $15
Counterpulse.org or 1-800-838-3006
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/177123
Web: http://counterpulse.org/persepolis-texas/
www.maryamrostami.com
About the Artists:
Sara Razavi has a BA in Sociology with a minor in Theatre Studies from UC Davis. In addition to her training at Davis, her theatre training involves a year-long theatre focus at University of Birmingham, in England. She was one of the founding members of elastic future, an experimental multi-disciplinary arts group working in theatre, film / video, and other live performance, with whom she has collaborated on several ensemble generated works. She is currently a regular performer and active Board Member of Golden Thread Production, a theatre company focused on exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities. She has also been involved with other local theatre companies including Shotgun Theatre, TheatreFIRST, Darvag, and New Conservatory Theatre Company. Like Rostami, Razavi, is also of Iranian decent. She was born in Iran and left with her family when she was 7, after the Iranian Revolution, and during the Iran-Iraq War. She currently lives with her wife, in San Francisco, where in addition to her theatre work, she has worked as a nonprofit executive and is beginning business school at University of San Francisco this fall.
Maryam Farnaz Rostami is a San Francisco based drag queen and contemporary performance artist from Texas. Her work deals with the complexities of the modern condition through the lens of an overachieving child of model minorities. Trained as an architect, Maryam exacerbates and collides her many hats when making performance, and engages audiences on a visual, intellectual and emotional level. She is dedicated to artistic engagement as an invitation for thinking about, looking at and talking to one another differently. Her drag persona, Mona G. Hawd, uses lipsync, movement, narrative and dance and an exaggerated high femme medium to question ownership of images in our culture.
While in architecture school at the University of Texas at Austin, Maryam joined a group of dancers performing Iranian folk dance, and co-choreographed and performed traditional dances with a modern twist on and off campus. During this time, as president of the Iranian Students Academic and Cultural Organization, she presented culturally relevant performing arts including works that challenged status quo perceptions about Iranian-Americans in cabaret-style shows that consistently sold out. Since living in San Francisco, Maryam has collaborated and performed in popular movement-based theater pieces (Total Facts Known, Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory, Fall 2009, Tell Them that You Saw Me, CounterPULSE, Summer 2010), and presented original work in well-attended or sold out venues (This is What I Want 2010 NQAF, WORK HARD). Her piece, Bordi Az Yadam (Taken From My Memory) shown at The Garage last July for This is What I Want re-appropriated the exoticized image of a veiled woman, pushing back on the notion that such a woman is marked by passivity. A dance using just her eyelids gave way to a durational display of auto-eroticism. At TOO MUCH! A Queer Performance Marathon 2010, Maryam choreographed a queered line dance (Right Down the Line) drawing from her Texan upbringing as well as her drag performance influences. Just this past January, at this year’s TOO MUCH!, Maryam and Ryan Crowder performed a durational crochet score in which they created outfits for one another over the course of the festival.
Maryam’s drag persona, Mona G. Hawd is necessarily political in nature. Drawing from exoticized notions of femininity, especially situated in highly oppressed conditions, Mona shoves away at status quo notions of what a proper Middle Eastern lady ought to be. To boot, Mona uses camp as well as high drag to spark imaginations for possibilities toward all sorts of liberation.
Maryam is honored to be supported by the communities in which she participates actively in San Francisco and the East Bay: the queer nightlife community in which she is a drag queen, the queer performance art community in she collaborates with dancers, art makers in movement, costuming and makeup design, the Middle Eastern performing arts community, as well as the Bay Area community of architects and architectural designers, of which Maryam is also a part.
You can listen to an interview with the playwright at: www.wandaspicks.asmnetwork.org (July 13, 2011). It is also available on iTunes.
Also visit:
http://vimeo.com/25007254
(The Persian Girl character as well as the Googoosh character have stayed in the play, while The Kid has morphed and changed into something else.)
maryamrostami.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD4OTbt_DTU
For extra credit, students can look at Persepolis the film and compare and contrast it to the novel. The style can be a review for a popular publication, you decide which one. Include this information in the IPS.
We will focus on poetry next week, and the final week, students can choose their own genre to write a literary expose on. We will write the essay in class on Tuesday, July 26, 2011. I will give you the entire session (7:30-10:20 to write it). The planning sheet is due Monday, July 25, 2011 for comment.
Field Trip Details
Class, I plan to attend the play Saturday, July 16, 2011, 8 PM. If you'd like to join me, let me know. I plan to reserve tickets today.
