Anne Dalke's blog

This quotation is taken from E.B. White's classic Here Is New York, rendered into beautiful, colorful typography by Debbie Millman. It says more poetically (and much more positively) what George Simmel "said" to us several months ago: that we cultivate a blasé outlook when we are in the city, because we can't cope with all
the stimulus...

One of the many events Mark and I thought about sending y’all to this semester (and passed over, in favor of other attractions…) was the current exhibit @ the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis. I went to see it this afternoon, really enjoyed it, and thought you might as well (@ least obliquely, and electronically, if not in person).

There’s lots of Duchamp and other Dadaists (which should make us feel right @ home!); Léger was inspired by the “shock of the surprise effect” in their raucous staged events. Léger said that the “task of modern art” was not to simply represent modern life, but to "equal" it; he imagined “color liberated from representation.” There’s lots of motion in these paintings (and Mark, you’ll be interested in particular in a “cine-poem” Léger co-created, “The end of the world filmed by the angel of Notre Dame”--it sounds as though it anticipated Wim Wenders’ work, which you like so much).

I'm wondering, in light of our conversations about queering and cripping time, what you all might make of a talk focusing "on the slow end of this tempo spectrum, on creating opportunities for students to engage in deceleration, patience, and immersive attention...."? See The Power of Patience.

I wanted every one to know that the full text of the whole issue of
Radical Teacher on teaching in carceral institutions is now available on-line through Pro-Quest,
and I'd like to recommend that we read (@ least!)
Artif Rafay, "An 'Impossible Profession'? the Radical University in Prison" and
Robert Scott, "Distinguishing Radical Teaching from Merely Having Intense Experiences While Teaching in Prison."

I really enjoyed our conversation last Wednesday; coupla other things i want to remember:
* if we go in talking, we're not attending to the "series of lock boxes "we have to go through
--what about the possibility of our "going in silently," the better to attend to what's happening around us?
--the danger/vulnerability of doing so-->"the more casual we are, the more protected we are"
--sara s's project has got us "sensing" the environment there, attending to what it looks like-->
--but flip this: what does the environment think of us?

Preparation:
Anne will print off/bring in the memos to get us/materials into Riverside
each of us will send to Hayley a paragraph we've selected for discussion
Hayley will select one of these and make 15 copies (for the black out poetry exercise)
everyone will bring the sharpies they have (also black crayons?)
Sara will bring multiple copies of the code-switching article;
Hayley will bring all remaining copies of Life on the Outside, along with extra paper and pencils

Lesson Plan:
I. Sasha: welcoming everyone, getting them to put on nametags,
finding out who read how much of the book, and inviting a
general sharing of what folks liked/didn't like/noticed/want to talk about...

In response to Celeste's good questions about what the trouble is with power feminism--is it about representation? (or is it about achieving power @ the expense of others?)--and in furtherance of EmmaBE's observation that power feminism is about getting power for yourself, rather than trying to redistribute/break down the structures of power, I promised to share w/ y'all a passage we read and pondered in my prison book group: Elaine Brown's A Taste of Power, her very compelling memoir about growing up in North Philly, having her consciousness raised about class and race issues, becoming a Black Panther, becoming the head of the Black Panthers, and then leaving the party:

(both via Mark)-->

one on the "play of bodies" (playgrounds, over graves....?):
Historic African American cemetery in Queen Village larger than was thought
(Philadelphia Inquirer, November 11, 2013),

and one about "how Einstein thought," or 
Why "Combinatory Play" is the Secret of Genius
(Brain Pickings, August 14, 2013).

So, City Players--
our plan is for ALL of us to gather in the city once more
on Sunday, December 8 (between 3-5 or 4-6 p.m).

Please comment on this post by midnight on Wednesday, both confirming that
THIS TIME WILL WORK FOR YOU, and weighing in on the possibilities we've floated so far:

*Anne's condo (@ 9th and Clinton, in Washington Square West),
*Mark's funeral home (@ 1170 S. Broad Street, deep in South Philly),
*a restaurant in Chinatown--Tessa knows a good noodle place?
(where those of us from China would order for those of us from elsewhere,
and explain what's going on around us....?)
**a Philly cheesesteak truck--
and/or suggest a viable alternative.

YOU MUST POST YOUR COMMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE PERSON WHO POSTED BEFORE YOU.
WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR 26 DIFFERENT IDEAS, BUT RATHER FOR AN ELECTRONIC CONSENSUS.
SO THINK WITH-AND-RESPONSIVELY (you can disagree, of course, but you must do so in dialogue
w/ those who have written before you....). You are also encouraged to check back several hours
after you have posted, to see if a new idea is circulating that you'd like to speak to...

Very much looking forward to seeing what emerges in this conversation.

A&M

one of the students in my critfemstudies class recommended What I Want My Words to Do to You (this in response to our reading Eva's Man last week, and reflecting on our frustrations with her silence...). she found the film life-changing. watching the trailer, i realize how direct it is, how grounded in a belief that the truth can be told. very different than the film i'm imagining sara's working toward making, which sounds as if it will be so much more oblique and evocative...

below are my selections; more than requested, i know. but--the image, well, it just breaks my heart: that youth.
p. 310 is about gender; so are pp. 103-4, though it’s more intersectional there, as it is on pp. 427-8.
and p. 325 is about language use.
can’t wait to see what y’all pick!