These readings were assigned almost 20 days ago, and no one has responded.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Total Chaos Assignments Posts
Post your summaries to the essays assigned here. For each essay have a separate post: Minimally three paragraphs with three citations and a works cited page.
On Pure Movement (59), From Dope Spot to Broadway (78), On Lit Hop (92), The City in Public (149), Black Talk and Hot Sex (178), Native Tongues (278), Inventos (255), Toward a Hip Hop Aesthetics (349) and perhaps others.
We have already read three essays and their corresponding introductions: Cape Flats Alchemy (262), Got Next (33), A Brand New Feminism (233), plus an essay on Graffiti Arts and Hyper-masculinity
I wanted to add a few more readings for the next week: (October 20-26) read the essays: Found in Translation: The Emergence of Hip Hop Theatre by Eisa Davis (70), as I mentioned in an earlier post she is in the film, Passing Strange. Also read another essay not assigned. You can read a scholarly article from one of the many books in COA library or from a scholarly publication on-line from the database or a database. I would suggest you read an article which ties into your essay topic(s).
Post the essay responses here. Again this is a rehearsal on signal phrases, transitions, citations: direct and paraphrase and MLA for works cited. Each response needs to be minimally three paragraphs--show them. Students should also be responding to each other. I am not seeing enough responses.
10 comments:
Pure Movement
Rennie Harris is a woman who was a normal girl who blow up in the Hip Hop industry by her idea of pure movement. Her idea of Pure Movement involved more than just hip hop. This idea came about when she hd to step out of her comfort zone to preform for 45 minutes for a show called "Endangered Species", she went through different abstacles just to make the show great. She stayed with her hip hop but other dances were incorporated withnin her dancing. Mrs.Harris anaylized her work before and after it is done but she never really thought of the outcome until it was already done. Although Mrs.Harris was great in hip hp and it clearly showed while she was growing up, she also opened her eyes to other dancing styles which helped her do a great job on her show " Endangered Species". Mrs.Rennie did not know her impact she had on many once she preformed. Her preformance changed many of her audience lives as well as her own. All to her idea of Pure Movement is the reason why she is a great person now.
On Lit Hop
Adam Masnsbach is a fiction writer who is now going forward on his literature involving hip hop. Adam anaylize many who are fiction writers as well. He considers himself to be a hip hopper which os a person who has particapated in, observed, inticized and championed the culture for the twenty years. He inderstand the hip hop industry due to all his activities during his twenty years un hip hop but how is he trying to incorporate hip hop into literature which is called "Lit Hop". He knows that it isnt eay to do. By him looking back on many different artist and writers he uses thier mistake to make himself better as a writer when it comes to change into Lit Hop.
Itzel Diaz
English 1B
Response to Total Chaos Essay, Pure movement and the Cooked Line
The Pure Movement and The Cooked Line by Jeff Chang is an interview with dancer and choreographer Rennie Harris. Harris and Chang talk about the different dance movements in Hip-hop. Rennie gives her own explanation and interpretation of different dance styles. The interview starts up with Harris explaining the beginning of Hip-hop and how she was part of it; Rennie talks about how she was interested in dancing since she was little. On of the first dance styles that she was part of was stepping. The urban dictionary defines it as, “[b]lack fraternity dance. Put on shows and make pledges learn prior to initiation. Dance is pretty complicated, involves chanting and rhythmic stomping (“Steppin” 1). The Interview continues with Harris talking about Butoh, popping, and b-boying/b-girling. During the interview Harris expresses her love and respect for hip-hop and her excitement when it comes to expressing emotions and stories through movements.
Harris wants people to experience the choreography and the stories that it expresses at the same time. In 1992, Harris was assigned to create 45 minute choreography for a theatre. She never danced for that long, but her experience with hip-hop gave her the ability to create that and more. Harris says, “…hip-hop is just about the dynamic. And in the contemporary dance, to me it seems that the hope, the goal, is to have people be pulled in by the movement” (63). Harris purpose is to make others be involved with the things she is expressing, make others feel empathy towards the stories she is telling.
The interview focuses in the dance styles that Harris has been part of; one of the dance styles that Jeff and Harris talk a lot is popping. Harris says, “I define popping as a dance style that creates illusion” (67). Creating illusion is part of making others relate to what you are expressing. In order for a public to believe a story the performer has to create the illusion that he is the character and that whatever the story is, is happening right there and then. All dancing represents who we are and what we do. Dancing helps some individuals express the rue feeling and emotion they have within themselves.
