Finals

Today four students presented their essays on fiction: Erica, Nicole, Amy, and Itzel. Tuesday, Dec. 1--World AIDS Day, we will finish with Ilene and Doris. I really liked how Amy weaved her narrative into a presentation that covered the topics: graffiti, women in hip hop, DJing, and fiction. She used multimedia: projector, images of how graffiti is perceived by difference audiences, footage on Queen Latifah (the woman she profiled in her Women in Hip Hop); video footage from the concert she attended on DJing and Smashing or technological sampling vs.scratching. With notes Amy briefly surveyed the history of DJing in a couple of sentences--I saw a couple of nods from Erica and Jermaine who also presented this semester on this topic and from other students know a little something more now that the semester is over about hip hop culture and could appreciate the presenters facility with the material.

Amy's posters were also great. Itzel is the poster diva and for the past two presentation had no visuals, but Amy tried her hand at doing a tag very successfuly with her new motto: BOUNCE BACK. She also had these lovely posters of women --big women, full-sized black women whom historically not seen as beautiful have been empowered by the bold persona of a Queen Latifah.

There seemed to be a thread running through the entire presentation today and that was life is a journey and this journey is bumpy and ugly and hard, but art can make it, the ugly parts, beautiful too--though maybe only when one is on the other side.

Scars heal and injuries are sometimes preventable, especially if one lets oneself live vicariously through the personas created by artists for our consumption. But if surprised or caught off guard, we should remember that life does go on and art often is the way through which we find the space to smile again when we thought that impossible.

Nicole also weaved her personal narrative into her presentation on "The Dying Ground." It was great seeing how well she and Erica chose the same novel, yet developed such different claims. For Erica the novel was personal in that it took place where she lived as a child --the protagoinist went to her high school, and she knew people just like the fictional characters.

One of the qualities of good writing is honesty. Obviously Nichelle Tramble created honest characters, characters readers not only cared about, they believed in them.

Nicole spoke about how well the author, a woman, used a male voice. She also spoke about why she chose the book she did. She wanted to experience a life she had not lived and knew nothing about.

I didn't get a chance to ask Amy if the insertion of the author, Sister Soulja, into the narrative as a character was jarring. I thought that whole section artificial and preachy, certainly contrived, and could be taken out completely. The only good it did was give the audience background on the character Midnight, and I think this is one reason why the author did this, but there might have been a better way....Winter wasn't hearing it and for all intents and purposes it was just a digression along the path into Dante's hell.

Itzel's presentation was fun. I loved the way she talked about the protagonist and criticized the author (Omar Tyree) for his irresponsibility in creating a character so attractive she might become a role model or perhaps is a role model for gullible youngsters, girls who have no guidance. I loved it when Itzel said she was thinking about giving the book to her cousin and then when she got to the end of the book, all she wanted to do was burn it. Itzel also shared that most, if not all of Tyree's very popular books have similar themes and characters.

I agree, artists, are responsible for the life their work takes on after it leaves the printer, studio, stage, radio airwaves, concert halls, easels. Just like store owners are liable for the actions of clients they sell alcohol too if they knowingly sell alcohol to someone who is drunk, the same is true for artists. There is an ethical responsibility if not legal one.

So after Ilene and Doris wrap it up...we will work on the narratives for the portfolio and students can give each other feedback. I will show you the Revision Strategies video. I have copies of Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers you can use for material to talk about the revision process. Sometimes our work is intuitive, which means we don't know how we do what we do. However, in order to repeat a successful move, one needs to be able to articulate the process.

Bring all of your essays digitized so you can put the portfolio together as a blog or as a Word Document (per the example.) It really is as simple as it looks. If you have not been keeping a blog this semester for the class, do not create one just for the portfolio, I think it is easier to just put the work in a word doc. You will email me the portfolio by Wednesday, Dec. 2. Look for a confirmation.

Portfolio Help
I will be reading portfolios all day Wednesday, Dec. 2-Thursday, Dec. 3, 8-3 the first day, 8-12 the second. At least this is the plan, come by the lab and work if you like.