WS
PERSEPOLIS, TEXAS: INFO
About the show, which is one hour long:
How is it that a little girl born to Iranian parents, reared in the suburbs of Texas and schooled to become an architect became an ostentatious drag queen in San Francisco? How can the violence of the suburbs disrupt the dreams immigrants have for themselves and their offspring? Can the children of immigrants use their precarious cultural collateral to forge new identities, or are they mired by the consequences of exoticization? Persepolis, Texas, an evening-length, one-woman show premiering at CounterPULSE in July, lives and breathes in these questions. Using narrative, devised movement, and drag, Maryam Farnaz Rostami will take the audience to the Wild West, an Iranian living room, a suburban public school, and to Persepolis itself to explore how where we're from makes who we are.
Given how recent current events continue to exacerbate the image of Middle Eastern people in the media, Persepolis, Texas is an especially relevant story, one that will impact not only how people see Middle Eastern-Americans, but also how Middle Eastern-Americans see themselves. MFR Productions is excited about presenting the story of a “FOBspring” (child of a FOB, Fresh Off the Boat) who has queered model minority expectations while also occupying a unique position in the queer community by being a cis-gendered woman and also a drag queen.
The stakes are high for Maryam, because she is using my movement experience, writing experience, and her drag chops to develop her first solo show with director and dramaturg Sara Razavi. Maryam’s drag queen alter ego, Mona G. Hawd, will bring a dash of sequined vigilance as well as high artifice to the stage. Maryam counts Monique Jenkinson/Fauxnique as one of her mentors, and is making work that is in many ways inspired by Faux/Real and Luxury Items. To contrast, her work will be focused on hyphenated identities and the construction and manipulation of gender and ethnicity. Maryam has been working on Persepolis, Texas since the Summer of 2010, and she is innovating within a framework of non-linear storytelling. To this end, she will engage members of the communities with whom she is most closely tied: the queer nightlife community, the queer performance art community, the middle eastern performing arts community, as well as the Bay Area community of architects and architectural designers, of which she is also a part.
Persepolis, Texas makes its world premiere at CounterPULSE on July 15-17th 2011. Maryam and MFR Productions are part of the Summer Special Program, which gives “artists and cultural innovators a variety of ways to access the plethora of resources and expertise” that CounterPULSE offers. This is a highly supported environment in which to present work, and MFR Productions is honored to be part of this pilot program.
In Persepolis, Texas, Maryam Farnaz Rostami will represent several character archetypes in telling a semi-autobiographical coming of age story. The Auntie, the Kid, the Unassuming Cowboy, the Pop Star, and the Tour Guide will all make appearances and tell their version of reality through Maryam’s. As such, these characters will invite her to different states of bodily being, and as she takes them on, she will slip into corresponding states that will dictate movement. Having been in two productions necessitating collaborated devised movement (Tell Them That You Saw Me and Total Facts Known), Maryam is excited to use her experience in allowing state-work to tell this strange story. Maryam is devising this piece alongside director and dramaturg Sara Razavi, who is also an Iranian-American with a strong understanding of the American suburbs. For Persepolis, Maryam will engage in a self-flagellation mourning ritual in cowboy regalia, whirl like a dervish at the foot of high school bleachers, do rope tricks at the steps of Persepolis, and will execute the elusive dance that every auntie wants her niece to do at a proper Persian mehmooni (party).
Here is a list of the characters:
The Persian Girl – early 20’s Persian-American girl from Texas
The Texan – early 30’s American man from Texas
Uncle – early 60’s Iranian-American man
Aunt – early 50’s Iranian – American woman
Kid – a little girl, age 9-10
Mona G. Hawd – drag queen
Suburban Mom – early 50’s American suburban housewife from Texas
Preacher/Healer – gender neutral faith healer
Hejabi Woman – an Iranian woman dressed in full chador
Googosh – Iranian pop singer/icon, performing since she was a little girl, now in her 60’s
MORDAB by Googoosh- Translation by Maryam Farnaz Rostami
In the midst of a naked expanse
Under the desert sun
Lies an aging swamp
Captive in the hands of the earth
I am that ancient swamp
Separate from everything on earth
The heat of the sun on my skin,
And the chains of the earth on my feet
I am the one who had hoped
To one day become the ocean
I wanted to become the biggest ocean in the world
I wanted to expand until I reached the ocean
I wanted to set the night on fire until I reached tomorrow
At first, I was a just a mountain spring
Underneath the timeless sky
But because of that dark moment
My path has lead to dry lands
My spring lead to a place beyond those that tall mountain
Instead, the hands of fate carved a void in my path
I am damned to the earth
The land now imprisons me
And the sky didn’t even cry
She chose to look away
Now I’ve become a swamp
A half-living captive
On one hand buried in the land
On the other, reaching for the sky
The sun from above
And the dirt from below
Are evaporating me
My life has come to this
I am a witness to my own death
But this is my fate, I’m a captive to the land
There is nothing real left of me
These are the last drops
The thirsty earth is taking even this with him
I’m drying up, I’m finished
Tomorrow when the sun comes up
The wind will fill this void with the dust of sand.
