Weekly Prompts

Each week, choose ONE prompt to address in your journal.

Week One

  1. Jacobs, Brown, Douglass, and DuBois appeal quite heavily to visual imagery; ocular knowledge; and instances of seeing and blindness. Yet in their various ways, each writer also contemplates the limits of visual knowledge and the necessity of reading nonvisual material as well. The below exercise is designed to encourage you to explore in a small and focused manner how either Jacobs, Brown, Douglass, or DuBois contemplate the limits of visual knowledge and the necessity of also reading nonvisual material.
    • PART A: Select a particularly vivid visual image from either Jacobs’, Brown’s, Douglass’, or DuBois’ text. Your passage shouldn’t be longer than two paragraphs.
    • PART B: Reread the passage. Reflect on the relationship between what your eyes see and what your mind imagines. Ask yourself, “What are my eyes doing? What do I envision (or imagine)? How does the text prompt such visions? What is the relationship between what my eyes do and what I envision?” Take a moment to record your thoughts, then begin part B.
    • PART C: Return to the vivid passage you selected. Reread this passage with attention to the nonvisual knowledge suggested in the image. What did you notice? What if any thing is required on your part to attend to the nonvisual material in this passage? How do the visual material and nonvisual material work together?
    • PART D: Reflecting on your experience reading and rereading this passage, what might this narrative suggest about the relationship between reading and perception, and knowledge?
  2. Choose EITHER Option A or Option B. Complete the exercise, and then in your journal, respond to the reflection questions listed under “C”:
    • Option A- Choose a place in either Harriet Jacobs’s narrative or Henry “Box” Brown’s narrative that explicitly or implicitly references a non-visual sensory detail (ex. a sound or a taste). In your journal (or on a separate sheet of paper that you can add to your journal), try to visualize this moment in the text in a way that foregrounds the particularity of the sensory detail you identified.
    • Option B- Choose a specific visual detail from either Harriet Jacobs’s or Henry “Box” Brown’s narrative. Try to represent that detail through a non visual medium (i.e. through sound, taste, smell, touch, movement).
    • C- Exercise Reflection Questions: i) – Which exercise did you do? ii) Which passage (and which text) did you select? iii) – What was your experience of the exercise like? iv) What did you end up creating? v) What choices did you make in trying to translate the textual detail into another medium? vi) What were the challenges? vii) Do you feel that you were able to successfully represent the sensory detail? viii) Regardless of whether you felt you were successful or not, how has the experience of trying affected the way you read the presence of this particular detail in Jacobs’s or Brown’s narrative? (hint: You should go back and actually reread the passage after completing the exercise.)

Each week, choose ONE prompt to address in your journal.

Week TWO

1. In her narrative, Harriet Jacobs titles the chapter, in which Linda Brent describes her entry into the garret above her grandmother’s house, “The Loophole of Retreat.”  How does this title inform the way we read the chapter and Brent’s escape?  What implications might this title have for how we ought to read both the mode of escape and the narrative mode of relaying escape and/or liberty?   You may find it helpful to think about any or all of the following: definition of “loophole”, “loop”, “hole” an/or retreat”; the relationship between acts of looping and acts of storytelling; the relationship between a retreat and the act of retreating.

2. If in the bildungsroman and many traditional western narrative forms, there’s a relationship between the developmental rise of the narrative form and the developmental rise (or formation) of the subject identity, how might the sequencing of “incidents” in Jacobs’ suggest about Linda Brent’s subject formation?  There are a lot of ways to answer this question. Try not to generalize and don’t feel you need to be exhaustive in your answer.  Try identifying a one or two places in the text where you can really explore the relationship between the form of Jacobs and/or Brent narration and the type of subject formation that narration presents.   Tip: Try focusing on a moment in the text that deals with time; rituals; coming of age; maturation; status classification; and/or citizenship status.  

3. Read the below definitions for the words montage and collage. Then reflecting on Harriet Jacobs’s narrative, complete either option A or option B in your journal.

