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This is a college level tranfer course, the second in a series where we will examine the poetics of life lived on the ground...as in rough and tumble, as in America at war with herself. This is a world art alone makes sense of, an artist's work is a gift freely shared like air...sympathetic systems aligned, the the fictive or imaginary worlds of possiblity simply an inhale or exhale away. This class is an opportunity to close your eyes and believe.
3 comments:
Erica Williams
English 1B
October 14, 2009
Assignment: Response for essay of choice from Total Chaos
I chose to read “how I found my inner dj” by Robert Karimi. After fingering the pages of Total Chaos several times I finally found an essay that caught my attention. In preparation for the research paper on djing, it was important for me to find out what inspires the artists. I was highly intrigued that Karimi is a dj and poet from the Bay Area. It was also refreshing to find out how Karimi found his “inner DJ”. In the essay he says, “… Hip Hop provided me with the vocabulary to bridge the thoughts of philosophy, math, identity with community, self, and culture.” Being able to discover the dj’s ability to channel his overall thoughts and link them to his mixes, fades and scratches were impressive. He puts away my own personal bias that djs just play records and stand behind “record players”. DJ’s actually having a passion that they emit through mixing and composing is a stereotype crusher for sure. Karimi also points out a very important fact that djs are from all different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. The art of djing is an outlet for so many people to come together with some level of commonality. From this essay I have taken away much more drive and inspiration to find out what other djs’ inspirations are, and the styles that they prefer worldwide.
Work Cited
Chang, Jeff and Karimi, Robert. Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip Hop. “How I found My Inner DJ”.Basic Civitas, 2006
Itzel Diaz
English 1B
Response to “Falling for Bob Marley”
I decide to write my response on “Falling for Bob Marley” by Staceyann Chin because I love Bob Marlin’s music; the way Chin interprets his words and lyrics makes me think deeper into their meaning. Staceyann Chin is Jamaican woman, when she comes to the US she finds herself being part of almost every single minority; she is black, she is an immigrant, she is a woman, and she is lesbian. Four different minorities that when add together make Chin live in an exile from society, an exile that she says is “Self-imposed”.
Bob Marlin’s words and lyrics offered Chin protection from the put side world; they gave her the wisdom to understand that while people focuses on their differences they would not have peace in their lives. Bob Marley says,
Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war…
Until there are no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the basic human rights are equally
Guaranteed to all…everywhere is war… (252)
The differences that we imposed between ourselves are the cause of all violence and war around the world. Chin decides not to focus on all those useless differences and labels that society has set for people like her; she decides to take control over her life. Staceyann helps individuals realize that in order to start war more than one side needs to be involved, so if she ignores the opposite side. There cannot be any confrontation and the journey to a peace full world can finally get to its destination.
Citation:
Chin, Staceyann. “Falling for Bob Marlin”. Total Chaos. Ed. Jeff Chang. New York City: Basic Civitas, 2006. 252-254.
Munkhjin Munkhbaatar
English 1B
Response to “Toward a Hip-Hop Aesthetic”
I choose to write my response on “Toward a Hip-Hop Aesthetic” because in this English class our main subject is hip hop so I chose “Toward a Hip-Hop Aesthetic” and I thought I will help me to understand hip hop. I don’t know anything about hip hop because I started to know hip hop better when I came to the United States in 2006. Back in my home country people don’t really listen to hip hop and rap music.
“Toward a Hip-Hop Aesthetic” is all about hip hop. In “Toward a Hip-Hop Aesthetic” talks about how hip hop was invented first, how graffiti was invented and who invented DJing, B-boying. Basically it included every single thing that hip hop has in it. Hip hop issues from the following traditions, conditions, and phenomena:
• An African and Caribbean continuum of storytelling and art
• A polycultural community of both immigrants and migrants
• A legacy of political and gang organizing … (350)
We can see that hip hop came from the poor zone. Hip hop is the way of expressing ourselves. “Toward a Hip-Hop Aesthetic” explains almost every detail of hip hop and it helped me a lot to understand the meaning of hip hop, graffiti and DJing. Before I thought DJs only for electro dance music I didn’t know that DJing was for hip hop. Then it talks about what’s next after hip hop, which was pretty interesting to me because I thought I would get a specific answer but it says that hip hop will exist forever.
Citation
Hoch, Danny. “Toward a Hip-Hop Aesthetic”. Total Chaos. Ed. Jeff Chang. New York City: Basic Civitas, 2006. page 349-363.
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