Show Details:
What: Persepolis, Texas: FOBspring to Drag Queen in One Generation!
World Premiere by Maryam Farnaz Rostami. Evening length solo performance of drag, movement and narrative.
When: Friday July 15th, Saturday July 16th, Sunday July 17th, 2011
Where: CounterPULSE 1310 Mission Street @ 9th, San Francisco
Tickets: General Admission: $20, CounterPULSE Members: $15
Counterpulse.org or 1-800-838-3006
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/177123
Web: http://counterpulse.org/persepolis-texas/
www.maryamrostami.com
About the Artists:
Sara Razavi has a BA in Sociology with a minor in Theatre Studies from UC Davis. In addition to her training at Davis, her theatre training involves a year-long theatre focus at University of Birmingham, in England. She was one of the founding members of elastic future, an experimental multi-disciplinary arts group working in theatre, film / video, and other live performance, with whom she has collaborated on several ensemble generated works. She is currently a regular performer and active Board Member of Golden Thread Production, a theatre company focused on exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities. She has also been involved with other local theatre companies including Shotgun Theatre, TheatreFIRST, Darvag, and New Conservatory Theatre Company. Like Rostami, Razavi, is also of Iranian decent. She was born in Iran and left with her family when she was 7, after the Iranian Revolution, and during the Iran-Iraq War. She currently lives with her wife, in San Francisco, where in addition to her theatre work, she has worked as a nonprofit executive and is beginning business school at University of San Francisco this fall.
Maryam Farnaz Rostami is a San Francisco based drag queen and contemporary performance artist from Texas. Her work deals with the complexities of the modern condition through the lens of an overachieving child of model minorities. Trained as an architect, Maryam exacerbates and collides her many hats when making performance, and engages audiences on a visual, intellectual and emotional level. She is dedicated to artistic engagement as an invitation for thinking about, looking at and talking to one another differently. Her drag persona, Mona G. Hawd, uses lipsync, movement, narrative and dance and an exaggerated high femme medium to question ownership of images in our culture.
While in architecture school at the University of Texas at Austin, Maryam joined a group of dancers performing Iranian folk dance, and co-choreographed and performed traditional dances with a modern twist on and off campus. During this time, as president of the Iranian Students Academic and Cultural Organization, she presented culturally relevant performing arts including works that challenged status quo perceptions about Iranian-Americans in cabaret-style shows that consistently sold out. Since living in San Francisco, Maryam has collaborated and performed in popular movement-based theater pieces (Total Facts Known, Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory, Fall 2009, Tell Them that You Saw Me, CounterPULSE, Summer 2010), and presented original work in well-attended or sold out venues (This is What I Want 2010 NQAF, WORK HARD). Her piece, Bordi Az Yadam (Taken From My Memory) shown at The Garage last July for This is What I Want re-appropriated the exoticized image of a veiled woman, pushing back on the notion that such a woman is marked by passivity. A dance using just her eyelids gave way to a durational display of auto-eroticism. At TOO MUCH! A Queer Performance Marathon 2010, Maryam choreographed a queered line dance (Right Down the Line) drawing from her Texan upbringing as well as her drag performance influences. Just this past January, at this year’s TOO MUCH!, Maryam and Ryan Crowder performed a durational crochet score in which they created outfits for one another over the course of the festival.
Maryam’s drag persona, Mona G. Hawd is necessarily political in nature. Drawing from exoticized notions of femininity, especially situated in highly oppressed conditions, Mona shoves away at status quo notions of what a proper Middle Eastern lady ought to be. To boot, Mona uses camp as well as high drag to spark imaginations for possibilities toward all sorts of liberation.
Maryam is honored to be supported by the communities in which she participates actively in San Francisco and the East Bay: the queer nightlife community in which she is a drag queen, the queer performance art community in she collaborates with dancers, art makers in movement, costuming and makeup design, the Middle Eastern performing arts community, as well as the Bay Area community of architects and architectural designers, of which Maryam is also a part.
You can listen to an interview with the playwright at: www.wandaspicks.asmnetwork.org (July 13, 2011). It is also available on iTunes.