  • According to the Oxford Dictionary:
    • montage (n)
      1. the process or technique of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole
      2. a sequence of film made using the technique of montage
      3. the technique of producing a new composite whole from fragments of pictures, text, or music.
    • collage (n)
      1. a piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric on to a backing
      2. the art of making collages
      3. a combination or collection of various things
  • Option A – In what ways might we describe Jacobs’ narrative technique in terms of either montage and/or collage? Identify some of the “various things” or “fragments of pictures, text, or music” that Jacobs’s narrative brings together. Describe how the narrative brings these narratives together? (i.e. think about sequencing, cuts, contrasts, etc.) What is the formal and/or thematic effect of this narrative montage and/or narrative collage?
  • Option B – Assume that a staple of Jacobs’ authorial strategy is the creation of narrative montages and/or narrative collages. Identify one of these montages or collages; then recreate that montage or collage in a visual medium (i.e. video montage, slide shows, cartoon sequencing, magazine cut out collage, or a mixed medium collage). Leave time to write 3-5 sentences in your journal reflecting on the choices you made to translate Jacobs’ narrative montage or collage into a visual medium.

Each week, choose ONE prompt to address in your journal.

Week Three

  1. – Imagine that either Harriet Jacobs or Linda Brent invites Henry “Box” Brown to tea in the front room of the little apartment with which her employer has furnished her and her daughter. It has been several years since the end of the Civil War, and the end of the abolitionist speaking circuit on which Brown in particular had made his living in the years following his escape. At some point in the conversation, the topic of their respective modes and memories of escape comes up. At one point, either Jacobs/Brent or Brown (you decide) remarks that they both found their lives in a box. Paying particular attention to the relationship between speech, touch, and vision, recreate their exchange in a form of your choosing (eg. prose, script, video, etc.). Be sure to keep in mind the differences in age, background, gender, stories, and life experiences post slavery. Dedicate 5-10 minutes of your journaling time after you’ve worked on your recreation for reflection. Use this reflection time to journal about how your particular recreation and/or the experience of figuring out how to recreate this exchange affect your understanding of one or both of the texts.
  2. – The purpose of this exercise is to help you contemplate something of the physical dynamics of Harriet Jacobs’ garret escape. Please read all the instructions as well as the below “Warning” before attempting this optional exercise.   
    • Jacobs wrote that “[t]he garret was only nine feet long and seven wide. The highest part was three feet high, and sloped down abruptly to the loose floor board.”  
      1. At a time when you are relatively awake, find or construct a space that roughly equivalates to 9’x 7’x3′. Make sure your space is completely enclosed with the exception of possibly a few holes no bigger than the width of your ring finger.  
      2. If you have roommates or housemates, you should try to do this exercise without their assistance or knowledge to the extent that doing so is feasible and advisable. You should however call, text, or email a classmate, friend, family or someone else outside the space informing them about the time and place you intend to start this exercise.  
      3.   Procure your journal (if you have a physical  one) OR a recent piece of mail OR  a sheet of newspaper as well as a pen or pencil.
      4.   Set an alarm for 40 minutes. The alarm should remain outside of this structure.    
      5.   Remove your shoes.
      6.   Enter the structure with nothing other than the items from step B and the clothes you are wearing (less any electronic accessories).
      7.   Spend 40 minutes in this space:  Begin by taking note of your body, the smells, the sounds, etc.  Then try to experience the space of the room from this vantage point. Try to feel the distance between you and the door.  Try to assess how many people and/or animals are within a 2-3 minute range of reaching you.  Now try recording these sensations with your writing materials.  
      8.   When the alarms goes off, do not burst out of the garret.  Inhale deeply, check in with your feet, your legs, your spine, your neck, your head and your arms. Find cautious and deliberate movement.  Slowly, carefully, leave your garret space. 
      9.   Turn off the alarm.  Let the friend, classmate, family member you contacted know that you have completed the exercise.
      10.   In your journal, write a brief letter addressed to Harriet Jacobs or Linda Brent (you choose).  Your letter should consist of three parts:  
        • PART ONE:  describe the simulated garret you made–its location, dimensions, materials, climate, etc.  
        • PART TWO: Using more than one sentence, fill in the blank– “What I felt  was ______.”  Describe what you felt both physically (with your sensorial apparatus) and emotionally (with your mind).  
        • PART THREE:  Using more than one sentence, fill “What I still do not, and perhaps cannot, know is______________. “

**WARNING (Please Read):  This exercise may not be right for you if you have fears of small spaces, darkness, or suffer from PTSD or other anxiety disorder that might be triggered by any of the material conditions you’re invited to materially contemplate in this exercise.  If after starting the exercise you experience shortness of breath; chest pains; intense sweat or any other signs of physical distress, please stop immediately.  

