There have been many different names over the years for the genre of music known as spirituals. In addition to the names listed above, they have also been known as “sorrow” songs and “freedom” songs. I am interested in why these two adjectives, seemingly contrasting in meaning, have been used to describe the same type of music.
The Hero’s Journey
I’m currently taking American Visions: The Hero in Film with Professor Gillin. In this class we discussed the classic hero structure presented in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. This book analyzes in depth fairy tales and folk lore across many cultures, looking for similarities in the stories. Campbell boils down the structure of the classic hero adventure tale into segments.
I thought it would be fun to see if I could fit Ricky Rice’s character arc in LaValle’s big machine into Campbell’s theory. Continue reading “The Hero’s Journey”
Splinters and the Cave
Splinters by Amina Diakité
When the night splinters
Fractured by a sense of static
We open our eyes to a glimpse
Of warmth that touches our cheeks
To our chins
To see glass portray a picture of trees
Pierced by light of color
Through branches strong
We sink deep into the lush of comfortable
To only understand the confliction
Of being blessed for another day
Yet only wanting to pull at the silent and limp
Who stay in a sleep like death
Without darkness there would be no light
How blessed you must be to see the light
If only they knew that light could blind
When reading this poem I couldn’t help but connect this bittersweet truth, to that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The truth, is knowing the reasons for the disconnect between those within the Veil and outside of the Veil. This circumstantial analogy had popped up in the INTD class, the Art of Steve Prince in it’s comparison to W.E.B Dubois’s Veil which explains the implication of knowledge and the lack thereof. I felt it explained the allegory adequately which, also illuminates to real life situations. The allegory goes to explain a group of individuals who are forced to live in a cave, they are blind to what real life has to offer and are limited to what information they are told. One of the individuals is freed and is able to experience life in its entirety, later after enjoying freedom and realizing that everything they’ve learned had only been a fraction of what the world is actually about that freed individual goes back into the cave in order to help and explain to his captivated peers that what they have learned of the world is a lie, he will then try to help free them. The rest of the captivated individuals however get mad at the freed individual and in a group like fashion they decide to resist against what the freed individual is saying. Later the captivated create this trio that states that if anyone tried to take another person out if the cave then it would mean death for said deliverer. How does this connect to the real world and W.E.B. Du bois Veil? When we think about the Veil we get to understand that it serves as a dividing factor between the haves and the have nots. The have nots are the poor, impoverished, low skilled, undervalued, uneducated, and the have’s are everything but.
When someone from the have nots side makes it across the Veil you would expect for their to be celebration. But usual that individual is looked down upon, whether from jealousy or out of spite. There is this constant pulling and balancing of both worlds. The poem goes to relate to that constant balance and for the most part the imbalance where such disconnect between the two groups on either side of Du bois’s Veil. There should not be any disconnected when we look at this analogy. There should be no forced individuals who are made to spend the rest of their lives in caves, and there should be no gabble to hurt or dismiss an individual trying to help people leave the cave. People should be willing to leave there oppressive state and people not in the oppressive state should make it their duty to help those who are.
Bad Weather For Our Sins
I’ve been pondering weather over the last couple weeks, mainly because our weather has been less than pleasant lately. In the not so distant past, humans didn’t have expansive scientific knowledge and understanding of geography, an aspect of which is the study of weather. Instead, in seeking to explain natural phenomena, past civilizations attributed these extraordinary events to the will of the gods or other supernatural beings. By the time the Abrahamic faiths rolled onto the scene, the basic default was to presume that it was God who controlled the weather. During the Middle Ages, Christianity was widespread throughout Europe along with the idea of divine providence or God’s intervention in the universe. This led to the belief that God was an omnipotent force who judged each person’s earthly deeds and respectively punished or rewarded within the mortal lifespan. An assumption was then formed that it was God’s will that the poor were poor because they were being punished for their wickedness and that the rich were rich because they were being rewarded for their piety. Thus, bad weather was a result of disfavor from God.