Also visit:
http://vimeo.com/25007254
(The Persian Girl character as well as the Googoosh character have stayed in the play, while The Kid has morphed and changed into something else.)
maryamrostami.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD4OTbt_DTU
Monday, July 11, 2011
Divorce Iranian Style
Hilarious, tragic, stirring, this fly-on-the-wall look at several weeks in an Iranian divorce court provides a unique window into the intimate circumstances of Iranian women's lives. Following Jamileh, whose husband beats her; Ziba, a 16 year old trying to divorce her 38 year old husband; and Maryam, who is desperately fighting to gain custody of her daughters, this deadpan chronicle showcases the strength, ingenuity, and guile with which they confront biased laws, a Kafakaesque administrative system, and their husbands' and families' rage to gain divorces. With the barest of commentary, Longinotto turns her cameras on the court and lets it tell its own story. Dispelling images of Iran as a country of war, hostages, and fatwas, and Iranian women as passive victims of a terrible system, this film is a subtle, fascinating look at women's lives in a country which is little known to most Americans.
From: http://freedocumentaries.org/int.php?filmID=262
See also: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c454.shtml
From: http://freedocumentaries.org/int.php?filmID=262
See also: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c454.shtml
Week 4: Day 1 The Plan (smile)
Post character profiles and lists here. Post freewrites here as well.
From the board:
1. Draw (not literally) a character profile of Marjane Satrapi's protagonist. Include page numbers. At the same time make a list of references she makes which need further inquiry, again, include page numbers.
2. Freewrite from Indivisible: Meena Alexander (143-147); Dilruba (157-163); Pramila Venkateswaran (164-169); Reena Narayan (170-175). Choose one writer.
3. Divorce Iranian Style. Dir. Kim Longinotto & Ziba Mir-Hosseini
4.Homework--Bring in two scholarly article references that explicate or support the narrative.
Here is a link to the download e-book: http://pdfwiki.blogspot.com/2008/02/persepolis-1-2-marjane-satrapi.html
5. Read up to "The Croissant" in Persepolis.
From the board:
1. Draw (not literally) a character profile of Marjane Satrapi's protagonist. Include page numbers. At the same time make a list of references she makes which need further inquiry, again, include page numbers.
2. Freewrite from Indivisible: Meena Alexander (143-147); Dilruba (157-163); Pramila Venkateswaran (164-169); Reena Narayan (170-175). Choose one writer.
3. Divorce Iranian Style. Dir. Kim Longinotto & Ziba Mir-Hosseini
4.Homework--Bring in two scholarly article references that explicate or support the narrative.
Here is a link to the download e-book: http://pdfwiki.blogspot.com/2008/02/persepolis-1-2-marjane-satrapi.html
5. Read up to "The Croissant" in Persepolis.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Essay 3: Writing about the Play
One of the differences between fiction and theatre or writing for theatre is as one student put it in the freewrite, the dialogue. Almost everything happens between what is said and what is left out of the verbal discourse. Language is very important in all writing, and crucial in theatre.
Writers are told often to "show not tell;" however in theatre, one has to show because they audience won't be able to read the play afterward, even if he or she wanted to. Theatre is an immediate experience. The audience and the cast are creating meaning with each other. It is real time, you are a participant as is the elements like weather if it is an outdoor theatre (Ashland in Oregon, Bruns in Orinda).
So for this essay, think about the literary devices Lynn Nottage uses so well to grab and hold audiences. Look at her characters and how what they say both surprises and captivates you. Writing about themes is an easy way to write about literature. Writing about character and showing how language shapes character and how this language drives story and plot, might be harder to write, but you can try your hand at it (smile).
Essay 3 is due by Sunday, July 10, 2011, 12 noon. Be sure to attach and paste the entire portfolio which includes: The first draft written in class today, the completed draft with peer comments and the final draft with planning (Initial Planning Sheet and Outline). It is okay if the planning changed between today's draft and the final draft. Write a note for me.
Everyone should also have a bibliography including your book review and author profile.
The essay should be about 750 words or three pages. The fourth page is the works cited and the fifth page is the bibliography.
For this essay I will be looking at risk taking (smile). I will also continue to look at interpretation of major themes and motifs in the text and how well students integrate the text into such analysis.
I am still seeing too much plot summary. Give a brief synopsis and then tell us what you have discovered; what excites you about this particular piece of literature.
War is a hard topic to write about. Ruined is an exploration of war from the inside.
How does Nottage do this? Who and what are the weapons? Who and what are the casualties? Does war have anything to do with winners and losers? If not, why are there so many wars? What do all wars have in common?
Is this a universal story? How?
Writers are told often to "show not tell;" however in theatre, one has to show because they audience won't be able to read the play afterward, even if he or she wanted to. Theatre is an immediate experience. The audience and the cast are creating meaning with each other. It is real time, you are a participant as is the elements like weather if it is an outdoor theatre (Ashland in Oregon, Bruns in Orinda).