*NOTE: You should do this exercise when you are awake. While you will likely start to feel drowsy in this position, the exercise will not be as effective if you sleep for most of it. 

Week Four

PROMPT 1- Near the end of the novel The Garies and Their Friends, Frank Webb describes Walter and Esther’s youngest child, identified only as Baby or Brown Baby. One such description in chapter thirty two reads:

“Now baby had a prejudice against caps, inveterate and unconquerable and grandmamma, nurse, and Esther were compelled to bear the brunt of her antipathies. We have before said that Esther’s cap looked as though it felt itself in an inappropriate position–that it had got on the head of the wrong individual–and baby, no doubt in deference to the cap’s feelings, tore it off, and threw it in the half-open piano from whence it was extricated with great detriment to the delicate lace.

Emily took a seat near the window, and drawing her work toward her, raised he lid. this presenting another opening for baby, she slid down from her mother’s lap, and hastened towards her. She just arrive in time to see it safely closed, and toddled back to her mother, as happy as if she had succeeded in running riot over its contents, and scattering them all over the floor.”

-Webb, Frank. Chapter XXXII, The Garies and Their Friends (Kindle Edition)
  1. Read the following article:
    • Millan, Diego. “‘Voice Might Discover Him’: Representations and Failures of Voice in Frank J. Webb’s The Garies and Their Friends.” MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. 45.2 (Summer 2020) 46-69 (You can access this article through the database Project Muse using your BC login credentials.)
  2. Then in your journal reflect on the following questions:
    • How might we think the insights of Diego Millan’s article in terms of Brown Baby, a character that does not speak or “voice” anything in the way that Millan suggests? And how might Millan’s examination of how the voice operates in literary form overtly and not so overtly affect how we read Brown Baby and what might be articulated in Brown Baby’s “running riot” movements?
  3. Note:
    • This prompt is for those of you who wish to either think about other senses specifically sound and movement might trouble vision and/or who wish to build on my excited sermon about the significant import of Webb’s closing the novel with this “running riot” baby girl (i.e. in terms of highlighting the specific word “riot” as well as the threat Brown Baby’s movements pose to the preservation of domestic order and the physical material of the parlor).

PROMPT 2- Read one of the following articles on Webb’s novel (both are available as full text download via JSTOR).

  • Duane, Anna Mae. “Remaking Black Motherhood in Frank J. Webb’s ‘The Garies and Their Friends'” African American Review 38.2 (Summer 2004): 201-212.
  • Chakkalakal, Tess. “Free, Black, and Married: Frank J Webb’s The Garies and Their Friends” Chapter Three in Slavery, Marriage, and Freedom in Nineteenth Century America. U of Illinois P. (2011) pp 47-63.

Reflecting on your reading of Webb’s novel and the reading put forth in the article you chose, take time to journal about the following:

  • In Webb’s novel both the family in general and female family members in particular have important roles. Is the crux of the novel about the necessity of the black family? Or is it about the necessity of black females in particular? Using specific and relevant textual examples, spend time in your journal making a case for family or females as the driving force of free black society in Webb’s novel. Note: Arguing that the novel positions one as the driving force does not mean that the other is not a close second.

PROMPT 3- Read Otter, Samuel. “Philadelphia Experiments” American Literary History 16.1 (Spring 2004) 103-16 (This article is available via JSTOR, but you should also be able to find a link to this article on the schedule of assignments as one of the optional readings.) Choose one of the two exercise options. Complete the exercise using the information in the Otter article for relevant contextualization and/or content.

