https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/prison-zine-tenacious-offers-female-prisoners-a-chance-to-speak-out

I think this is pretty cool and like what we're aiming to do with our Zine at RCF. Maybe we could print out stuff from this publication to show the women that this same type of work is being done at other women's prisons.

My interactions with the kids at ACLAMO and the artists at CCW have been generally really fun and have been a great learning experience.  I have been able to overcome a lot of the apprehension that I felt at the idea of working with kids and with people with intellectual disabilities.  I believe that CCW's culture and atmosphere really contributed to that.  I had worked with intellectually disabled people before, but it was in a setting that treated them less like adults, and was less like a partnership than a volunteer opportunity.  By treating the artists like the adults that they are, CCW created an environment where it was easier for me to build respect and foster real connections with the people there -- and I feel that I can take that attitude outside of CCW and apply it in other

My overall experience with CCW has been great. Katie and I walk to campus every Friday morning to greet the group and begin the day. The actual amount of artwork we have been able to accomplish has been pretty minimal so far due to bad weather. However, since we haven’t been able to roam around the arboretum we’ve begun exploring the plant population inside the KINSC. I’m not the most artistically inclined person, therefore I find most of my enjoyment just walking around and talking to everyone. Clyde, Ron, Tamisha and Faith have been the main people working on the art project, and there are a couple others who come less frequently to campus. Ron has the biggest personality out of the group, always putting on this struggling artist persona.

Why Stanford accepting the teen who wrote #BlackLivesMatter 100 times on his application does little for Black lives:

http://blackyouthproject.com/why-stanford-accepting-the-teen-who-wrote-blacklivesmatter-100-times-on-his-application-does-little-for-black-lives/

            With a focus on the school level, I think that a major strategy for change is establishing strong relationships between schools, families and their communities.

-          Holding after school programs, either with a focus on homework, arts and crafts, games, or anything else at schools for students

-          Holding after school programs that are open to families, which bring students’ families into the building and offer valuable services and education

-          Bringing students on field trips into the community to see how local businesses operate

-          Allowing community groups to use school facilities after school hours for meetings, making the school a hub for activity throughout the whole community

After our conversations about what problems urban schools are facing, I feel like the lack of investment into urban schools perpetuatees many of the existing problems. I have compiled a list of reform strategies based on my thoughts about teacher, community, and government investments into urban schools.

Angela Meng

Professor Jody Cohen

Unsettling Literacy

9 April 2017

What is Activism?

Resistance? Allyship? Activism?  All of the Above?

            Last week in class, while in our off-campus Praxis site groups, we discussed “activism,” specifically, whether what we’ve doing at our Praxis sites should or can be counted as “activism.” While contemplating the question, one of my classmates brought into the conversation the word “resistance,” and the difference between resistance and activism. We agreed that it can only be considered resistance when we go into prisons to lead workshops, like the ones we did with the youth in the women’s and men’s prisons in Philadelphia, and not an act of activism.

Lately it’s felt like my voice is missing. It must be something like how Ariel felt, having her voice snatched away and held somewhere close by but also far away. I’ve felt lost. Demotivated. Like I don’t have anything to share in class and like the words I write on these pages are empty and void of feeling. Most weeks, I feel like I’d be better off not saying anything at all, and I don’t. But then I spend the rest of the week feeling like I’ve wasted something, like my words are blaming me for leaving them out, like my brain is in conflict with my mouth which doesn’t want to speak with my fingers, so instead they sit there idle at the keyboard for hours.