Work cited:
Harris, Rennie. “The Pure movement and the Cooked Line.” Total Chaos: The Art of Aesthetics of Hip-Hop. Ed.Jeff Chang. BasicCivitas, 2006. 59-69
From the dope spot to Broadway
Jeff Chang along with many other artist explain the hip hop culture when it comes to the theatre and the way they get hip hop into theatre with everybody knowing about it. They way they figure were to have a festival that has several artists come out and show their version of hip hop. One great way an artist mentions is going to the dope areas and inviting then too attend the hip hop show or hip hop theatre festival just to get the community involved. Many artists agreed with that technique because it would involve the black community which is hard to do at the time due to the type of hip hop. Theatre during this time was very important. Not everybody attended the theatre shows but many changed theatre through their own view of dance like marc Joseph a poetry slam champion and broadway veteran changed theatre in one way. Kamailah Forbes the director of NYC hip hop theatre festival helped open many people eyes to hip hop through her festival. Traci Bartlow is a dancer, choreographer, photographer and poet who also contributed to variety of involvement with hip hop theatre. Javier Reyes is a writer, activist and entrepreneur and he has helped changed hip hop theatre. All though some of these panelists many not have performed in theatre they still contribute to it to its great history.
The city in public versus private
Many artists still have mentioned things in songs, books, theatre, and many others that have something that many fail to realize is important. Many songs have powerful meanings but some aren’t really figured out until they aren’t around or they just haven’t been explained a film. Like Berlin symphony of a great city was a great way to explain or express the different angles of a city that many have seen. Paul D. Miller used the poem “Mannahatta” that expressed Manhattan itself. It explores areas and events that express the importance that Manhattan has. It’s like a glance of Manhattan through a poem that gives you specific details and gives you visual stories that gives you a little more insight into the life of Manhattan. Other artist like biggie smalls, Whitman and other to go have wrote rapped or sung a song that have opened or gave you a glance into that life that artist once lived.
Black Talk and Hot Sex
Danyel smith expresses her feeling with “Street Lit.” Smith feels that “Street Lit” is another way for African Americans to show literature when it comes to novels. She reads novel that many black writes have that doesn’t too much care for the grammar , language or it’s just about life that man actually live. Street Lit is like a way writers can make a up a fantasy that have similar event that deals with life but at the same time keep you wanting you more from the freedom these writer are free to express. Danyel feel like the beef with “Street Lit” writers should be let go and let them keep writing because it nothing wrong with their writing and the language being written. Smith said “Black literary fiction and street lit should embrace in a rowdy passionate, illicit love affair.” She wants many to know that street lit is okay to read and nothing is wrong with it and the street lit writes should be left alone.
Inventos Hip Hop
Jeff Chang interview Eli Jacobs-Fauntauzz, who filmed his trip in Ghana and ended up making a video about it. He started filming Ghana because it’s a whole different lifestyle that American hip hop isn’t. He made several films to give insight into the life of Ghana’s Hip Hop or as they call it “Hip Life”. It showed all the struggles many artist in Ghana went through, it even pointed out the difference in the Hip Hop in America and in Ghana. This was a way Jacob got a chance to show his creative but at the same time inform many on the life of hip hop in Ghana. Hip Hop in Ghana doesn’t consist of rapping about drugs, money, women and all the other things because the society doesn’t want to hear that so they give society what they want to hear. It always explores the culture of their hip hop and its importance to the country.
Itzel Diaz
English 1b
Response to Total Chaos Essay: From the Dope spot to Broadway
From the Dope spot to Broadway is a round table on Hip-hop Theatre, dance, and performance between Marc Bamuthi Joseph, a national poetry slam champion and Broadway veteran; Kamilah Forbes, artistic director of the New York Hip-hop theatre festival; Traci Bartlow a dancer, choreographer and poet and Javier Reyes, actor, writer, activist, and entrepreneur.
The round table starts with Kamilah talking about the Hip-hop theatre festival and how it started. Then she goes on explaining how hip-hop becomes into hip-hop theater. Kamilah explains, “I think its voice, its energy beyond the aesthetics. There’s the “Four elements,” but what’s even more important are the relevant issues to the hip-hop generation” (80). Javier gives his own vision of hi-hop Theater. He says, “[m]y vision of hip-hop theatre: constant creating and reinventing of the arts “(80). He is followed by Bamuthi, who talks about how he grew up with hip-hop and how hip-hop has become part of him and society. He also talks about what hop-hip theater is to him.
Kamilah, Javier, Tracy, and Bamuthi continue their conversation talking about what hip-hop theater allows them to do. And what it means to them. They each talk about their experience in the theatre and their desire to have al races and social classes to enjoy it. They also talk about the importance of art and culture in our society and the need to express ourselves. The roundtable ends up with the panelist talking about hip-hop itself and what it is to them; Panelist Kamilah, along with some people from the audience end up defining hip-hop as, “a movement of resistance” (88).