  • Option A: Make a Friends and Family Tree of all the characters in the novel. On your tree, be sure to indicate not only the character’s name and their particular relationship to other characters, but also where they live, where they are from, occupation (if relevant), approx. age (let’s sat at the time the mob riots take place), gender, race, and phenotype. Consider using different colors to indicate different relations and/or different categories of attributes. When you are finished reflect on this tree, or, perhaps we should say “Web(b)” (womp womp). Are their connections that surprise you? Connections that remain unclear? In your journal take time to think about these questions as well as reflect on the general experience of creating this family tree. What did you notice in the process of making the tree? What did you notice after? In what ways does this map of various connections affect how you understand a particular scene, moment, detail, and/or dynamic in the novel?
  • Option B: Pick two of the following families: The Ellises; The Garies; The Stevens; The Walters; or Kinch’s Family. Imagine that two of these families have been selected to play Family Feud, and you are the host of the show (as well as the producers, director, and content writer). In any medium (recorded performance, comic strip, written script, prose description, etc.) create one full round of the game with you as the host. You should create the questions, the participant answers, as well as the survey says answers. The topic for the survey (and thus the questions and the answers) should relate in some way to one or more of the following themes: Antebellum Philadelphia society; education; fashion; food; social etiquette; and/or the arts. Be sure to leave some time to reflect on the essay. You might consider reflecting on the following questions: did you observe about the different families you put in contest with each other? What topics did your game questions highlight? (How and why?)

Week Five

1 – Listen to one of the songs/tunes referenced in Zora Neale Hurston’s play “Color Struck.”  (Note: Some are easier to locate than others.) Write a post in which you describe how the specificity of that particular tune might affect the way we read, stage, and/or understand the signification of that moment in the play.    

2 – Imagine you were going to stage a performance of “Color Struck” at the end of the semester. What are some of the details that the play does not mention explicitly that you would have to take into consideration when staging the play? Pick one of these details. Imagine two or three different ways you might choose to address that detail in your production of the play. For each choice, describe the portions of the script that support that choice (even if there’s no explicit direction to make that choice in the script). Discuss the potential effect(s) each choice might have on how the audience experiences the play in terms of plot, central tension, political/ ideological concerns, etc.

3 – When Effie is giving a preview of her dance moves at the beginning of the play aboard the train, the stage directions mention Effie making a noise of ecstatic joy. Take a few minutes to imagine what such a noise might sound like and why Hurston might want to include this detail. Now try to think about your own life. Pick an example of ecstatic joy from your life. Now try to represent the experience and feeling of that ecstatic joy in a medium and form of your choice.  Once you’ve completed this representation as best you can.  Spend time in your journal reflecting on 1) the formal choices you made and why; 2) the challenges of trying to communicate this moment of ecstatic joy via representation; and 3) insights you gained from trying to communicate this moment via representation. (Your insights may be about the experience, the form, the medium, or any topic, at least generally, relevant to the class material.)

4. – This prompt is designed to encourage you to think about the presence of sexuality, queerness, ecstasy, and illicit relations in Fire!! by encouraging you to reflect on the openly queer contributor Richard Bruce Nugent’s piece “Smoke, Lilies, and Jade, A Novel, Part I”

OPTION A Pick a specific instance, detail, and/or element in Nugent’s piece that seems particularly infused with erotic energy. Describe and reflect on this element of Nugent’s piece in your journal by contemplating the following: A] How does this element express or put forth a sense of erotic energy? B] How does this moment of erotic energy signify and/or affect how other aspects of the piece signify? It’s okay to say that it calls our attention to sex and/or sexual relationships, but I want to encourage you to also push yourself to also C] consider the ways in which the erotic charge of this element might influence or be reflective of other things, dynamics, relations, etc. in addition to sex or sexual relations.

OPTION B: Watch and read the below supplementary materials. Then in your journal spend time reflecting on A] how Isaac Julien’s use of Nugent’s writing in his film affect how you read (think/interpret) some specific instance, detail, and/or element in Nugent’s piece and B] how Isaac Julien’s reflections on his work (e.g. his thoughts on the tie between poetry and politics) affects how you read (think/interpret) some specific instance, detail, and/or element in Nugent’s piece?