Old Lady in the Upper Room
Upon first analyzing the picture below during our collaborative blog post, I did not know what to make of it. My group and I started off by trying to make out specific things we saw in the picture such as the watch in one of the horseman’s hand and what looks to be a shadow of a person behind the little girl. As I explained in our blog post, I stated that the older woman was reaching for the little girl while Alexis thought that the woman was reaching for the watch. I tied both of our assumptions together with Kazon and Devin stated that the little girl could be a depiction of the older woman. This made me think of how we are oblivious to what is around as children because we have yet to experience what the world has to offer. As we grow older and become wiser through things we have faced in life, we start to wish that we can go back in time and use what we know now to change the past. Continue reading “Old Lady in the Upper Room”
Big Machine, Intertext and Allegory
In class on Friday, 4/26, our group put Big Machine in conversation with a few other texts that we had encountered earlier this semester, as well as a few others from outside the class. In addition to The Last Angel of History and “Bloodchild,” our group drew connections between the concluding chapters and Vachel Lindsay’s “The Congo.” There is a quatrain in the poem that cannot be read any longer without thinking of Ricky Rice:
Listen to the yell of Leopold’s ghost
Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host.
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell
Cutting his hands off, down in Hell. (Lindsay)
This came about from an exploration into Murder’s character and the significance of his Belgian heritage. While this poem replicates the horrors the Belgian Congo and traffics in stereotypes, LaValle’s reworking of it offers a creative way to acknowledge its historical import without recycling its racist tone. There were two other examples of Belgian murder cases, one that appeared to be cult activity and one that involved victim’s in basements, that seemed to serve as intertextual material for LaValle. However, these reports are rather upsetting to read and I will not go into detail here. It is important, still, to note that LaValle is handling these troubling stories in a way that gets readers to think responsibly about their histories. His storytelling is a mode of Parks’s “Rep&Rev.” Continue reading “Big Machine, Intertext and Allegory”
An Artist’s Dilemma (Response)
Brian recently posted a blog posting discussing the lack of appreciation for the arts. He talked about “the lack of interest in the funding of those who create” which is something I particularly notice in school settings. Through middle school and high school, my experience of seeing the way most students view art has been the “easy A” perception. The various art classes were equivalent to gym class where it was seen as fun, stress relieving, and easy to pass as long as you attended. Some schools would not even have art as a class but as an afterschool activity. These examples display how the arts are often overlooked, especially in the light of a challenging subject. Moving forward to college, some students decide that they want to attend a college that is specifically designated for the arts. In most cases, the students are seen as taking the easier path because studying something such as painting is not seen as challenging compared to studying biology. The reason that most people tend to overlook the arts is because they do not understand the process and dedication it takes to become successful in that field. Continue reading “An Artist’s Dilemma (Response)”
Prince’s Urban Stations
Steve Prince’s Urban Station is a contextualized narrative that tells a contemporary story of the Holy God and how he helps us to recognize when we need each other when someone may be down. In each station the story of a man who has been falsely accused is told, and in each image we see a symbol of the church in different ways, one way being the cross. Each station tells a story that, Prince explicitly explains in context to the image. He sometimes only using one line that helps to invoke thought to how text and image connect. It is his hope that we understand how prayer is deeply embedded in our daily lives inspiring us to act. There are 14 station in total in this piece.
Urban Station 1
Champloo
I am now going to publicly admit that I like to watch anime, and I refuse to feel embarrassed about it.
I like to watch anime.
Moving on!
A Conversation on Urban Garden
By: Amina Diakite and Melisha Gatlin
Melisha:
I think stepping into the the Kinetic Gallery, it is safe to say we were both unsure of what would come from this activity. When Steve Prince said we would all be contributing to this piece, I thought to myself “I cannot draw, I will mess up the canvas”. My experience with drawing is extremely limited, and by limited I mean stick figures. The best I could do is trace some lines, so I doubted that I would be able to contribute anything more than some lines . On top of that, I did not think I had an artistic eye. I remember revisiting the Urban Garden after people had contributed and being amazed at what people were able to come up with and their creativity. This just made me more nervous to add to the piece myself because I did not know if I would be able to draw, let alone think of something, that would fit in with what was already there. By the end I added something very small, specifically three raindrops under the clouds that had already been drawn. At first it was just something I joked about, but then Steve Prince had came over and said he really liked what I added. This one comment boosted my confidence perhaps because it was coming from someone I considered a professional artist. Therefore, I added another drawing to Urban Garden. This time it was something a little bigger which was a form of a black hole with the word freedom getting sucked in. How I came up with this image I have no idea, however, it was at this moment that I realized that the goal of this piece was to draw something we felt about our society, both positive and negative; at least this is what I perceived the goal to be. Urban Garden’s turnout was the opposite of what I initially thought it would be which was either blank because people would not want to participate, or messy because people would not take it seriously. This piece of art became a way for our school to create and tell a story together about our views on society. Continue reading “A Conversation on Urban Garden”