So for this essay, think about the literary devices Lynn Nottage uses so well to grab and hold audiences. Look at her characters and how what they say both surprises and captivates you. Writing about themes is an easy way to write about literature. Writing about character and showing how language shapes character and how this language drives story and plot, might be harder to write, but you can try your hand at it (smile).
Essay 3 is due by Sunday, July 10, 2011, 12 noon. Be sure to attach and paste the entire portfolio which includes: The first draft written in class today, the completed draft with peer comments and the final draft with planning (Initial Planning Sheet and Outline). It is okay if the planning changed between today's draft and the final draft. Write a note for me.
Everyone should also have a bibliography including your book review and author profile.
The essay should be about 750 words or three pages. The fourth page is the works cited and the fifth page is the bibliography.
For this essay I will be looking at risk taking (smile). I will also continue to look at interpretation of major themes and motifs in the text and how well students integrate the text into such analysis.
I am still seeing too much plot summary. Give a brief synopsis and then tell us what you have discovered; what excites you about this particular piece of literature.
War is a hard topic to write about. Ruined is an exploration of war from the inside.
How does Nottage do this? Who and what are the weapons? Who and what are the casualties? Does war have anything to do with winners and losers? If not, why are there so many wars? What do all wars have in common?
Is this a universal story? How?
Week 3: Day 4
Today we listened to four selections from Ise Lyfe's Pistols and Prayers: "God Fell from the Sky One Day"; "Cost of Apathy"; "Jan. 3, 2007--Ghana West Africa"; "Cups and Chairs".
Respond to one or all and to each other (at least one classmate). We are still in the world of Ruined--there is a thematic connection between Pistols and Ruined. You might look at: perceptions of women; male female relationships; colonization; war and its weapons, etc.
2. Writing about Plays
3. Homework: con't reading Persepolis. Read up to "The Soup." If you are
a slow reader, read more. Bring in Indivisible as well for next week. We'll take some of our freewrites from the collection of poems.
Respond to one or all and to each other (at least one classmate). We are still in the world of Ruined--there is a thematic connection between Pistols and Ruined. You might look at: perceptions of women; male female relationships; colonization; war and its weapons, etc.
2. Writing about Plays
3. Homework: con't reading Persepolis. Read up to "The Soup." If you are
a slow reader, read more. Bring in Indivisible as well for next week. We'll take some of our freewrites from the collection of poems.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Week 3: Midterm Cyber-Assignments
Yesterday we started reading Lynn Nottage's Ruined. It is a play about war and its effect on women. Students were to do background research on the play and its author, as they reflect on the work so far (we didn't complete it).
What does it mean to be "ruined?" Look at the play and do a close reading of a scene or character around a certain theme. Don't forget to use citations to support or prove your claims.
Day 2, Week 3
Today we talked about Ruined and what we know about Nottage--For today's freewrite respond to the following questions:
How is theatre more immediate than fiction? How is the audience's commitment more direct?
From the reading: "Writing about Plays," summarize some of the key points and use Ruined to illustrate them.
Homework:
Continue with the background research. If you haven't visited the Berkeley Rep website to see what was written about Ruined, do so. Chose a theme related to Ruined and develop a plan for our weekly essay.
One idea is to look at Love during a time of warfare. One could also look at the many faces of survival during war as relates to women and men. Another topic is how poetry helps the character Christian survive the war.
One could also define ruined in its multiple definitions as embodied by so many in the play. What is Lynn Nottage saying about humanity in this work?
Each essay needs to have at least 2 articles related to the topic included in the bibliography. One should be scholarly.
What does it mean to be "ruined?" Look at the play and do a close reading of a scene or character around a certain theme. Don't forget to use citations to support or prove your claims.
Day 2, Week 3
Today we talked about Ruined and what we know about Nottage--For today's freewrite respond to the following questions:
How is theatre more immediate than fiction? How is the audience's commitment more direct?
From the reading: "Writing about Plays," summarize some of the key points and use Ruined to illustrate them.
Homework:
Continue with the background research. If you haven't visited the Berkeley Rep website to see what was written about Ruined, do so. Chose a theme related to Ruined and develop a plan for our weekly essay.
One idea is to look at Love during a time of warfare. One could also look at the many faces of survival during war as relates to women and men. Another topic is how poetry helps the character Christian survive the war.
One could also define ruined in its multiple definitions as embodied by so many in the play. What is Lynn Nottage saying about humanity in this work?
Each essay needs to have at least 2 articles related to the topic included in the bibliography. One should be scholarly.
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