  • Watch the following TWO short clips from black documentary maker and visual artist Isaac Julian’s Looking for Langston:
  • Watch clip of Isaac Julien talking about his work and specifically about his seminal work Looking for Langston:
  • Read Wikipedia entries on Richard Bruce Nugent and on Isaac Julien’s film.

OPTION C: As you watch and read the below supplementary materials, think about how Isaac Julien’s film and reflections make you think about both Richard Bruce and Langston Hughes’s contributions to Fire!!. Then complete the exercise that follows the supplementary material in your journals.

  • Watch the following TWO short clips from black documentary maker and visual artist Isaac Julian’s Looking for Langston:
  • Watch clip of Isaac Julien talking about his work and specifically about his seminal work Looking for Langston:
  • Read Wikipedia entries on Richard Bruce Nugent and on Isaac Julien’s film.
  • EXERCISE FOR OPTION C: Explore the way the Hughes, Bruce, and Julien’s work speak together particularly around issues of sexuality, queerness, and/or illicit (or hidden) relations, by creating one of the following: a graphic short story (no pun intended) ; a song; a short one act; or a poem. IMPORTANT: In making your graphic short story, song, one act, or poem, you can only use borrowed language from one Hughes poem, part of Nugent’s piece [no more than half a page], and/or language that specifically references or alludes to some element from Julien’s film (i.e. particular sounds, music, images, etc.). While there are no restrictions about time, setting, characters, or themes for your creation, your creation should speak to Hughes, Bruce, and Julien’s work in some way. Make sure you leave at least 5-10 minutes to reflect on your journal about the choices you made and why you made them and how the experience of creating your graphic short story, song, one act, or poem affects the way you read some aspect of either Hughes or Bruce or Julien’s text.

Week Six

No Journal. Prepare MT Journal Materials.

Week Seven

No Journal. Good luck on the rest of your midterms.

Week Eight

1- Look at items on artist Augusta Savage (i.e. items M, N, & O ) in The Harlem Renaissance Packet. Choose one piece in Fire!! or one aspect of Larsen’s Quicksand that you believe Augusta Savage’s life and/or artistry speaks to. Choose ONE of the below options to explore that conversation and then journal about exercise (i.e. the choices you made and why, what you observed in the process of doing the exercise, etc.).

A] Do a close reading of a piece from Fire!!. Make sure you’re focusing on something very specific, so that your close reading can be thorough but not super long. Now imagine that some part of Augusta’s Savage’s artistry is a kind of (critical) lens through which you’re going to look anew at the same piece of text you just close read. If we’re looking through the lens of Augusta Savage’s work, how might you read this piece from Fire!! differently? What does the one piece highlight, complicate, and/or complement in the other?

B] Imagine that you are Augusta Savage’s protégé. She has been swamped with two huge commissions with similar deadlines. She has asked you to take care of a smaller, but still important, commission for the Harlem Area Young Negro Artists association (HAY-NA). To celebrate the contributions of black women writers and the incredible networks they have inspired, the group has asked for a sculpture that brings into three dimensional form some aspect of one of their most prominent women writers’ work. Your job is to design a sculpture based on some aspect of the work of either Helene Johnson, Gwendolyn Bennett, or Zora Neale Hurston. Your design should be thoroughly annotated so as to indicate the material, dimensions, locations, as well as content, shape, form of the sculpture. Your actual sketch can be as rudimentary (e.g. simple pencil sketch) or elaborate as you’d like (water colors, digital mock ups, etc.). In addition to the above reflection questions, you should be sure to note in your journal reflections what type of physical experience you imagine the sculpture will invoke in its viewers and how that intended experience relates to and/or responds to the black woman’s work you chose to bring into sculptural form.

2) So much of the Harlem Renaissance or rather, The New Negro Renaissance, was shaped by and in term has shaped notions of black places and black geographies. Return to McKittrick’s article “Worn Out.” Reread it, and then put some aspect of McKittrick’s article in conversation with some aspect of either a piece from Fire!!

