December 16, 2016 - 02:12
the posts i thought about but did not write
missing class #1: black at bryn mawr
we didn't end up talking about black at bryn mawr in class, it turns out, but I was thinking a lot about it anyway. Last Fall in our ESEM with Anne, we went on the Black at Bryn Mawr Official Tour. We did not respond well. The whole experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The concept and the research is so so good, but something I was thinking about this time around was the convenience of it.
The B@BM tour is not offered by a tour guide most of the time. It's sometimes offered to alumnae. It's sometimes offered to parents during parent's weekend. But other than that, you're on your own with the online guide. Who are alumnae and parents? donors. people to impress. This semester I thought a lot about the bryn mawr that is sold vs the bryn mawr that I experience.
I was then thinking about, re: B@BM, how to position this history to be more visible, for White Bryn Mawr to hold itself accountable. What about signs outside buildings? Like how spots at various historical sites have blurbs on a slanted reading podium about them. I don't know. Maybe. But so many people don't know the information that is so important, that the B@BM tour provides. How do we make it visible? People need to know. And shouldn't have to search. And it shouldn't be shucked away.
missing class #2: archival
This is about the time I started thinking about how our exhibit was going to be archived. I think I was thinking about ghosts. How will our work and research stick around? I wanted to know, will our wall text go into triarte? Will our documents be cared for in the archives? How easy will it be to access- do they want it to be accessible? This is also about the time I started thinking about a list of books, movies and articles accessible on JSTOR or in the library for further reading. Big question: How do we keep people engaged after they walk away.
missing class #3: my work with SOS this semester- request from Jody
This semester- or rather, the past month- contained a very odd rekindling of my work with an organizaton called Students Opposing Slavery. It's not that I ever stopped working with them, or stopped caring about the anti-trafficking movement, but my priorites shifted due to various Life Things. So anyways. I started working with SOS in the Spring of my Sophomore year of high school, age 15. SOS is a youth initiative run out of President Lincoln's Cottage in DC that aims to teach and empower students about human trafficking and the anti-trafficking movement. The hallmark of SOS is the International Youth Summit, held every summer for a week. It's open to high school age students around the globe, free of charge (non-local students are sponsored by SOS so that they do not have to pay). The summit is a week of learning about trafficking, connecting with professionals in the field, and constructing tools and ways to raise awareness about modern slavery. Since starting with SOS, I've participated in many summits as a youth participant, facilitator, and presentor. I also interned with President Lincoln's Cottage and gave briefings to the Departments of Homeland Securty and Education on behalf of SOS. In October, I got a call at work which, obviously, I missed. I then received an email letting me know that SOS had been nominated for a Presidential Award and that I was being requested to come to the White House in a week to recieve it. It was truly surreal. We attended the final meeting of the interagency task force to end trafficking, which was surprisingly hope-inspiring? It felt good to watch the government Do Things. Anti-trafficking is what frames my work and education, I think; a lot of what I do is with that end in mind. Furthermore, it's tied inexplicably to alleviating systems of oppression and marginalization, as slavery feeds on the belief that humans can be objects. So, yeah. This isn't a great write up of my work as a whole, but I'd love always to talk more about it. We're trying to start an SOS College summit this summer or next, which I'm sure you'll all hear about!
reflection post #1: voices
While I was reading Getting Mother's Body, I was thinking a lot about the different ways we say things. Not slang persay (thinking about that, too), but in GMB: there's a lot of saying-things-without-saying-it-straight. What are people's names and how do people refer to each other (Billie calling Willa Mae, Willa Mae outloud, but Mother in her head and then mother out loud as she comes to term with their relationship)? How do Willa Mae's songs and chapters act to speak for her- she speaks to the present but only because her words transcend, which they can do because she wrote them down. How does this carry into the characters lives? Billy always sings Willa Mae's songs but can't sing well or carry a tune, for example. And Willa Mae haunts them all with her physical treasures. How do people talk about/around Dill and their sexuality/identity? What secrets are kept and who knows and guesses what? We get a lot of insight into this with Dill and the theft of the jewels, but not so much with say, Teddy's church and relationship with God. The body language that's so palpable in Suzan Lori Parks' writing style- Billy hiding her hands, the looks people give eachother, who sits where... All these things, all these things.
reflection post #2: election night
I was just so angry. And reeling.
That day in class we were talking about Between the World and Me; Hannah S, Anne, and I were talking about education. I was thinking about how education is what everyone says the answer is, but educators and schools are failing to do It right and so are just exacerbating the problems.
At night, I was watching the polls come in and watching the facebook statuses of my classmates from the Deep South and from conservative Rhode Island and thinking about how anyone could argue that the education system was working right when America was choosing to elect Trump for president. Where's the education?? Why didn't we learn government until senior year in my high school? Why is compassion not rooted through every interaction in primary? Why do curriculums fail to connect the past and the present, fiction with reality, etc etc? Thinking about The Dreamers and The(ir) Dream, too... it was a perfect time to read the book, unfortunately.
I'm also missing my last Independent Study update which was supposed to be an outline, but is futile to post now.