Citations:
Bartlow, Traci. Forbes, Kamilah. Joseph, Marc Bamuthi. Reyes, Javier. “From the Dope
Spot to Broadway.” Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-hop. Ed Jeff Chang. New York: Basic Civitas, 2006. 78-91
Itzel Diaz
English 1b
Response to Total Chaos Essay: On Lit Hop
On Lit Hop by Adam Mansbach is an interesting essay that according to Adam is meant to discuss hi, “lit-ho aesthetic and to explore some of the ways lit hop has been misunderstood” (92). Adam talks about the aesthetics of hip-hop and the concepts behind hip-hop four elements: b-boying, MCing, graffiti writing, and deejaying. He explains that, “the key is how everything is put together and the energy with which it is suffused” (93). Adam continues to explain the beauty about each hip-hop element.
Mansbach talks about the beauty of words, color, and expression in graffiti writing and also about the reasons why graffiti writers have to express their art in the streets. The essay keeps on going talking about MCing creating unity within the community; Adam infers how MCing express reality through music and motivates others to rebel against injustice.
Later in the essay Adam talks about his own work on hip-hop literature and his book The Angry Black White Boy. He explains how his book like hip-hop walks hand to hand to everyday life situations. Mansbach educates others by explaining how hip-hop literature can be found in books other than the ones we classified as hip-hop literature; like he says, hip-hop literature, “take[s] up the aesthetic and political concerns of the culture” (95). There are many books that deal with what Adam considers topics directly related to hip-hop literature. His point of view and the use of different examples and evidence make On Lit Hop the perfect explanation for some to understand what hip-hop lit is all about.
Citations:
Mansbach, Adam. “On Lit Hop.” Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop. Ed. Jeff Chang. New
York: Basic Civitas, 2006. 92-101
Itzel Diaz
English 1B
Total Chaos essay Response: The City in Public versus Private
The City in Public versus Private: Through a Scanner Darkly by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky is an entertaining essay. The essay is like a remix of a project that DJ Spooky did with the Tate Modern Museum in London, May 2006. The essay begins talking about New York City and all the different that can be found in it. It also expresses how of a big impact is immigration in the American culture and how it makes us be even more in touch with the rest of the world and all the different cultures that live in it, even though some people like to pretend that America is one culture Miller expresses in his work that we are a mix of everything. The essay continues explaining sample 1, sample 2, sample 3 and sample 4. Each sample contains a different point of view from which Miller a.k.a DJ Spooky finds the way to express the different interpretations that can be given to a big city such as New York.
Sample 1 talks about the injustice committed in the United States; it talks about how health care is denied to the ones that needed the most and how the richer become richer while the poor have lees every day. It also expresses how America has given lots of things away for ideologies that seem not to give what they promise. Sample 2 is the reflection on Saul William’s poem from his book The Dead Emcee Scrolls. DJ Spooky explains what he likes about the poem and his opinion on the American Dream.
Sample 3 is a reflection on the poem Mannhatta by Wait Whitman, a poet from Brooklyn, NY. This reflection includes the poem itself and the works that were inspired by it. It also talks about how a poem becomes illustrated and how the illustration of it makes it cleared for some to understand what the poetry means. Sample 4 is Miller Talking about hip-hop cinema, poetry and editing techniques. He explains the importance of videos, images, and poetry together and how they influence people as individuals.
DJ Spooky’s work is a reflection of his passion for art. His explanations on the different samples help others understand the meaning in poetry and the importance it has in our life. It also helps some realize that art, music, and poetry are not only around us, but are part of who we are.
Citations:
Miller, Paul D. “The City in Public versus Private.” Total Chaos: The Arty and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop.
Ed Jeff Chang. New York: Basic Civitas, 2006. 149-157
Itzel Diaz
English 1B
Response to Total Chaos Essay: Black Talk Hot Sex
Black Talk Hot Sex: why “street lit” is literature by Danyel Smith is an interesting essay that talks about street literature and the reasons why this type of literature should be consider literature. Smith explains how street literature is real and authentic, it tells the stories that most people do not want to hear or like to pretend like if they never happen. Street literature deals with the honestly that some find consider inappropriate and controversial. Danyel continues talking about how street literature went from being sold in the street to being in almost every house in America.
The essay goes on explaining how black-lit writers and street lit writers became each other’s enemies. Street literature books started selling more than the books written by black-lit writers. This action made black-lit authors furious because they consider themselves better writers. Smith goes on explaining that black-lit and street-lit authors are more that what others think.
Smith refuses to limit himself writing about what some might consider being the topics that African American authors are supposed to write about. He wants to expand black literature and get away from the same stereotypical topics people hear about every day. Danyel recognizes that “street lit is fun, it’s sexy, and its best it makes me think “(192). But he also says that is not the only thing he wants to read. The essay concludes that street literature authors should be careful about the expressions and stories they want to tell, because everything they write about becomes the reference for future generations.
Citations:
Smith, Danyel. “Black Talk and Hot Sex: Why “street lit” is literature.” Total Chaos: The Art and
Aesthetics of Hip-Hop. Ed. Jeff Chang. New York: Basic Civitas, 2006. 188-197
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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