Week Nine

1- Consider the importance of “Sweetness,” the name the narrator asks her daughter to call her. “Sweetness” though is both a name for the narrator and the title for Morrison’s story. Think about the significance of “Sweetness” as the title of the story. What is the effect of Morrison’s choice to title the story “Sweetness” as opposed to another feasible title like “A Good Mother” or “Blue Black” or “Lulu Ann”? As a way to further examine the potential significance of the title, pick ONE of the following three prompts for this week’s journal entry:

  • A. Watch “How Sugar Affects the Brain – Nicole Avena.” Then journal about the following question: Thinking about the neuro-physical effects of sugar (and sweet things), how might we understand the significance of Toni Morrison’s decision to title the story “Sweetness”?
  • B. Watch “A Brief History of Sugar from Slavery to Sweetners.” Then journal about the following question: Thinking about the timeline of sugar production and artificial sweetners, how might we understand the significance of Toni Morrison’s decision to title the story “Sweetness”?
  • C. Watch “The Journey of Sugar: Neither Short Nor Sweet.” Then journal about the following question: Thinking about how the historically persistent demands for sugar and its sweetness have contributed to imperialism, slavery, and global capitalism’s ongoing exploitation of the poor, how might we understand the significance of Toni Morrison’s decision to title the story “Sweetness”?

2. Pick on of the following critical texts from the syllabus: McKittrick’s “Worn Out”; Fleetwood’s “Introduction”; Fleetwood’s Chapter Two; or the TIna Campt chapter. Adopting some concept, argument, or theory put forth in the text you chose as a critical lens (or framework) through which to reread and analyze the Mary Janes scene in the excerpt from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.

Week Ten

  • 1-  What kind of work does child-like wonder, play, and/or magic do in Ntozake Shange’s novel Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo? How do these elements of the narrative affect the way Shange’s novel imagines blackness and / or femaleness in relationship to movement and constraint” Make sure that your reflection is both macro and micro. You should think about these questions in terms of the novel as a whole, but you should also think through these questions through a more focused examination of a particular passage (no longer than a page). Make sure your examination considers not only the content of the text (the details of the plot, characters, events, setting the novel asks you to imagine) but also the form of the text (the language, structural, narrative, dramatic, and other aesthetic details the novel uses to shape the way you imagine the content of the story).
  • 2-  What kind of work does child-like wonder, play, and/or magic do in Ntozake Shange’s novel Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo? How do these elements of the narrative affect the way Shange’s novel imagines blackness and / or femaleness in relationship to movement and constraint” Make sure that your reflection is both macro and micro. You should think about these questions in terms of the novel as a whole, but you should also think through these questions through a more focused examination of a particular passage (no longer than a page). Make sure your examination considers not only the content of the text (the details of the plot, characters, events, setting the novel asks you to imagine) but also the form of the text (the language, structural, narrative, dramatic, and other aesthetic details the novel uses to shape the way you imagine the content of the story).
  • 3- Pick one of the recipes for food or healing, one of the songs, dances, or other pieces of artistic performance presented in the novel Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo and enact it in. You may need to modify the recipe or nature of the craft to suit pragmatic concerns (i.e. access to materials and tools) and/or the specifics of your own life and performative expression.
    • In your journal:
      • 1- Indicate which recipe/art/performance did you chose to enact.
      • 2- Describe how you implemented the recipe?  Did you modify it in any way? If so, what modifications did you make?; why did you make these modifications? And in what way do the modifications affect how your reenactment signifies? If you didn’t make any modifications, why not?
      • 3- Describe the experience of carrying out this recipe? Consider:  How did it feel (smell, sound, taste, look, etc.)?  How did you feel (i.e. nervous, excited, confused, etc.)? How did it feel to prepare, stage, maybe even rehearse the performance versus actually enacting the performance?  Did you have a sense of audience? If yes, who? How did it feel to come out of the performance; to clean up afterwards; or in theater parlance strike the set? 
      • 4- Describe how your experience affects the way you read some aspect of Shange’s novel. Perhaps you notice a detail or a connection you didn’t notice previously? Perhaps you’re better able to imagine the sensory material of a particular moment and how that affects the atmosphere of that moment?
      • 5- Please make sure to include some documentary evidence of your performance (e.g. a photo, video, piece of food you can share with your classmates, a recording, a scrap of fabric you used, etc.).

