Group Members: Franciel G., Zulmary D., Jennie V., Joe .L

What Is Due Friday 10/15

Note: You may email me your responses directly as a Word document (not a Google Doc or a PDF, but a Word Document), but I encourage you to post your project check-ins to the class site.* Doing so facilitates the feedback loop and also allows you to get a sense of how other groups are tackling similar or related issues.

What

Describe the form you intend your final project to take:

• For our project, we envision to hold a panel discussion to talk about racial violence and class differences in today’s society. How does BC serve as a “free space”, relating to the “free city” of Philadelphia – (The Garies and their Friends). We will draw on our personal experiences on campus, and relate them to the events following the Garies family move to Philadelphia. We will also incorporate parts of the novel “FIRE!!” To draw on racial, class, and sexuality and incorporate that into our experience, our current setting and how movement/constraint has changed or stayed the same. Also how movement and constraint limits or promotes our different experiences based on our difference in identity and experience at BC. (Also use the video Arthur Java: Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death)
• This will be a back and forth discussion about our topic with our peers. We will ask questions in order to get their opinions. We will also debrief and give our peers the opportunity to ask us questions as well.
• (4 BC student’s, not including us) friends each from different backgrounds (ethnicity, race, gender, etc) with different viewpoints about the general topic about the view points (and various response)
• Sit at long tables in front of the classroom, give an intro and the topic run down. We give questions, they respond, they also ask questions (talk show/interview)
• Genre: Literary fiction, nonfiction, historical/informational
• Form: Video pre-recorded (open panel discussion with questions)
• Duration: 5-7 minutes
• Medium: a script format, but also interview style when we begin asking questions to the four participants and getting their input. The very end will turn into a discussion or deep dive 
• Featured Content: We will have an open discussion using at least three of the class texts. We will discuss racism and class differences. We will connect movement and constraint to our discussions of race and class. For example, the Garies moved to a place that they thought would be more free and less oppressive but they actually ended up feeling more constrained and unwelcomed into Northern society due to racism and classism. 
• Location: Virtual, will take place in a classroom or a lounge setting where we can use a round table (probably reserve a study space in O’Neill Library)

Who

Describe your ideal audience/reader(s) for your project in terms of number, demographic, interest, background knowledge, and other relevant demographics.

• One intended audience would be prospective students of Boston College, especially minority students, who could get a better understanding of the racial and social structure of BC from the perspective of actual students. This would allow students to not only make a more informed decision on their future, but also give current students a platform to voice their own concerns or opinions regarding racism at BC, and potentially require faculty to more carefully consider the reputation BC has with incoming students and how they can improve it.
• Another intended audience would be the BC administration. While BC administration makes it required for all freshmen to take Diversity EDU fall semester in the first few weeks of coming to campus. Although this is a sign of progression, student’s often see the training as a “one and done”, especially because it is in a virtual online format. Student’s must score at least a 70% to pass, and once they have completed the training they are officially done with a “pass”. However, racism continues to occur throughout the campus every year despite the training module, so we think the BC administration should require more continuous training in person style. They would be a great audience because we are giving voice to all students across campus of different race, age, sociology-economic status, backgrounds, etc. The project can give administration The chance to see how students at BC have varying experiences despite the “structures” or lack thereof, that are in place. 
• Another intended audience would be white students at BC who do not seem as informed about issues regarding racism and classism (A white student at BC once said that the whole concept/idea of having an MLE floor is racist. How can we better implement programs like Diversity EDU to ensure that white students on campus are more informed/culturally sensitive and so that people of color feel less targeted?)

Why 

At this point, how do you imagine that your proposed project will incorporate the 10 required project elements?

1 – The ways in which racism and classism affect movement and constraint in spaces that are supposed to be “free” but are actually oppressing

2 – Using the themes and ideas of “free city”, freedom, and liberation throughout the three central texts that we are using (see #3), how does these texts and our own BC experiences speak to tensions and issues relevant to the BC community 

3 – The Garies and their Friends, Fire!!, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, (Also use the video Arthur Java: Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death)

4 – Research was done on the “free city” of Philadelphia in the 1830/1840s and what it was like for a person of color to be living there in that time period (drawing from Zulmary’s panel paper). We will also use various slave narrative texts and other reputable/informational sources. 