Week Eleven

  • 1 – “Black Art” and Black Arts
    • PART ONE: Read Amiri Baraka’s poem “Black Art,” and listen to Baraka’s performance reading of the poem. Both the poem and the performance are accessible as links on the “schedule of assignments” page. In your journal spend some time thinking about the similarities and difference between reading the print version of the poem and listening to Baraka’s performance of the poem. In particular make sure you take time to consider the differences in length and the shifts in what constitutes the beginning and the ending of one piece versus the other.
    • PART TWO: Then go back and reread, the scene in which Mitch’s friend performs his poetry for Sassafrass in Shange’s novel. Be careful to identify where the scene begins and end. Now return to your journal and spend time contemplating about the ways in which Shange’s scene speaks to Baraka’s poem (either the written poem or both). Make sure you take time to consider both the textual and the sonic and performative details at play in Shange’s scene.
  • 2- Read Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is Not a Luxury.” Then choose one of the following: Sassafrass, Cypress, Indigo, or Hilda-Effania. Using only the words from Lorde’s essay and the words spoken by the character you’ve chosen, write a poem to one or more of the following:
    • A: The character in the the novel that you are EITHER most like OR most unlike.
    • B: A character / figure from one of the other course text about whom you have strong feelings.
    • C: A close friend or family member who you believe is very much like one of the characters we’ve discussed this semester.
  • 3. Read Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is Not a Luxury” page and the sampling of poems by Lorde, all of which you can find as links on the “schedule of assignments” page. Choose one of the following folks as the person(s) you will address in the below exercise:
    • A] A close friend or relative. If you have more than one sibling that you wish to address together, you may address your piece to more than one sibling.
    • B] A character/figure from one of the course texts with whom you strongly identify.
    • C] Yourself one week after graduation.
    • D] Yourself the weekend before you started your first semester at BC.
    • E] A parent, grandparent, auntie, or legal guardian — basically someone to whom you credit a significant portion of your care, protection, education, and/or general growth and development up to this point.
  • EXERCISE: Using Lorde’s poetry and selections of her essay, craft a video or audio message of thanks and/or giving and/or (re)union to whoever you selected to address your message (from the above options A-E). Your video or audio recording should include at least three quotes form Lorde’s essay and you (or someone you commission) reading at least three of Lorde’s poems (in their entirety). You should think of yourself as sampling Lorde’s work to craft a video or audio message that’s your own creation and designed for your particular audience. Think about what you want to communicate, to whom, why, and how. Let those goals affect how you frame the message; the order you sample the Lorde pieces; what if any other type of text you juxtapose with the Lorde; and of course what if any of your own words, sounds, visuals, movements, etc. you include in the message. You are not required to actually send your video or audio creation to the person you address it to; however, if you’re in a place where you can and wish to do so, I encourage you to go for it. Make sure you spend some time reflecting in your journal about your choices and what you noticed about Lorde’s language and/or ideas and any other observations the exercise generated for you.

Week Twelve

No Prompts. Happy Thanksgiving!

Week Thirteen

  • 1 – Pick one of the music tracks, videos, audio recordings, or visual texts from any part of this course, and put some aspect of that text in conversation with some aspect of the film The Fits.
  • 2 Imagine The Fits:
    • After a stellar competition series, a video of one the Lionesses’ best sets goes viral on YouTube. Quickly another video featuring two of the older girls doing their signature move with Busy’s incredibly cute and surprisingly coordinated 3 year old foster sister goes viral on TikTok. Almost overnight the Lionesses are the darlings of social media (thanks in no small part to the added intrigue circulating around their inspirational struggle against the mysterious affliction that had defined the dance team’s previous season). After the girls decline an invitation to perform at the Grammy’s out of solidarity with the many overlooked black performers, Beyoncé announced that she has decided to create a line of Ivy Park clothing inspired by the Lionesses. According to the announcement, in preparation for the new line, which some are already referring to as Ivy Park Fits, Beyoncé plans to meet with the girls directly in order to learn more about their story and how they imagine the colors, cuts, and textures of their movement.
    • In your journal use descriptive prose or your choice of visual medium or some combination of both to design one or two possible items in this new collection. While your design shouldn’t ignore practical concerns, it should prioritize the goals of capturing and sharing elements of the Lionesses’ story with those who view and/or wear this apparel. Consider colors, patterns, shapes, textures, breathability, weight, the sound the fabric when in movement as well as the who and when the items are most likely to be worn and how the item might be paired with other articles of clothing.
    • Dedicate 5-10 minutes to journaling about the ways in which the item(s) you designed and/or the choices behind the design might help us to think differently about the girls’ relationship to “the fits” in the film.
  • 3 – CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE:
    • ONE – Select a text from the syllabus that you wish to contemplate further in this last week of journaling.
    • TWO – Next select one of the below mediums and/or genres which you have not engaged much in your selection of journal prompts and exercises: A- Literary Arts; B- Visual Arts; C- Performance Arts; D- Domestic Arts; E- Scholastic Arts
    • THREE – Carefully explore the text you selected in STEP One through the disciplinary medium which you selected in step TWO.
    • FOUR: Describe and reflect upon that exploration in your journal. Make sure you describe the portion of text you chose to explore. What exactly was the object of your examination (or exploration)? You should also describe the medium through which you chose to explore this aspect of the text. Why did you choose this medium? What choices did you make in employing this medium as a way to explore the text you explored? What did this medium and/or the particular choices you employed enable and disenable in your exploration? What did you observe about the text in the process of engaging the text through this medium? What connections did this exploration highlight within the text and/or between this text and other texts on the syllabus? What questions and/or avenues for further exploration did engaging this text through this medium highlight?

NOTE: If you need help narrowing down exactly how you will explore the text through one of the above mediums, consider the following:

  • If you chose
    • A, you might write: a short scene or one act; a creative nonfiction essay (think a memoir-ish style essay); a comic strip with written text, a story board, a sermon; a piece of literary journalism (think something that might be in The New Yorker or The Atlantic); a poem, a short story, or a piece of flash fiction, or more.
    • B, you might create: a comic, a story board with sketches, painting, photo series, collage, a gif, a sculpture, a puppet, a miniature model, a digital graphic, a charcoal sketch, mixed media piece, etc. , a marketing or advertisement visual (a la a billboard design, a poster, a product package, a brand logo, etc.)
    • C, you might create: a play or skit; a piece of music (song lyrics or a composition); Instagram story or a TikTok video; a musical piece; a song and/or video mashup; a movie short; an animated clip (either using a graphic cartooning or animation app or old school flip book); a short standup routine; an improv routine; a dance solo or choreographed group piece; a detailed and researched prop list for a film or a play, or more.
    • D, you might make: a knit or crochet creation; a doll; a particular culinary dish; a trade book or podcast; a piece of pottery; a shirt; a pillow case; bag; or other useable fabric creation; a wood or pipe work creation (i.e. a storage box, a lamp, or a clothing wrack). Note – I encourage you to try new things, but please do so responsibly, which means adequately assessing your skill level and the amount of guidance and/or assistance you need to procure before undertaking the task you’re trying.
    • E, you might generate: a 1-2 page abstract and/or a proposal for an honors thesis that prominently features some aspect of this text; a 2- 3 page textual analysis (i.e. close reading); an annotated bibliography of 3-5 relevant sources; a 2-3 page background essay providing relevant historical and/or scientific and/or cultural (includes religious) context for some specific aspect of the text you’re exploring.
  • To reiterate the note included in D- I encourage you to try new things, but please do so responsibly, which means adequately assessing your skill level and the amount of guidance and/or assistance you need to procure before undertaking the task you’re trying.

Week Fourteen

No Prompts. Prepare your Final Journal Reflections Material.