5 – 

• Genre: Literary fiction, nonfiction, historical/informational
• Form: Video pre-recorded (open panel discussion with questions)
• Duration: 5-7 minutes
• Medium: a script format, but also interview style when we begin asking questions to the four participants and getting their input. The very end will turn into a discussion or deep dive 
• Media: Criticize The Heights – a racist incident happened but they posted an article about the flowers outside of Walsh (BLM comments were deleted)

6 – The objective of the project is to gather the opinions of BC students regarding their own experiences of race and the reputation of BC. The purpose of those opinions and experiences are intended to inform current and future BC students about the perspective of the student body regarding the reputation BC has for race, while also making BC faculty aware of the issues that minority students face on campus and the steps BC should or doesn’t take to alleviate them.

7 – Prospective BC students, BC administration, and uninformed/culturally insensitive white student at BC

8 – (Already complete, posted on class website and at the top of the document) For project check in, we have created a group chat that we communicate in. We also set up zoom meetings to add on to the project format and details, as well as scheduling in person events

9 – Pre-recorded video that is an open panel discussion with questions (5-7 minutes long)

10 –

WHERE & HOW 

What kinds of administrative permissions or resources might you need to acquire to accomplish this project? (i.e. space reservations, flyer permission, etc.)

• Reserve a study room in the library, or use a classroom after hours (if unlocked), or use a lounge space.
• We want to set ourselves up at a long table at the front of the classroom while our peers sit in front of us
• We will use a script and present a pre-recorded video 

Please break the project down into 8-12 detailed and actionable steps or tasks.

Indicate which group members will take the lead on each of the above 8-12 steps.

1. Each member will be assigned to find one friend to be apart of the project (for panel/ interview/ discussion)
2. Gathering black history research (2 people)
3. Gathering research from our three course texts (2 people) 
4. Getting location secured for recording project session (1 person)
5. Write the script (everyone)
6. Creating questions we will potentially ask our peers (2-3 people)
7. Record panel video (everyone)
8. Write reflection paper (everyone)

Using the information from 6&7, please provide a timeline (or production calendar) for your project completion.

• Today, we worked on the general breakdown of how we envision the project. Once-twice a week we will communicate about the project via zoom or in person to get a sense of each other’s schedule and meet up to plan logistics. We will start with historical research, solidifying participants, and writing the script. Then we will record our video and do the write up section “last,”so that we have all of our resources before officially writing. Right now we’re taking midterms so our schedules vary drastically, but the week after next week we would be able to get a better sense of each other’s schedule and break down a more specific timeline. (Week of October 25th)

QUESTIONS

Include at least two questions you have about either your project in particular and/or about the project assignment in general:

1. For the written portion of the project, are we focusing on specific parts of the text by adding quotes, or are we just referencing different parts of the text and explaining how it connects or relates to parts in the project?

2. How “deep” does our historical research have to be for the written portion, keeping in mind that it is a 4-5 page limit? Are we mimicking the panel format of “objects” in time or just history on specific topics we will be talking about and where it is brought up in the text?

3. What is a pose and non-prose text?

Our group is largely interested in working with and on artistic media. We considered a collection of poems, or (possibly multimedia) journal entries that display our reflections on an assortment of readings and media. These (such as the Kara Walker pieces, “Tradition: A Perilous Age in A Black Girl’s Life”, “Sex Trafficking Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in the USA”) would center around Black artistic expression as well as its reception by a variety of audiences (how race, socioeconomic status, etc. affect the reception of expressive art maybe)

We were also interested in double consciousness, as it relates to the production of these artistic/literary pieces (i.e. the struggle between authentic, meaningful expression and good audience/academic reception, sales, censorship, etc.) We think a project like this would work best in the context of a college-level class, as some of the discussion would be nurtured and enhanced by a level of prior knowledge. However, we want to make sure the content of our project is accessible to anybody because of the themes of historic re-appropriation/interpretation of Black art and literature into academic settings.